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

…..

"I've got the door."

Carrying a box of miscellaneous items, Bucky pushed open the lobby door and held it open for Pronk, who was also carrying a full box. As soon as his gemsbok mate passed through the opening, Bucky saw Mr. Critterly, their now former landlord, smirking as he leaned against the wall outside his lobby apartment watching all the activity. Setting his box down, Bucky grabbed an envelope and went back into the lobby.

"Judy was right, you are a sleaze. Here are the keys to the apartment and the address of where to send us our deposit. All of our deposit."

Slapping the envelope into the red panda's paw, the kudu gave him a disgusted look and left.

Critterly chuckled as he watched his two loudest tenants drive away, "Good riddance."

Tossing the envelope into his apartment, Critterly headed to the storeroom to make sure he had everything he needed. He'd planned on taking care of the rabbit's old room this morning but had ended up deciding to wait until her neighbors had finished moving out. Now that they were finally gone, he could take care of both apartments right after he finished eating lunch.

…..

"What's wrong? You've been grunting and snorting ever since we picked up the car."

Slowly paging through a document on his phone, a mule, average-sized, with the typical brown and white coloring of his species, looked up at the chestnut-colored mini-horse driving, and replied, "I don't think she's the one."

Groaning, the small mare shook her head, "What is it with you and your death wish?" Holding her hooves up while steering with her knee, she made air quotes saying, "Of course she's not 'the one.' She's a hick rabbit from a mudhole farm town out in the middle of nowhere pretending to be a cop so the local politicians have someone cute to be photographed with in-between kissing babies."

"Jealous much?"

"What?"

Waving his phone at his partner, "Another small mammal, better at her job than you are at yours?"

"Screw you, Mule. I'm the best at what I do, and you know it." Followed by mumbling, "Saved your tail plenty of times, you egotistical..."

"But, you're not the one."

Gripping the steering wheel a little tighter, the mare ground out, "No, I'm not the one that's going to release your soul to Valhalla or wherever the hell you think you're going to end up, but," giving her partner a toothy smile, "if you get all… whatever on me, and cost us this contract, I might be tempted to give it a try."

Chuckling, the Mule replied, "As you wish, the rabbit, and then my soul."

"Good, we'll be at her place in a few hours."

…..

Judy added another line to the email she was working on and turned to Connor, "Any more JamCams I need to add to the list?"

"No, four's my limit for a Sunday morning," grumbled Connor.

Judy nodded, her partner had every right to be unhappy, they'd both accomplished exactly nothing this morning. "Your four and my six, make ten cameras that aren't responding or we can't pull data from, I can't believe that there are that many JamCams we need access to having problems."

"Yeah, especially after the IT group spent all day yesterday working on the server."

Judy did a final check of the data in her email, making sure all the camera ID numbers and the day and timestamps of the video she was looking for were all correct, and then sent it on to the IT helpdesk.

Closing down her computer and putting her notebook away, she said, "That's about all we can do for now, let's hope the new IT group is faster than the legal department was in turning around my request."

As Judy and Connor reached the main lobby, Connor pointed over to the reception desk where he saw Clawhauser hanging up his phone, "Looks like we're not the only ones crazy enough to come in on their day off."

Walking over to Clawhauser's desk, Judy hopped up and surprised her friend who was getting ready to dial another number.

"Hi Ben, what are you doing here?"

Jumping a little at seeing his rabbit friend on his desk, Clawhauser replied, "Judy, thank goodness, I was just about to call you."

"Why?"

"It's the Zoolympic Torch Relay tomorrow, they added another torchbearer last minute, and I need another team for crowd control at the new exchange point." Looking at both Judy and Connor, he asked, "Can you guys help me out and work an early shift tomorrow? Everyone else is busy."

Judy perked up, but Connor hesitated, saying, "I don't know…"

Clawhauser quickly sweetened the pot. "I can set it up so you'll work a short shift tomorrow, you'll be back here late morning, and done for the day by 1:00, and," clapping his paws together, "you guys will get to see Davis Buckham up close because he's the one they added to the relay, and he'll be at your location waiting for the flame to arrive."

