Disclaimer: Zootopia and all Canon characters are owned by Disney. All other characters, product names, trademarks, and copyrights belong to their respective owners.
…..
Turning his head sideways, Nick waggled his ears around while sticking his tongue out and making a raspberry sound.
A manul kitten sitting next to his mother on the Metro went from fussing because his mother was paying more attention to her phone than him, to giggling and clapping at the silly fox's antics.
Judy shook her head. She liked to joke that Nick was good with kits because he was a big one himself, but deep down in parts of her that she'd ignored for most of her life, she knew he'd make a great dad someday. Kits with Nick? She'd thrown that card down with Sister Mary, but was it even possible? And if it was, how many litters would he want? Heck, how many litters did she want?
'And why exactly are you standing in a crowded Metro car staring at your partner and thinking about kits? You're supposed to be thinking about work and making the world a better place.
'One litter at a time.'
"Aarrgh!" whisper-groaned Judy to herself, "Stop being such a bunny!"
The older feline Judy had been staring at blankly while lost in thought scooped up her kit and, while walking past Judy toward the exit doors, nodded toward a young vixen hungrily eyeing Judy's fox, whispered, "You best hurry and take him as your mate before someone else does."
"What?" said Judy, suddenly standing alone as Nick snagged the seats just vacated.
The manul queen just smiled in reply as her kit waved bye-bye to the nice, fluffy, big person who'd made him laugh.
"Excuse me, is this seat taken?"
Judy's ears shot up and swiveled toward a seriously evil disturbance in the force, followed by her drawing on previously untapped matrix-like abilities to bend, twist, and mystically appear in the seat next to Nick just in time for him to reply, "Sorry, it's taken."
Judy looked up at the gorgeous marble fox vixen, with a styled white and gray tail that was to die for, and smiled.
The vixen looked back and forth between the two uniformed mammals and, about to ask the handsome todd out for coffee, spied the tod's tail as it snaked around behind the bunny until its tip rested in her lap.
Staring in disbelief and then shock as the rabbit started nonchalantly grooming her quarry's tail, the vixen straightened her shoulders and huffed, "A prey mammal? How disgusting, you should—"
Nick growled quietly, but with a tone Judy had never heard before. Or felt. To the now wide-eyed vixen, it was a warning that a bright red line had been crossed, but to Judy, it felt protective, even possessive, but in a good way. A way that deep down in her core, more of those parts she'd just been berating made themselves known, and approved of what their mate had just done.
"Sorry, my apologies, uh, to you both," said the vixen as she carefully bowed, exposed her neck for a three count, and then, seeing Nick nod, quickly changed train cars.
Seeing the connecting door close behind a frazzled tail, Judy took a quick look around at a crowd that seemed not to have noticed any of what just happened and whispered to Nick, "What—"
"Don't worry, it was just a fox thing," replied Nick, unconsciously wrapping his tail a little tighter around Judy, "I'll fill you in later."
"Like you're going to fill me in on why Fru Fru texted me this morning about what I should wear tonight and when Mr. Manchas would pick us up?"
Pulling on his collar a bit, Nick grimaced as he said, "Yeah, about that…."
…..
"So, we'll talk to Chief Bogo about working a short shift today, and after we get your car back, we'll go to Gnucci's so I can try on the dresses that Fru Fru has on hold for me."
"Dress shopping?" echoed Nick, following Judy into the ZPD lobby, "Does it have to be dress shopping? You know that's not exactly a guy-thing to do. How about you just wear that outfit you wore to the rave, that looked good on you."
Walking toward Clawhauser's desk, Judy huffed and said, "What little fabric that outfit had has long since fallen apart, there's almost nothing left of it except for a few threads."
Not hearing Nick's pawsteps any longer, Judy stopped and turned around.
Nick had a smirk's smirk on his muzzle.
Judy went back, grabbed his tie, and, pulling his muzzle to hers, said, "I know what you're thinking, and the answer is 'No.'"
Nick pouted.
Judy sighed.
Nick wagged his tail.
Judy whispered, "Not in public, and you come with me dress shopping."
Nick licked Judy's nose.
