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

…..

"Are you sure?" grumbled Bogo into his phone. "I want positive confirmation before I put my tail in the wringer with these guys."

"Yes, sir, I'm positive," said Clawhauser, wearing a trench coat and a black fedora hat while hiding behind a large pillar. "I even have pictures of them getting on the train after I dropped them off. I can send them to you if you'd like. They're both super-cute, Judy's wearing jeans and—"

"That's fine, Clawhauser. As long as they're headed back to Bunnyburrow, I'm good. I just need both of them to lay low for a couple of weeks until everything blows over. And that means I don't want to see their muzzles anywhere near a news camera, got it."

"Yes, sir. I told them no social media, no interviews, and to stay out of trouble. Just like you said."

"Very good, thank you, Ben," replied Bogo, checking the time on his phone before slipping it into his pocket and preparing himself.

He was an old hoof at handling the media. Sure, it'd been a while since he'd had to brief a crowd of reporters as large as was expected tonight. Well, actually, not since Hopps tanked her part of the Missing Mammal brief had there been this many energized reporters in the ZPD press area for him to deal with.

Straightening his tie one last time, Bogo opened the door to the ready room and made his way out to the lobby media area to deal with today's Hopps and Wilde investigative firestorm.

-/-/-

"Ugh! Two weeks ago, you showed up in Bunnyburrow with barely a bag full of clothes, and today I feel like a Sherpa carrying a load of gear up the Hyenalayan slopes."

Judy huffed, "You're such a drama fox. I was practically thrown into a car with just the clothes on my back when I was sent to Bunnyburrow. Besides, I've been shopping since then."

"Three suitcases worth of shopping?" groused Nick, handing their last bag to the porter for him to check into the train's luggage car. "How many gingham shirt and jean combinations does one farm girl need?"

Taking Nick's paw and guiding her boyfriend up the stairs, Judy whispered, "I might have packed a few other clothing combinations besides gingham and jeans."

Nick paused, "Oh yeah, like what? Heavy duty body armor?"

Giving Nick a peck on the lips, Judy said, "Nope, but if you're a good fox, maybe I'll show you."

"Uh-huh," replied Nick with a growing smile, "And what if I'm a bad fox?"

"Well," said Judy, whispering again as she climbed the steps, "then I'll definitely show you."

Nick chuckled as he was pulled along into the car, "You know, teasing a big bad fox the way you do didn't work out so well for Little Red Riding Hood, so you might want to be careful otherwise, I'll have to—"

Turning into the center aisle, Nick, still focused on his girlfriend's bobbing tail, almost stepped on a pair of plushies and the little bunny kit playing with them.

Four young kits and their dad all gasped while the doe playing in the aisle's lip quivered.

"Uh," said Nick softly, "Otherwise, I'll have to help you to your seat, and, uhm, get you some carrot snacks?"

The little doe in the aisle smiled her approval.

Four young kits and their dad all went back to their coloring books, or phone in the case of the Dad.

Judy giggled as she pulled Nick into the empty four-seat bay behind the bunny family and across the aisle from an elderly raccoon sow. And then, looking up at her fox before he could take his seat next to her, said with a twinkle in her eye, "Did I hear something about snacks?"

Replacing his 'sit down and play on his phone' move with a 'bow and flourish,' Nick said, "Of course, anything for the pretty lady in pink."

"All Aboard! All Aboard!"

"I'm going to Nana's house," came a young voice from next to Judy.

"Oh, hi. I'm Judy, and I'm going home to visit my mom."

"My mom is at Nana's house cause she wants to take a bath without kits around. I don't like baths. Do you have snacks?"

"June Bug, leave the nice lady alone," came a voice from behind Judy.

"It's okay," said Judy, turning to the Dad now looking over the seat back. "Judy Hopps, ZPD. Your daughter's very sweet. I have a littermate named June." And looking at the cute kit, added, "I always thought June was a very pretty name."

A whistle blew as the train jerked to a start.

"Whoops," said Judy, catching June as she stumbled from the train's motion. "Let me help you to your seat."

"Here you go, Carrots," said Nick, holding out six bags of carrot chips, "snacks."

"Yay," said June.

"You need to ask your dad if it's okay, and you have to promise to be extra good for the rest of the train ride."

June thought for a moment, a long moment, until… finally, she made her decision, dawned a beginner's version of a doe-eyed look, and said, "Pleaaaaaaaase Dad, can I have some?"

"Me too."

"Me three."

"Me five."

"Me uh… I want some."

"Yes please, anything. Thank you, Miss Hopps. Please, everyone sit down. Daddy's trying to do some work," said the elder buck, waving his paw around his family's kit-toy laden seating area.

Judy passed out chips to each of the kits and, in two cases, helped them open their bags before heading back to her seat and her fox.

"Thanks," said Judy stealthily giving Nick a kiss on the side of his muzzle. "That was nice of you to get extras."

