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

…..

Grunting, Judy maneuvered her way around some of the encampment residents carrying a large box of napkins and plasticware toward one of the serving tables.

"Oof, careful fox, watch where you're going," said an old, half-blind weasel, who still wasn't wearing his thick glasses, as he sniffed around for the target of his ire.

"I'm sorry, sir. I didn't see you standing there," replied Judy, poking her head around the box she was carrying.

Squinting at the smiling face in front of him, the weasel took another sniff, waved his cane at Judy, and grumbled, "Damn funny looking fox. Be more careful next time."

'A fox?' thought Judy as she scrunched her muzzle and stared at the weasel as he shuffled away toward the food line where the rest of the encampment's mammals were waiting.

Shifting the load in her arms, Judy caught a faint, to her, scent. Pressing her nose closer to her arm, she took a deep sniff, and mixed in with the almost neutral smell of her body wash, she picked up the scent of a certain fox.

Chuckling, she whispered, "Oops."

Last night, after hanging up with Nick, Judy had sat out on the apartment balcony for another half an hour or so. Staring out at the city lights, she couldn't get over how wonderful Nick was to her. Even though they were hundreds of miles apart, every time they talked, it was like she was cuddled up with him, petting his tail, and snuggling into his fur.

She'd wandered back into the apartment, and then her room. Grabbing her suitcase, she started to put it on the bed and unpack it when she got a sour look on her face, 'Critterly.'

Knowing that her sleazebag landlord had to have groped all her clothes while stuffing them in her suitcase and laundry bag, she grabbed her luggage and dragged everything over to the laundry room. Breaking all the laundry rules about sorting colors and fabrics, Judy stuffed everything, including what she was wearing, into the medium-mammal sized washer, and slammed the large start button with her paw.

Satisfied that anything Critterly would soon be washed out of her clothes, Judy headed back to her bedroom. Taking a quick look through all the drawers in her dresser, Judy realized she probably should have kept something to wear to bed before stuffing everything she owned into the washer.

'Hmmm,' Judy thought as she glanced at her bedroom door, 'Nick did say for me to make myself at home.'

Padding back over to Nick's room and into his closet, Judy looked around for a t-shirt or any other clothes he might have left behind. Seeing only a couple of his hideous Pawaiian shirts hanging in the back corner, Judy walked back into his bedroom and surveying Nick's blanket pile of a bed, spied an old t-shirt lying on his pillow. Picking it up, she smiled, it was big for her, but it would work.

Figuring she had an hour to kill before the wash cycle was over, Judy grabbed her phone, slid into the blanket pile, and started flipping through a bunch of old emails she'd meant to delete for a while. Twenty emails later…

"Come on, Judy, we're ready to start serving."

"Sorry, Penny, be right there." Judy took another sniff and smiled as she remembered waking up in Nick's blanket pile this morning, best night of sleep she'd ever had."

…..

Judy placed a couple of bug burritos and a bag of bug chips on an old anteater's plate and then ducked down to grab some more bags of chips from a box under the table. Popping back up, Judy dumped a small pile on the table and then made ready to greet the next mammal in line.

"Hello–"

The greeting died as she found herself face to face with the old pampas fox from last week carrying two plates.

With a slight head nod toward the tree line, he said, "The second plate is for a friend of mine, he'd like an extra burrito and maybe another bag of chips if that's alright."

Judy nodded slowly and then smiled, "Of course," filling both plates and then adding the extra food on top, she asked, "These plates are awfully full, would you like some help carrying them?"

"That's very kind, thank you."

Judy picked up the heavier plate and leaned over to Penny to let her know she'd be back in a little bit. Judy grabbed a water bottle out of a tub and followed the old fox as he led her around tables filled with mammals eating and then to a dirt path worn into the high grass.

"He's waiting for you in there near a small campsite, just on the other side of those two big trees."

"Aren't you coming?"

Sitting down on a log, the fox replied, "No, he doesn't like it when too many mammals get close to him. Take it slow and you'll be fine by yourself."

Judy thanked the old fox, checked the carrot pen in her pocket to make sure it was set, and then followed the path until she reached the large trees her guide had pointed out. The trees blocked what little sunlight was left so, Judy stopped to let her eyes adjust to the dark and then stepped around the trees.

Pacing back and forth on the other side of the campsite was a large maned wolf, Crazy Ray Simon.

"Hello, Mr. Simon, my name is Judy Hopps. Thank you for coming, it's nice to meet you."