Judy's eyes went wide, "Isn't he dating Gazelle? Will she be there with him?"

Clawhauser squealed, "Maybe!"

Turning to Connor, Judy bounced, "Did you hear that? We have to do it."

Connor groaned, "Hopps, not more Gazelle. My ears are already bleeding from having to listen to her music whenever we're on patrol together."

Judy, fearing her opportunity was fading, put her paws together, let her ears drop, and with a wide-eyed, lip-trembling look, said, "Pleeeeease, Connor."

Pawson returned Judy's pathetic display with his own 'seriously' look and replied, "Hopps, you know that only works on Wilde, right?"

Judy was about to double-down on her look when she saw Clawhauser lean forward with his paws clasped, moan pathetically and practically wail, "Please Connor, Judy's the only one I trust to capture the true essence of the Horned Goddess in a picture. And Connor, I need pictures, I want pictures, I have to have lots of pictures."

Connor's shoulders sagged as he took in the pathetic sight of his begging coworkers, and with a final grunt, said, "Fine, I'll do it, but I hate both of you."

Judy smiled as she and Clawhauser watched the beaten wolf exit the lobby, and once Connor was safely outside, she turned to her co-conspirator and asked, "So, Ben, how did you do that with your lip, I can't get mine to tremble like that."

Clawhauser grinned as he replied, "It's easy, just…"

…..

Critterly pushed open the door as he backed his way into the rabbit's old apartment, arms full of supplies. Setting a broom and dustpan in the corner, he grabbed two large black plastic garbage bags, opened them up, and dropped them on the floor.

He hadn't had the time before to give the apartment a good cleaning after booting the rabbit out. He'd been looking for a way to get rid of her ever since he'd taken over the building from that armadillo, Dharma. Having a cop living in the building was not good for his future business plans.

Critterly surveyed the small room. The microwave and mini-fridge were still useable, so he'd keep those, the desk he was going to pitch along with the bed linen and pillows, but, hopping up on the bed, the panda bounced up and down getting a feel for the mattress to see if it was better than his. Yeah, he'd keep the mattress.

Sliding off the bed, Critterly rechecked the under-bed drawers to make sure he'd gotten everything the other day. On his knees, he was about to stand when he spied something stuck between the mattress and the headboard. Stretching his paw into the gap, Critterly felt around until he brushed against something soft and pulled out a small red fox plushie.

"Oops."

Tossing the toy toward the black bag by the door, and failing to notice when it missed the bag and slid into the corner, Critterly laughed, "Pathetic rabbit."

Getting up, he stepped to the end of the bed and to the clothes rack that was mounted there. Grinning, Critterly reached up and gently pulled the beautiful purple dress off its hanger and sat back down on the edge of the bed.

Running his paws through the material, he couldn't help but imagine his girlfriend wearing it, well ex-girlfriend, but that'll change as soon as she sees this. Holding it up, he chuckled, "As if that rabbit could ever do this dress justice."

Gloating as he fawned over his prize, Critterly's phone rang. Draping the dress over his shoulder, he checked his phone and grimaced. Jumping up from the bed, Critterly closed the apartment door to make sure no one would overhear, and answered the call.

"What."

"The boss wants to know if you're going to be ready for the shipment on Wednesday."

"I'll be ready, I'm cleaning out the rooms today. I need to seal some cracks around the windows and repaint one of the rooms but don't worry, they'll be ready."

"And the cop?"

"Gone."

"Good. The boss also said you wanted to be set up for processing, you serious about that?

"Yeah, I've got some more space freeing up at the end of the month. Perfect location on the top floor, it'll be easy to vent to the roof, so no way will anyone be able to smell anything."

"Alright, but don't screw this up, we're talking about a lot of merchandise here."

"Tell the boss, I've got it. I'll leave the doors unlocked. When you're done with the delivery, text me and–"

*Knock Knock*

"I gotta go, someone's at the door."

…..

Standing with her paws on her hips, Judy hummed happily at how well she'd done. Not having achieved anything at work this morning with all the cameras she and Connor needed to pull video from being down, Judy decided that she'd surprise Nick by finishing the paint job in her room.