"Males," whispered Judy, "You're all so, so…"
"Male?" prompted Nick.
"Yeah—" Judy started until a large boar wearing old jeans and a t-shirt interrupted the couple.
"Officer Hopps, Officer Wilde."
"Officer Schweinly," replied Judy in a neutral tone. Confronting Schweinly about his behavior in the triage area the other night was not how she'd planned on starting the morning, and about to excuse her and Nick from his presence, she noticed the box he was carrying.
"Is everything okay?"
Schweinly shrugged and, with a tired smile, started to reply when—
"Get your filthy paws off me! I'm a decorated officer, and once I'm promoted, I promise you'll be sorry you ever crossed me!"
Sasha Garrison, former rising ZPD star and now disgraced feline, was being escorted to a waiting transport by two plain-clothed investigators from Internal Affairs.
"Shut up and keep moving," replied a dire wolf female with her paw on Garrison's arm.
Spying Judy, Garrison twisted and ducked out of the wolf's grip and leaped toward her rabbit nemesis. "You bitch, you did this to me. Corin was fine until you showed up with… with," and pointing at Nick with a clawed finger, spat out, "that pelt. You're both a disgrace to the ZPD, and I ought to— Aaack…"
"You ought to what?" intoned the wolf's partner, a large black bear now holding Garrison up by the scruff of her neck.
"I… uhh…" started Garrison until she felt a pair of pawcuffs going around her wrists.
"You 'uhh' best shut the hell up," growled out the dire wolf, "I'm adding attempted assault of a ZPD officer to the list, and," nodding toward Garrison's still extended claw, "another word out of you and I'll make it 'with intent to maim.' Got it?"
Garrison looked around at the growing audience of her former co-workers, and then, seeing the looks of disgust and pity on their faces, she retracted her claw and, with a slight whimper, nodded.
The bear set Garrison down and, turning to Judy and Nick, laid his ears back and said, "My apologies, Officers, that won't happen again."
"Damn straight," grumbled the wolf, "I told you we should have put her in irons." And after nodding her own apologies to Nick and Judy, she waved at her partner and said, "Come on, the ZBI's waiting, and the faster this perp's out of my fur, the better I'll feel."
As the small group watched Garrison being escorted to the precinct garage, Schweinly huffed, "Never partnered with her. Heard some stuff I probably should have reported to the Lieutenant, but…"
Shifting his box to his left arm, Schweinly focused on Judy and said, "After what happened at the drug lab Friday night, I turned in my badge.
"I thought I was an okay cop, but I was just BS-ing myself. Seeing you in action against that ram, I just…" shaking his head, Schweinly gathered himself enough to say, "Even after everything I did to you when we were partnered up, you still saved my tail from that savage lion."
Judy nodded and said, "Of course I did. You were a fellow Officer, and no matter what happened between us, we're all still ZPD, right?"
Schweinly sighed, "Not anymore. I don't want to spend the rest of my career riding a keyboard, filling out computer requests, and moaning and complaining that the world is against me like my old partner Briggs does up in the Meadowlands."
Taking a deep breath, Schweinly straightened himself up, put out a hoof, and said, "I'm sorry for what I did, Officer Hopps. You're the real deal. You always have been. No excuses for how I treated you. I was wrong, and I know now that I could never hope to be as good a cop as you are."
Judy was stunned by what Schweinly said, well double stunned adding that to seeing Garrison perp-walked out of the precinct but quickly recovering, shook the boar's hoof, and asked, "What are you going to do now?"
"I don't know," replied Schweinly, turning to Nick, hoof held out again. "Maybe take after another good cop and reexamine a few of my life choices. See if I can figure out something I can do right that actually helps people instead of just going through the motions."
Nick nodded as he shook Schweinly's hoof, saying, "I know people if you need any help."
Schweinly chuckled as he rebalanced his box and said, "Yeah, thanks. I may take you up on that, but first, I've got to straighten myself out. You both take care."
Stun grenade number three.
"Wow," said Nick, watching Schweinly make his way out the main entrance. "Not in a million years did I think I'd ever see that happen."
"Yeah, he actually apologized," said Judy.