Judy held the plate of food out and slowly walked over to one of the logs bounding the campsite and started to sit down.

Crazy Ray stopped his pacing and hissed, "No, no, no. No sitting until Simon says, what does a rabbit want from Simon?"

Quickly straightening back up, Judy replied, "I just want to talk. A friend told me you, uh, Simon disappeared for a while, and I was hoping we could talk about that."

Pacing anew, Crazy Ray whispered to himself, "Simon doesn't want to talk about the cages and the bright lights. Animals they were, Simon do this, Simon do that, punishment unless do as Simon says until Simon left."

Abruptly, the wolf stopped pacing and startled Judy by jumping over one of the logs and sitting down.

Judy, to her credit, stood stock still and waited, not even her nose twitched at the wolf's action.

Crazy Ray waved a paw toward the log behind Judy, tilted his head slightly, and said, "Rabbit sit."

Judy raised an eyebrow but didn't move. Having hundreds of younger siblings was suddenly a blessing.

Nodding in approval, the wolf said, "Simon says, please sit, no punishment, he will talk with you."

"I brought you some food," setting the plate on a rock in front of Crazy Ray, Judy backed away and said with a smile, "Simon says you should eat."

Crazy Ray shook his head, "You don't smell like a Simon, you smell like a fox."

"My work partner is a fox."

Crazy Ray jumped up and growled out, "Liar! The smell is strong, Simon doesn't talk to liars."

Judy held up both her paws trying to calm the wolf down, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you're right, my boyfriend is a fox, I mean the guy I want to be my boyfriend is a fox, and the scent you smell on me is his."

Sitting back down, Crazy Ray looked Judy up and down before saying, "You're not a Simon."

"No, my name is Judy, and I'm a police officer."

"You want to know what happened to Simon?"

"Yes."

…..

"Simon ran out of his medicine; Simon sees things and hears things without his medicine," taking a drink from his water bottle, Crazy Ray continued, "Two animals said that Simon's family was looking for him and if he went with them, they would give him food, and clothing, and medicine."

"Can you describe the mammals that Simon met, what species were they?"

"Simon does not know, he wore a fake skin, one of the mammals was a wolf but did not smell like a wolf. The same as a Judy that looks like a rabbit, but is really a fox."

Suddenly fighting off a blush, Judy asked, "What about the other mammal, did you get a good look at him?"

"No, that animal stayed with the dragon and would not leave its shadow."

"Dragon?"

"Yes, a great white dragon. Simon saw the dragon and was scared. He tried to run away, and that is when the dragon blinded Simon, and the not-wolf pricked him with something that made everything go dark."

Judy sighed, it sounded like Crazy Ray was kitnapped like Griffin Rogers and probably Big John, except somehow, he got away.

"What happened after that?"

"Simon woke up in a room of monsters wearing white costumes, they poked him and gave him terrible things to drink. Simon was not Simon anymore."

Judy lifted a paw, she wanted to let Crazy Ray know that he was safe now, but she didn't want to scare him off, so she just asked, "How did Simon get away?"

Crazy Ray laughed, "The monsters told Simon to drink more of the evil potion, but they didn't tell him right–"

"Simon says?"

"Not-rabbit understands, Simon ran away when one of the monsters thought he was asleep and he wasn't. Simon left him in the cage asleep in his bed."

"Why didn't you get, I mean, why didn't Simon get help from the police or a doctor?"

"Simon ran, and Simon hid, but then Simon wasn't Simon again." Crazy Ray looked down and went quiet before continuing, "When Simon woke up, he was covered in blood and feathers from birds he'd eaten.

"Simon doesn't eat birds.

"Simon is afraid he will hurt someone.

"Simon must stay away."

Judy jumped up from her seat and started toward Crazy Ray, "No, you don't have to hide anymore, I can help you." Holding out a paw, she said, "Come with me, we'll find a doctor and get you some medicine."

"NO!" screamed Crazy Ray, as he jumped off the log and backed away from the approaching rabbit, "Stay away from Simon, no hospitals, no doctors, Simon might not be Simon," and then brandishing his claws, he took a deep breath, howled out a roar-bark at the full moon, and ran off.

Shocked, Judy yelled, "Mr. Simon, please come back, I'm sorry. Mr. Simon!"