She'd rummaged through the pile of her clothes that she'd dumped in Nick's room and found an old pair of shorts and a torn purple workout t-shirt that had enough holes in it that she'd kept meaning to throw it away. Once properly outfitted, she'd sorted through the painting supplies and made short work of finishing the last bedroom wall with a coat of paint.

Nodding in satisfaction at her work, Judy checked her fur and paws for paint splatters and then set about cleaning up. Grabbing a couple of large black trash bags, Judy opened them up and dumped her loose trash in one of them. In the other one, she stuffed the balled-up plastic drop cloth, along with the roller cover and edger pads. Dragging both bags to the kitchen, she set them by the front door, figuring she'd take them out to the dumpster later.

Heading back into the bedroom, Judy was about to start moving the furniture back into place when her phone rang.

Seeing her fox's picture flash on the screen, Judy answered the video call, "Hey, Nick."

"Hey Carrots, are you at the apartment? Clawhauser said you'd left work a while ago."

"Yeah, all the JamCams I needed to look at were down, so I decided to hang out here and finish up the painting you started in my bedroom. I just finished cleaning up, want to see?"

Nick nodded as Judy held up her phone and panned across the newly painted wall, "So, what do you think, pretty good, huh?"

"I'm speechless, Carrots. Wow. Stunning. Beyond gorgeous. I'd even say, hot. Please tell me you're bringing that outfit with you when you come to visit."

"What?" Judy looked at her phone's screen and saw that she'd forgotten to switch cameras, and all the panning she'd done had just given Nick a full view of her in her torn, fur baring, painting clothes.

"Impossible fox."

"Sexy bunny."

Trying not to let Nick see her smiling, she switched the camera and showed him the painted wall. "Now, what do you think?"

"Uh…"

"About the wall, Slick."

"Oh, yeah, that's nice too."

"You're incorrigible, you know that? Me, slaving away with a paint roller and–"

*Knock Knock*

"Nick, someone's at the door, hang on."

Judy quickly made her way to the apartment door, and, pushing the garbage bags out of the way, she looked up. "You know, it'd be nice if the peephole weren't so high up that I might actually be able to use it."

"Maybe if somebunny weren't so short."

"Har-har, you're not tall enough to reach it either. Do you have a stool or something I can stand on?"

"No, but I'm sure it's fine. The condo association has a pretty strict rule against allowing disreputable mammals in the building."

Judy raised an eyebrow.

"Fine, they may have missed one or two, just answer the door already."

Judy shrugged, "Okay, but if someone chops me up with a chainsaw, I'm blaming you."

Setting her phone on the counter, Judy pulled opened the door, saw a medium-sized mammal holding something in his hoof, and said, "Hi, can I–

"NICK!"

…..

Checking the map app on her phone, the mini-horse parked the car across the street from their destination and shut off the engine. "That's the place right there. Her shift schedule says she's off today. What do you want to do? Stakeout the apartment tonight or head over to the ZPD building and map out a place to ice her there?"

"I think now is good."

"What?"

"I want to kill her now."

"What are you talking about? We haven't scoped out the neighborhood or figured out the best time to kill her, hell the Happytown getaway car won't be in place until later tonight."

The Mule reached in the back seat, and grabbing a bag, pulled out something that you'd only see in a teenage slasher film, a leather glove, a real cow leather glove, with four long, impossibly sharp, claw-like blades attached. Slipping the glove on his hoof, the Mule flexed the digits and grinned as he saw his large buck-teeth reflected off the smooth metal tines sliding across each other in front of his muzzle.

"Stop worrying, you said it yourself, she's a pathetic little rabbit, so let's get this over with now."

"But…"

Taking the empty bag and using it to cover the evil-looking metal claw, the Mule said, "This won't take long."

Making his way to the lobby doors, the Mule lingered outside for a moment until he saw an old nanny goat with a cane, walk across the lobby and push open the door.

Grabbing the handle, the Mule smiled and pulled the door the rest of the way open for the goat, "Good afternoon, Ma'am."