"Come on, I see Clawhauser. Let's find out what else we've missed."
"AaaaaaaahhhhhhheeeeEEEEeeeeeeee!"
-/-/-
"So, what's the big deal going on that you want to help me tow Nick's car?"
"So, what's the big deal going on that you have to tow Nick's car?" replied Cassy with a smile.
Cassy showed up early-early at Aurelio's garage and staked it out waiting for Sage to show up. Fortunately for her, it only took one gas station black coffee and two stale doughnuts' worth of time to catch the young vixen in her overalls opening up the shop. Of course, that was the easy part. Convincing Sage to let her ride side saddle in the tow truck because she was investigating a story took some time, and letting her do it while disguised in a spare set of shop overalls took a promise to look into Sage's mom's POS boss' shady dealings.
Cassy spent most of the drive to the industrial district taking notes on a sleazeball she'd wished she'd heard about months ago until, after three pages of notes, she steered the conversation toward the investigation at paw.
"Uhh… I guess what that Fire Marshall bear talked about on TV. You know, a gas leak took out a building, and Nick's car got damaged when it went up."
"So, Nick was there when the building went up. Do you think he had anything to do with it?"
Sage nearly laughed, "Are you kidding? Us foxes are all about fire safety, you know, long fluffy tails and all. Besides, he and his girlfriend Judy were on some kind of undercover— uhhh…" glancing at Cassy, Sage gulped and finished with, "weird date thing, I guess…. cause I don't know anything about what you old people do for fun."
Cassy hummed as Sage moved into the right lane of the expressway in preparation for exiting in a few miles. "I heard in the wind that some homeless predators might have gone missing and that maybe a hitmammal might have been involved in all this."
"Uh-huh," replied Sage, staying focused on her driving.
"So… Did you see that interview I did in Mordinia a week or so ago?"
"The one with that loser cop, Blechtail? Yeah, what about it?"
Cassy chuckled, "Bechtail, but yeah, supposedly she took down the Mule, the best, most impossible to kill hitmammal in the world."
"Supposedly?" replied Sage, back to focusing on her driving again.
"Yeah, I think I was played for a patsy on that interview. I've got a friend who looked at the pictures Bechtail gave me and said it looked to him like the Mule might have been killed four or five days earlier somewhere else, and the explosion was just a cover-up.
"Maybe like the supposed gas explosion that took out Nick's car… While he and Hopps were doing their weird date thing."
"Uh-huh," replied Sage, gripping the steering wheel a bit tighter.
"Look, Sage, something's going on, something big. Maybe even as big as the Bellwether conspiracy. The ZPD is ears deep in whatever's going on, and I'm starting to think the Commonwealth is too, and maybe even Mr. Big. So, if you know anything, you've got to tell me. A lot of mammals, especially predators, could be in danger right now. You don't want to see a repeat of predators getting darted with Nighthowler and going savage, do you?"
Sage groaned, "This is all community stuff, if you out me—"
"Don't worry. I'm righteous with the community, and I want to keep it that way. I promise no one will ever know where I got my information."
"All I know is the Penguin was helping Judy with an outfit for an undercover operation Friday night. Nick called me yesterday to pick up his car since he lost the key, and when I got there, something from the building explosion had punctured the radiator and ripped open a couple of hoses, so now I have to tow it."
"So, the Penguin's in on this?"
"Yeah, a little."
Cassy nodded, "Good, that means Mr. Big's not involved in a bad way either, and probably not any of the other mob families if they know what's good for them.
"So, what about the Mule and me getting punked? Have you heard anything about him?"
"I'm not sure," said Sage as she pulled off the expressway. "But you might be right about when he was offed. Finn put out a community alert on Judy because she went missing around when the torch relay went through, but when—"
"Wait. Judy Hopps? But she's a rabbit. I thought community alerts only went out on foxes. Why would Finn put one out on her?"
"Because she's part of the community now, has been for a while," huffed Sage. "Everybody likes her and… and even though she's po-po, she's pretty cool. In some ways, she's a better fox than some of the foxes I know."
Cassy nodded and motioned for Sage to continue.