Nick shrugged as he pulled out his phone and said, "The machine broke and spewed chips."

Putting her paw across Nick's phone screen, Judy dawned her much more practiced doe-eyed look and said, "How about no phones for a while?"

Nodding, Nick turned off his phone and, slipping it back into his pocket as he wrapped his tail around his girlfriend, said, "Better?"

Cuddling closer to Nick, Judy hummed, "Much."

…..

"How can you have to go to the bathroom already? We all went in the station before we got on the train."

"I didn't have to go then. I have to go now."

Judy's eyes popped open to the sight of young ears bobbing over the seat back as she imagined a kit doing what her mom called the 'Pee Pee' dance.

Looking up at Nick to see him roll his eyes, Judy smiled and, unwrapping herself, she went over to the now flustered dad and said, "I can watch your kits for a few minutes if you need to help your son go to the bathroom."

"You can? Oh, that would be great. Thank you. Usually, my mate is around, and we can tag-team, but she needed a break, so… you know… thanks," said the Dad as he held his son's paw and took him to the next car over, the Observation car, where the family bathroom was.

Judy sat so she could see all the kits, along with Nick chuckling, before saying, "I love all the pictures you guys are coloring. Can you tell me about them?"

Nick couldn't help but smile at seeing Judy oohing and aahing over the impromptu artwork presentation she was getting and the cuteness overload of seeing his bunny surrounded by happy kits all trying to get her attention.

'Bonnie was right, Judy is great with kits,' thought Nick. Being an only kit growing up and not having that many real friends, he'd never given much thought to kits. Hell, he'd never given much thought to finding a mate, until he'd met Judy. And now he was thinking about kits. Does Judy want kits? Can they even have kits together? Would she want to adopt a kit if we can't? She'd be a great mom, but what about me? A family? I could never be as good a father as my dad was. And as good as he was, look at how I turned out. I barely make it as a boyfriend, let alone a Dad.

"Oooh, I love pink glitter-colored fur. That's so pretty."

"Is she your mate?"

"Huh?" a startled Nick said, looking around.

"Sorry, I was wondering if she's your mate," said the elderly raccoon sow sitting across the aisle from Nick, tapping her white mobility cane. "Because if she isn't, you need to fix that right away."

"Well," coughed Nick. "I uhh, you know… there's a few things we still need to work out. We'll see."

"Oh, pish posh. You foxes are always so slow and careful and all the rituals. Sometimes, you just need to look your vixen in the eye, tell her how you feel, and go with it."

Nick chuckled, "I think you meant to say, 'Go for it.'"

"Whatever you kits say these days. I can't see very well, but she sounds like a very nice vixen. Although…" whispered the sow, squinting now, "Kind of different looking for a vixen. Did something happen to her ears?"

"Nope," Nick said, not whispering, "she's just kind of different looking for a vixen. Cute but different."

Judy stuck her tongue out at Nick.

"And sassy," said the raccoon.

"Yup, that too."

"Thank you, Miss Hopps," said a voice coming up from behind Nick. "I think we're good now. Right, Jordan?"

"Yup, I did a number one and a number two."

"You're welcome," said Judy, "your kits are great. You and your mate are lucky to have such wonderful, well-behaved, and cute kits."

"Please stay and help some more," said June.

Getting down on a knee, Judy pet June's ears back and, with a glance at Nick, said, "I'd love to, but my friend has never been on a train ride this long, and I want to show him something very special upstairs in the next car over."

"Can I come too?"

"No, June Bug," answered June's Dad, "I need you here with me. Besides, I'm done working, so you can show me the play you were working on with your plushies."

Winking at Nick as Judy took the fox's paw in hers, June's Dad said, "Thanks again, and you two have fun."

Guiding Nick through the length of the train car and into the next one over, Judy stopped in front of the observation deck entrance. She remembered the spectacular views of the countryside, and of Zootopia, she'd enjoyed that amazing day she was officially on her own and moving to the City as a newly graduated cop. This trip wasn't nearly as exciting, going to Bunnyburrow and all, but—

"Great idea, Fluff. I couldn't see much while driving back and forth. It'll be nice to take in the sights while relaxing instead of playing road-kill bingo while on the highway. You know I gave you that square for blue-tongued skinks. As flat as it was, it could have easily been a bearded dragon."

Judy shook her head as she pushed Nick up the stairs. But two steps up, she stopped, went back down, and after looking up and down the aisle, grabbed the chain of the closed sign and hung it across the entryway.

"What are you doing?' asked Nick.

"Nothing," said Judy, taking her boyfriend's paw and leading him up to her most favorite spot on the train.

-/-/-

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemammals, welcome to ZNN Special Report. Tonight, we will be taking you live to a news conference with ZPD Precinct One's Chief Bogo."

"Yes, Fabienne, Chief Bogo called this news conference to answer questions raised by our own Cassidy Longtooth's deep-cover expose' on what really happened in the South Savanna Industrial district."