"Thank you, you're so kind," replied the old mammal as she made her way out of the building.

Smiling at how easy this was going to be, the Mule headed across the lobby and up the stairs. Reaching the right floor, he made his way down the hall and stopped outside the rabbit's door.

Leaning close to the door, the Mule heard a muffled conversation, 'Sounds like she's on the phone.' Not believing his good fortune, he nearly whinnied in joy. Like any great artist, he found that sharing his work with an audience was a thrill beyond measure, having someone listen in as she dies will be a memory worth treasuring forever.

Quietly stepping back, he was about to rush the door, break it down and surprise the rabbit, when a thought struck him, 'What if she is the one?' Smiling to himself, he brushed off his shirt, stepped back in front of the door… and knocked.

…..

"Carrots… Are you still there?"

…..

Watching her partner cross the street, the small mare slammed the steering wheel, "Crazy bastard, only a fool goes in for a hit without a plan," and then grumbled, "You'd better hope this doesn't go sideways because if you think I'm going to come in and save your tail again, you've got another thing coming."

Pissed, but knowing there was nothing she could do, the mare turned the car around and parked a little past the rabbit's building, and then leaving the engine running, she watched her mirrors and waited for her lunatic partner to come out.

And waited.

And waited.

Checking the time, again, the mare wondered what the hell was taking him so long. Either the rabbit was there, or she wasn't. If she was, she should be dead already, if she wasn't, then they needed a plan. Either way, her partner should be back by now.

Another few frustrating minutes passed before the mini-horse saw the lobby door open and her partner come out. 'Finally!' Except, "Shit… What the hell?" He was carrying a black garbage bag.

Feeling the car shudder as the Mule opened the trunk and tossed the garbage bag in, the mare just glared out the windshield.

A moment later, the passenger side door opened, and the Mule dropped himself on the seat.

"What the fuck? I thought you were supposed to leave her shredded body behind, or at least what was left of it, so the cops could find it."

Wiping bits of purple fabric and bloody fur off the metal blades of his glove, the Mule absently replied…

…..

"Judy!?"

…..

"She wasn't there."

"Damn it," replied the mare pounding the steering wheel, "who the hell was that then?"

"The landlord. Said he booted the rabbit out and didn't know where she went."

"Arrgh, and you had to go and waste him? You know that means we're on the clock now, we've only got about twenty-four hours before someone notices he's gone and calls the ZPD."

Not really paying attention to the mini-horse's tirade, the Mule replied, "He said he was converting her room into Nip storage, offered me half his take to leave him alone…"

"Oh god, he didn't."

"…Mammals need to understand that true health is only achieved through the purity and essence of our natural fluids, and foreign substances, like Nip, disrupt that purity."

"I know, I know, and I appreciate all that, but right now, we need to find the rabbit so you can kill her."

"You really have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?'

Shaking her head, "Trust me, no one does, so how about we focus on the rabbit. I don't want to be stuck in this city any longer than I have to be."

Seeing the frustration on his partner's long muzzle, the Mule chuckled, "Alright, hand me the rabbit's work schedule, let's see what we can do about making her next shift her last shift."

…..

"Oh, Nick," and then grabbing her phone so she could look at her handsome fox's face, "they're beautiful."

"Not as beautiful as the girl holding them."

"Nick…"

Leaning closer to the phone, Nick saw Judy, lip trembling, staring at the bouquet of flowers he'd had delivered. "Judy, are you alright? I didn't mean to make you cry."

Sniffling, Judy replied, "I'm okay, it's just that no one's ever given me flowers before."

"Well then, I guess we're even because I've never given flowers to anyone before, either. I'm glad you like them."

"I love them, daisies are my favorite. When I was a kit, I use to… *sniff* Dumb fox, how do you always know how to make me so happy?"

Nick smiled into his phone as he knelt in a long hallway decorated with hundreds of old kit drawings and brushed his paw over the one with Judy's name on it, showing a gray bunny kit wearing a ZPD cap, lying in a field of daisies.

"It's a fox thing."