"Yeah, so some old todd up in Happy Town who was keeping an eye out for Judy found an equine guy's body in an abandoned warehouse instead. The timeframe sounds like it could be right if you think the guy you saw in Mordinia was already dead, but I don't know. No one else saw the guy's body because a bunch of Commonwealth spooks, fronted by an elk buck with a stick up his butt, showed up in a New Yak minute with trucks and cleaners and disappeared everything like it never happened. And no one's talking about it anymore either, so good luck tracking down anyone who saw anything."
Cassy wanted to punch something. That damn buck Elkdon had been stringing her along the whole time. He'd played her like a fiddle and fed her a bunch of BS data in the hopes she'd go away. Well, I—
"Cassy, are you okay?"
"Sorry," growled out the groundhog, "I mean, yeah, I'm good. Are you hearing anything about any missing predators?"
Sage shrugged, "Not really. I heard Thorn's brother hasn't been seen since he walked away from one of the encampments, but he had a lot of problems no one knew how to help him with."
"How about anyone outside the community?"
Pulling up to a very military-style checkpoint, Sage showed her ID to a no-nonsense looking tiger wearing a Commonwealth guard uniform while another tiger guard held his machine gun at the ready.
Waved through, Sage made a few turns and waited until Nick's car was in sight before saying, "No, not that I've heard, but Nick and Finn asked me about a white panel van driven by a ram and a goat I saw a while back. It would've made a good set of wheels for snatch and grabs," and then nodding toward the still smoking rubble in the distance and the building next to it, added, "and it looked a lot like that van hanging out of the building over there."
-/-/-
"Can't breathe, can't breathe," whimpered Nick.
"Mmm-B-mm-E-mm-N," came a choked, breathless (literally) cry from Judy.
"It's so great to see you guys," gushed Clawhauser, hugging both Nick and Judy to his copious chest. "I missed you soooooo, much. Tell me everything you've been up to! Everything you've seen and done. Was Bunnyburrow great? I bet it was. Are you guys back together yet?"
"Mmm *wimper* mmm"
"Oh, my," Clawhauser gasped, throwing his arms open and dropping a pair of panting mammals in a heap on the floor. "Are you guys okay? Sorry about that. I was just so excited to see you."
Helping Judy to her feet, Clawhauser kept fretting while Judy coughed, "Would you like a doughnut? That might help."
"No *cough* I'm okay."
Nick stayed spread eagle on the floor.
"Ohhhhhhh."
"Come on, get up. It was just a hug," said Judy poking Nick in the side with a toe."
Nick shook his head and groaned, "I can't. My life flashback isn't up to the part where we met yet."
"Up, unless you want me to kick you hard enough to cause a rewind."
"Eeeeeeh! You guys are back together! Wow, wait until I tell everyone the pool is back on."
Judy put her paws on her hips and glared at the rotund cheetah, "Ben, what did I tell you about Nick and I?"
"Uhh, you're just friends?"
"And?"
"Work partners."
"So?"
"No betting pool."
"Or?"
"Awww, come on Judy, please."
"Or."
Clawhauser sighed, "No posting anything about you and Nick to Muzzlebook."
Judy nodded and, releasing Ben from her glare, brushed herself off and led the small group over to Ben's desk so they could catch up.
"Put me down for twenty," Nick whispered, slipping Ben a bill.
Ben nodded as he put the bill into his pocket and stoically followed Judy.
"So, what are you guys doing here? Chief Bogo said you'd be in the hospital for at least a month. Or maybe he said until he retired. I can't remember, but I know he wanted you guys back in Bunnyburrow as soon as you felt better."
"We both feel fine, and we're ready to get back to work on the drug lab case," countered Judy.
"Yeah," added Nick, "Tormenting Bogo in the bullpen meeting, pranking certain co-workers, secretly upgrading the coffee in the breakroom, you know, cop stuff that makes the world a better place."
"But…" whined Clawhauser. "The Chief isn't doing the bullpen meeting today on account he and Pawson are investigating what's left of the drug lab you blew up. And he said if you came in, to tell you you're on leave and to drive you back home."
"Carrots blew up the drug lab? She didn't tell me that part."