Judy started after Ray, but stopped as quickly as she'd started, no way was she going to be able to keep up with him while running through the trees in the dark. Stomping her foot, Judy growled out, "Dumb, stupid, bunny, you scared him off, now what are you going to do?"

…..

Packler was standing next to Penny, grumbling as she passed out bug burritos, "Where is that rabbit? She volunteered, and then she disappears, and I have to do all her work for her."

Penny rolled her eyes, 'Miss pedicure do real work, like that would ever happen. I can't wait to tell her I'm–'

"What was that?"

Penny looked over to the tree line where Judy had gone and said, "It was someone howling or barking, I hope everything's okay."

A dingo in front of Packler held his plate out and said, "Sounded like Crazy Ray's weird roar-barking howl. Damn nutjob, I hope he's not planning on camping here again. If he is, I'm heading over to Oakfield park."

Packler absentmindedly put a pair of burritos on the dingo's plate, all the while watching the tree line. A few moments later, she saw Judy come out from the trees carrying a half-empty plate of food. Judy stopped at the end of the path, handed the plate to an old fox, and then, after gesturing to the plate and back at the trees, the rabbit gave him a card and headed back toward the serving tables.

"Penny, the rabbit's headed back, I need to take care of something, take over for me."

Judy slipped back in next to Penny and finished off the rest of the meal service in silence. She'd really screwed up, her best lead gone. If she'd only been able to get him to see a doctor, she was sure that once he was back on his meds, he'd be able to help her.

…..

Packler went over behind one of the vans and pulled out her phone.

"Is she there?"

"Yes, sir. But we have an even bigger problem now, she found Crazy Ray."

"Damn it. How the hell did she do that?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter anymore, you need to get rid of her tonight before she brings the whole ZPD down around our heads."

"Alright, change of plan, I'll send the boys and have them dump her body in the woods behind the encampment. That way, the ZPD will think Crazy Ray killed her, and then they'll hunt him down and kill him for us, I'll kill two birds with one stone, literally."

"Good, but hurry, cleanup is going to start pretty soon."

…..

"There she is, wait until she's out of sight of the encampment and then drive up next to her so we can throw a net on her," said Marvin pointing toward Judy.

"A net? Wouldn't a tranq work better?"

"No idiot, we need to make it look like a pred got her, and if they find tranqs in her system, they won't buy her dying in a savage attack."

"I'm not chewing on her, that's gross."

"You are a moron, you know that. We're taking her back to the lab, they'll throw her in with one of the preds, and then all we have to do is bag up the remains and dump them in the forest back here later tonight."

"Fine, as long as I don't have to watch," said the ram as he started up the van and put it in gear.

…..

"Goodnight, Penny." Judy waved toward her friend, who was shutting the rear door of the fully-loaded minivan.

Meal service had finished-up about forty-five minutes ago, and Judy had thrown herself into the cleanup effort and then helped load all the vehicles with everything she could lift. Now she was tired and ready to curl up in bed and forget this failure of a night had ever happened.

Still upset at herself about Crazy Ray, Judy trudged her way down the walk toward the metro stop, not really paying attention to anything. Kicking a rock off the sidewalk, Judy was just past the dumpster where she'd met the old fox last week when a vehicle screeched to a stop across the street from her.

Judy jumped as her paw brushed her thigh, looking for the tranq that wasn't there, when…

…..

"Hey, what the hell, what's she doing?"

The goat groaned as an old green minivan pulled up near the rabbit, and a female stoat leaned out the driver's side window yelling for the rabbit to get in so she could give her a ride to the metro station.

"Damn, what do we do now? Do we try and net her at the metro station? Those platforms are usually thick with cameras."

Hitting the dashboard with his hoof, the goat glared at the stopped minivan, "No, we can't do it at the station, and the rail cars are just as bad. Get us out of here, we'll stake out her apartment and snatch her there."

…..

"Judy, come on, it's getting chilly, let me give you a ride to the Metro."

Judy shook her head, "I'm fine."

Penny rolled her eyes, "The way you're dragging along, you'll never make your train. Come on, I need to tell you something anyway."

Judy sagged as her friend waved her over to the van, saying, "Hop in."

Plodding across the street, Judy made it as far as the front of the minivan when she heard an engine rev and looked up in time to see a white panel van heading the other way down the street.

Penny pushed open the passenger side door, and when her friend finally settled herself in the seat, she gave Judy a short hug and said, "I know you wanted to walk, but with Cecelia around all night, I didn't get a chance to tell you, I'm transferring ZMS offices."