"I didn't blow up anything, well not much of anything. Besides, it totally wasn't my fault."
"Uh-huh," Nick said, smirking.
"Ow," said Nick, holding his side.
Clawhauser cooed and patted his paws together.
Judy sighed, "Ben…"
"But you guys are so cu— nggthrrr," replied Clawhauser through the small grey paw clamping his muzzle shut.
"Just give me the keys to our cruiser, and Nick and I will go talk to the Chief ourselves about helping with the investigation."
Clawhauser silently shook his head.
"Come on Ben," said Nick. "This is the part where she breaks most of the perps we catch."
Nodding so Judy would release him, Ben said, "No keys, the Chief had one of the carpool mechanics remove the battery from your cruiser."
"I can–," started Nick.
"And the belts and hoses," added Ben.
"King takes knight," replied Nick.
"Grrrrrrr," added Judy as her foot started tapping.
Ben chuckled in victory as he reached under his desk for a small bag and the keys to the only remaining cruiser in the garage while saying, "Come on, if we hurry, I can drop you guys off at home in time to pick up second breakfast on the way back."
"Wait," said Judy, winking at Nick before looking up at Ben, "I can't go home yet. I need to go dress shopping for tonight. You need to take us to the mall first, right Nick?"
"Yup, one hundred percent," nodded Nick. "It's a special dinner, and we have to look our best. You wouldn't want me to have to ask for my twenty back, right?"
"No, I don't want that. I suppose I can take you. Chief Bogo wanted me to make sure I watched you into your apartments. Which mall?"
Judy smiled, "South Savanna Central Park."
"Queen to Queen's level three, checkmate," whispered Nick, returning his partner's wink.
…..
"Oh, I almost forgot," said Ben, pulling a small paper sack out from his cruiser's center console and handing it to Judy. "This is yours."
"Thanks," replied Judy, guiding Ben to their destination. "You're gonna want to get in the right lane, the mall exit is the next one."
Opening the bag, Judy peeked in and almost gasped before crumpling it closed and dawning an innocent look.
"Connor picked that up in your old apartment before we knew you'd moved. I figured you'd want it back, so I hung onto it for you."
"Thanks," Judy whispered out the side of her mouth.
"What's in the bag?" asked Nick.
"Nothing," whispered Judy.
"Are you sure this is the right exit?" asked Ben, turning on his blinker and exiting. "This neighborhood doesn't look so good."
"Yup," replied Nick, pointing to the upcoming checkpoint. "See that? Mall cops, big ones too. I bet no shoplifters get past them."
Ben stared at the large uniformed tigers waving him through and only refocused on where he was going when Judy started giving him directions.
A few turns and still more confusion later, Nick pointed toward a bunch of activity in the distance and said, "Head over there."
Judy looked toward where Nick was pointing and, about to agree, caught sight of something that shook her to her core, something Nick hadn't noticed, and no way was she going to let him see.
Thinking fast, Judy dropped her bag on the car floor in front of Nick and said, "Oops."
While Nick unbuckled his seatbelt and grabbed the bag, Judy quickly said, "No, go right, then up a couple of blocks and turn left and left again. I remember there are lots of potholes on this section of road."
Nick growled, "Potholes?"
"Don't worry," said Judy, snatching the sack out of Nick's paws before he could open it, "Sally's fine. I'm sure Sage is detailing her out right now." Except, Judy knew for sure that Sage wasn't doing any such thing. Judy had to distract Nick because she'd caught sight of a small tow truck right in front of where she'd left Sally. Which could only mean one thing, Sally was hurt, and it was her fault.
"Where's the mall?" asked Ben.
"On the other side of that ZPD Command vehicle, I think," replied Nick.
"Oh no," groaned Clawhauser as he saw Bogo glaring at him… and the two mammals he was supposed to be keeping out from under his boss' hooves.
-/-/-
"I don't know," said Cassy, taking a couple of pictures from behind the junker Nick's car was parked next to. "That looks a lot bigger of a mess than what a gas leak explosion would do, I mean, there's not much left of the building, and most of the surrounding ones have blast damage too."
"Uh-huh," grunted Sage as she connected L-shaped brackets to the lift crossbar under the rear tires.
"And no gas explosion warrants this much security."
"Would you grab the steering wheel lock from the tool bin and lock down Nick's steering for me. Bracket on the brake, hooks on the wheel, tighten it so the wheel won't turn."
Slipping her phone into her pocket, Cassy started to leave the cover of the junker when she saw something hanging off one of the mangled trunk hood brackets. Carefully reaching around so no one would see her, she lifted a tangled bundle of buckles and barbed straps off of the rusted bracket. Except…
"Holy crap!"
"What?" asked Sage, running around to where Cassy was staring at what looked like a cage made out of synthetic leather straps riveted together lying in a heap on the ground. "What's wrong?"
"That… that… Oh gods help me."
Sage bent down to pick up whatever the offending contraption was until about to touch it with her gloved paw—
"Don't touch it."
Sage shook her head at the prissy groundhog. She'd spent most of her life around cars, tools, repair garages, and all the disgusting mess that went with them. She'd learned to live with grease under her claws and oil splotches on her fur, a spaghetti pile of leather trash wasn't anything special to worry about.
Turning it over in her paw, Sage shook the contraption to untangle it a bit and was able to see it was a muzzle made out of barbed leather straps, even the basket was a series of spiked straps riveted together and onto longer straps that would buckle around the head of whoever was being restrained.
"It's not synthetic, and it's not a regular muzzle," whispered Cassy. "I saw one just like it in a museum in Mordinia, from the time before the Accords. It's made out of animal skin, and it's designed to restrain and torture whoever's locked into it."
"You're crazy, who would make something like that," huffed Sage as she took a sniff of the leather expecting the typical, plasticy, rubberish, slightly chemical smell, but instead…
Sage's eyes bugged out as she yelped and threw the contraption down at Cassy's feet. Pulling off her gloves, the vixen brushed, no practically slapped at her nose, trying to get the horrid smell out, and then threw up. Twice.
Still on her knees, Sage slowly said, "It's museum old, but I could still smell the animal they used—
Sage spat out more bile that made its way up her throat, and as Cassy rubbed her back, she started violently blowing out her nose again.
Wiping her muzzle clean with the sleeve of her overalls, Sage said, "I smelled the blood of at least four different predators on that horrible thing. And Cassy…"
"Yeah?"
"I smelled fresh fox blood on it too. Blood that's less than a few days old."
"Nick's?"
"Yeah. It smells like it's been cooked a little too."
"From the explosion?"
Sage shrugged.
"Alright, I've got what I need. Let's get out of here."
Cassy helped Sage up, and they both finished attaching the wheel straps and breakaway chains. Once done and Sage was inspecting their work, Cassy found a plastic bag for the muzzle and stored it in one of the trucks' storage bins.
Sage started up the tow truck, and as Cassy was about to get in too, she spied a new police car parked near the ZPD command van and…
"Nick Wilde, in the fur. And his partner Judy Hopps."
Taking a quick picture of her mammals of interest talking to Chief Bogo along with a rotund uniformed Cheetah she didn't know, Cassy slid into the truck and said, "Drive us past the blast site on the way out."
-/-/-
"What are you two doing here? I thought I left strict instructions that you both were to take some time off and recover."
"And a fine good morning to you too, sir," replied Nick, saluting his boss. "Officer Wilde and Officer Hopps, reporting for duty. We're tested, rested, and ready to make this small part of the world a better place."
Bogo pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Really, sir, Nick and I are fine, and we'd like to help investigate," added Judy.
"I understand Hopps, but it's getting harder to keep this site under wraps. My gas leak explosion story isn't going to hold up much longer, and if the media puts two and two together; namely, you investigating this case, more missing predators, and a drug lab self-destructing, they'll immediately jump to the conclusion this is another Nighthowler conspiracy, and I'll be up to my tail in phone calls wanting to know what's going on.
"Technically, that's three and three," said Nick.
Everyone turned to the fox.
"Us investigating, missing predators– ow."