"What?"

Putting the minivan in gear, Penny continued, "I can't take working for Cecelia anymore. She doesn't care about the homeless the way I do. She's only interested in looking good to upper management, and if a mammal gets lost in the shuffle, she doesn't care."

Judy felt even worse than she had before, another thing that was all her fault. "I'm sorry, none of this would have happened if it weren't for me coming around asking a lot of questions. I didn't mean to cause you a problem."

Shaking her head, Penny said, "No, it wasn't your fault. You're the kind of mammal I want to work with, you care, and you never stop trying to help those around you. If there were more mammals like you in the city, I'd probably be out of a job, and happy about it too.

"That's why I'm transferring, I've got a friend who works in an office near Hyenahurst, and her boss is a great mammal, someone like you, who really cares. Unfortunately, my job is going to be different, and I won't have the same access to the system, so if you need a mammal looked up, I won't be able to do it for a while. Sorry."

Penny gunned the minivan down a side street and then screeched to a stop next to the Metro platform. "Just in time, here comes your train now."

Judy gave her friend a tight hug, "Thanks for the ride and all your help the last couple of weeks."

…..

Sighing, Judy looked around the empty car, it was probably better this way, no one around to see what a complete failure she was. Checking the time on her phone, Judy stared at the background picture of Nick in a bunny pile and smiled just a little, "What a goof." And then a moment later, the smile disappeared, 'Dumb bunny, so much for solving the case, Bogo's never going to give you any time off for a visit after he hears about what you did tonight.'

Rubbing the picture of her fox with her thumb, she missed him so much, especially times like this when she could use a shoulder to lean on. Taking another look around the railcar, Judy's finger suddenly took on a mind of its own, and barely a ring later, a video call connected and she heard a relieved voice coming from her phone.

"Carrots, thank goodness you called," followed by a muffled yell, "Important work call, have to take it, sorry everyone I'll be right back, maybe..."

"What's going on?"

"Horseback rides, how come you never told me there weren't any equids in Bunnyburrow, my back is killing me."

"There aren't any equids in Bunnyburrow."

Nick rolled his eyes, "Very funny, I think you're going to owe me a backrub for that one."

Judy sighed, "I'd love to, but it may be a while before you're able to collect."

The smile dropped from Nick's face as he asked, "Alright, spill, what happened at the camp tonight that's got my bunny so down?"

"I screwed up, I found Crazy Ray and then when we were talking, I went all emotional bunny on him and scared him off."

"Did you get anything useful out of him before he took off?"

"A little. Not much of what he said made sense, but… hang on, I recorded our conversation." Judy pulled out her carrot pen recorder, and after some squealing as the recording was rewound, she pressed the play button.

"You know you can use your phone to make recordings nowadays."

"Hush, someone gave me a six-pack of these pens, and I like using them."

Nick listened carefully to the conversation, trying to pick up anything useful, when-

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you're right, my boyfriend–"

Judy jammed her thumb down on the recorder pen's pause button and then grinned at Nick, "Oops, I should probably skip ahead a little."

Nick smirked as he heard a quick couple of seconds of squealing until Judy pressed the play button again.

"You know it's going to be kind of hard to hear the recording with your ears covering your face like that."

"I can hear fine, now be quiet."

"Nice blush, by the way."

"Shhh!"

Trying to avoid any more of Nick's teasing, Judy resolutely kept her eyes hidden until the playback was done, and then before he could start in on her, she asked, "So what do you think?"

"Well…"

"About what Crazy Ray said."

"Oh, sure, that part. You're right, he's definitely got a couple of screws loose somewhere, but it does sound like something happened to him that's really put him over the edge."

"Yeah, he's the second mammal I've talked to that said some service was trying to connect people to long lost relatives. I called around, and there aren't any genealogy services that do that sort of thing, I think it's a hustle, a way to get mammals to willingly go with whoever is kitnapping these guys."

"I'm with you on the hustle. I wish Crazy Ray could have told you more about the guys that snatched him."

"Monsters with fake skins, a wolf that didn't smell like a wolf, a great white dragon, I'm sure he was trying to say his kitnappers were wearing disguises, but none of what he says helps me figure out what species the kitnappers are.

"I don't understand the white dragon thing either, that really doesn't make any sense. The only mammals big enough to look like dragons would be elephants, or maybe a rhino, but their hides aren't white."

Nick smiled, "You never know, maybe it was a real dragon. There was this movie I saw when I was a kit, it had a big white-furred dragon in it that gave mammals rides around Zootasia, and his name was Falc–"

Judy put her paws to the sides of her head and yelled, "NICK, stop it! This isn't about some kit's movie. I screwed up my best lead, someone who knows who these guys are and where their hideout is located, up, and ran away because of me. What am I supposed to do now, put an APB out on him? Have hundreds of cops sweep every homeless encampment in the city? Do exactly what I promised Axl I wouldn't do? Is that what I'm supposed to do?"

Nick looked down and shook his head, "I'm sorry. You're right, I was being a dork. This is an important case, and I shouldn't have been joking around like that."

Judy stared into her phone, her glare softening the longer she looked at her fox, until she finally said, "Nick, I know you meant well, and I'm sorry I yelled, I'm just really upset with myself right now. I'm a better cop than this, I should have–"

"Come on, Judy, you're being too hard on yourself. I heard what happened, and I know you were just trying to help. What you have to understand is that some mammals aren't ready for help, they need a nudge, a reason to believe, you can't give up on them just because you failed once.

"You didn't give up on me."

"And you've never given up on me either, thanks, Nick."

'Next stop, Shady Hills station. Please exit for all transfers to the Orange Line.'

"I have to change trains; I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Yeah, 'night," replied Nick.

…..

"Where the hell is she? Her train should have arrived an hour ago, and it's not that long of a walk from the station to here."

"Maybe she missed a connection."

"One maybe, but she'd have to miss two or three to be this late."

The ram pointed a hoof down the street, "Hold on, that might be her."

Both mammals scooted down in their seats, trying to stay out of sight, and waited.

The goat groaned, "Larry, you need to get your eyes checked, that's not her, it's a red panda."

Larry studied the panda as he got closer, and as he approached, the ram slapped his partner, "Get down, I know that guy."

Scooting back down, the goat asked, "You're friends with a predator?"

"No, we're not friends, his name's Critterly, and I know him from the gang I used to run with. He's a total asshat, thinks he's some kind of drug lord or something, sells Nip to anyone and everyone, including kits. Last I heard he wanted to get into manufacturing. He's a total POS, my old gang booted him when he ratted out one of our guys to save his own tail."

"And he lives in the same building as a cop? That's almost funny," chuckled Marvin.

Watching the panda walk up the steps, a large keyring hanging off his belt, the ram said, "With all those keys, I think he may be the Super or maybe the landlord, either way, we can't stay parked here, if he sees me, he'll know I'm up to something, and when Hopps goes missing, he'll know for sure, that I was involved."

"What about the rabbit? White wants her dead tonight."

Starting up the van, Larry pulled into the street and said, "I'll drive the route she'd take to the metro station, if we see her, we'll grab her, otherwise, I'm done for the night. This has gotten too risky for my blood."

"Alright, but if she gets past us, you're the one who has to call White and tell him."

…..

The display on a small alarm clock sitting on the floor next to an old drawer silently changed to 5:05 a.m., nearly half an hour before it was supposed to rouse the sleeping bunny buried in a blanket pile.

The night before, said bunny had walked from the metro stop to her fox friend's apartment and still disappointed from the evening's events, she'd trudged into his room, changed into the same t-shirt she'd borrowed the previous night, and dropped herself into his blanket pile.

Surrounded by her fox's scent, she was able to relax and put most of the failed evening behind her.

Another minute went by on the clock. The bunny was dreaming now. As her nose twitched, she dreamt of not-wolves chasing her with hordes of long-lost rabbit relatives in tow. She dreamt that she was locked in a cage, but that it wasn't her, it was a not-bunny that watched as a witch with a pointy hat, stirred an evil concoction in a cauldron and then forced her to drink some kind of foul green liquid.

Finally, with her nose twitching erratically, the bunny pushed away the disturbing images and smiled as they were replaced with a vision of her fox atop a great white dragon, paw held out, offering to show her the wonders of the realm while riding his gentle beast.

As the bunny approached the friendly creature, happy to join her heart's desire, she was stopped as the beast turned his furry white head toward her and light shot out from his eyes, like bright headlights, blinding her, and causing her to cover her eyes until the light was suddenly gone.

*Beep Beep Beep*

Jolted awake by the alarm, Judy shot up from the blanket pile, eyes wide open, and shouted, "Not a dragon, a van, a white van, and I bet it's got a broken tail light."