"But sir, Nick has the drug's scent down pat. I'm sure if you let him sniff around inside the blast site, he'll be able to find whatever vile, nasty chemicals these guys were using to make their version of Nighthowler. We just have to be careful he doesn't get exposed to any of the finished product."
"Watch out! She's breaking apart!" screamed a workmammal as a two-story high chunk of brickwork slowly tipped over and fell on top of where two other mammals had been moments earlier.
"Or I get crushed by something," said Nick.
"Exactly," said Bogo. "The site's not safe for investigation yet, so I want you two to head back to Bunnyburrow tomorrow and finish out your tour there. That'll give us enough time to secure the site while the media news cycle focuses on something else, and then it'll be safe for you two to come back and help wrap up the case."
"But…" Judy started to say when she saw the tow truck from earlier headed her way, meaning headed toward Nick, whose back was currently turned to the site of his broken car being towed past their position.
"Sir, please," Judy pleaded at the same time as her ear gestured toward Nick's car.
Bogo reacted as any well-trained cop of his stature would, his eyes went wide, and he put a hoof on Nick's back and, keeping him from turning around, pointed at some rubble and said, "Maybe that part of what's left of the building, take a quick look, I mean sniff, and brief me on what you find after rollcall tomorrow morning."
Judy groaned as Sally was towed past by Sage and another mammal she didn't recognize while Nick was distracted by Bogo's ploy. Waiting until Sage turned a corner and was out of sight, Judy rejoined her fox just as he dropped a burnt board back onto the pile he'd picked it up from.
"Anything?" asked Judy.
"Yeah," said Nick, "what did you do to my car that Sage had to tow it away?"
"It wasn't her fault," replied Bogo. "Miss Ryon found a computer memory module lodged in the radiator. She's taking it to Aurelio's garage for repairs. It'll probably take a couple of weeks to repair and restore given the rarity of the parts for a car that old."
"So how are we supposed to get to Bunnyburrow, and what will we drive once we're there?"
Judy smiled, "The train, and my family has plenty of trucks we can use."
Pulling out his phone and tapping a matronly button on his contacts list, Nick groused, "I don't want just any truck, I want— Hi, Mrs. H.," and then grimacing and looking sideways at Clawhauser vibrating in excitement, whispered, "Sorry, uh, Mom."
-/-/-
"…Of course, dear, you two have a wonderful trip and I'll have Janae meet you at the train station."
….
"Yes, and fresh blueberries, I'll be sure to remind her. Goodbye, Nicholas."
Setting her cell down on the counter, Bonnie chuckled, thinking, 'What a character, and so sweet. Judy did well marking him. At least, I hope she did. Sunni seemed pretty sure Nicholas had marked Judy, but if he comes back to the warren unmarked…'
Bonnie shook her head and nearly groaned. Normally, this was pretty easy, you take two kits in love, give them some quality alone time together, and voila, they mark each other, become mates, and I get more grandkits. A win-win for everybody. Unfortunately, this situation is different, no one can know about the two of them until she figures out a way to tell Stu without him ending up in the Bunnyburrow General cardiac care unit.
"Hmmmm," murmured Bonnie tapping her chin. "What to do, what to do…"
"Everything okay Mom?" asked Colton, carrying an empty paint can and a trash bag of paint-splattered plastic drop clothes out to the trash.
"Yes, dear, right as rain. Judy and Nicholas will be coming home late tomorrow, and I was just thinking—
"Are you all done painting your room?"
"Yeah, all done. Cody's moved some of our stuff into the small media room. We're gonna sleep there tonight and maybe tomorrow night on account of the paint smell."
"That doesn't sound very comfortable, why don't the two of you take your dad and mine's old bundling rooms?"
"Your what rooms?
Bonnie went silent
"Mom?"
Bonnie smiled and, clapping her paws together, said, "Never mind dear, I forgot those rooms are locked up. The small media room will be fine. But before you put away your painting supplies, I have a job for you and Cody."
-/-/-
"Did you hear that?" asked Sage.
"Hear what," replied Cassy, rotating an ear around.
"It sounded like a mega-Coo. A cross between a feline screech of joy, some kind of mating call, and what lottery winners yell when they win the big one."