"No fire extinguisher this time, Peter?" asked Fabienne with a smirk on her face. "Chief Bogo said he'd be covering topics in Fire Safety."

"No, Fabienne, this reporter's learned his lesson. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I'm looking forward to a little truth tonight."

"I am too, Peter," replied Fabienne with a smile that showed her fangs, "and now that I see Chief Bogo making his way to the podium, let's listen in and see if truth is on tonight's menu."

…..

Bogo stepped up to the podium, and after adjusting the stand's height and pushing a couple of microphones out of the way, he said, "Before I start, I want to make something perfectly—"

An elk buck off to the side of the stage cleared his throat.

Bogo turned and glared at his friend.

Seeing Hari motion with a hoof to bring it down a notch or two, Bogo softened his scowl from level eleven, "I'm going to rip your spine out and use it as a trophy,' to level six, 'one more word out of you and I'll run you until you puke,' after which he took a calming breath and smiled. Big.

A fainting goat blogger fainted.

A possum from the New Yak Times went down in a heap and played dead.

Elkdon facepalmed.

Slowly letting his smile fade, Bogo went with a level three scowl, 'No, I don't know who swapped out the breakroom coffee with decaf, and where in the hell is Wilde?' and started again.

"Ladies and gentlemammals, good evening, and thank you for coming on such short notice. I have a prepared statement, and then I'll take a few questions."

Elkdon nodded.

Pulling a fire extinguisher out from under the podium and setting it next to him on the stage, Bogo put on his glasses, flipped open a file folder, and started to read. "Last Friday night at approximately—"

"A building was blown up, and it wasn't because of a gas leak," yelled Cassy from in front of the group of reporters.

Bogo removed his glasses and said, calmly, "And what makes you think that, Miss Longtooth?"

"I have pictures of the rubble, and I do mean rubble. That building you've so conveniently hidden behind Commonwealth troops and layers of ZPD patrol Officers wasn't just damaged, it was leveled like one of those controlled demolitions you see on EweTube."

"Hmmm," Bogo nodded, you're asking if the explosion that took down that building was as impressive as the Founder's Day fireworks finale, well, yes as a—"

"I know what you're doing," spat Cassy, "so you can stop right now and answer my question."

"What's he doing?" whispered a Shetland Pony wearing a National Equinquirer hat.

Cassy huffed and, speaking into her mic, ground out, "Press conference 101, twist the questions you're asked into something else and answer those instead. Right Chief? How about you stop wasting everyone's time and answer my questions instead."

A collective gasp was followed by everyone holding their microphones toward Bogo to hear what he'd say after being called out by a small groundhog she-chuck.

Bogo scowled a nine, 'naked parking duty in Tundratown for a year,' and said, "The investigation is ongoing. How about I read my prepared statement."

"How many mammals have you pulled from the rubble?" countered Cassy.

"Still investigating."

"I overheard someone talking about Nighthowler while I was investigating," replied Cassy.

"Nighthowler?" gasped a pig reporter from the Swillton Times.

"Did Bellwether escape from prison? Did she destroy the building?" wailed a beaver.

Bogo waved his hooves around, trying to calm the crowd of reporters, "Quiet down, everyone, please."

"Oh gods help us, we're all going to die," cried the possum, no longer playing dead.

"EVERYONE, QUIET!

"Any talk of Nighthowler is just that, talk and speculation. The ZPD has no reason to believe—"

"Where are Officers Hopps and Wilde?" asked a rabbit doe reporter from BBN, "Didn't they arrest Bellwether last time? I know for sure they rescued all those poor predators."

"Yeah, where exactly are Hopps and Wilde?" asked Cassy, pulling a tangle of straps out of a bag and holding it up for Bogo to see. "I found this old leather torturer's muzzle near the demolished building, and I had a canid with a level five scent certification tell me that they were able to detect the blood from four different predators on it. And…" holding the hideous device up so everyone could see the built-in pain points, "the recent scent of fox blood, which I strongly believe to be that of Officer Wilde's, is on It too.

"And Chief Bogo, my scent expert is certain it's not avian leather."

Pandemonium ensued. Reporters pulled out their phones and started calling their news desks.

"Stop the presses," yelled a ram into his phone, "Savage predators may be roaming the streets any minute."

"Honey, get the cubs and drive to your mother's house in the mountains," cried a thirty-something tiger into his phone, "It's happening again."

The fainting goat fainted again

Cassy calmly walked up to Bogo and, handing him the muzzle, said, "We need the truth, sir. The City needs the truth."

Taking the muzzle from Cassy, Bogo saw the old blood stains, and, even with his less capable nose, was able to smell the scent of his second-smallest officer.

Setting the muzzle down next to the fire extinguisher, Bogo looked over at Elkdon to see the buck shaking his head and mouthing, "No."

Sighing, Bogo rapped his knuckles on the podium and, looking directly at Cassy, silenced the gaggle of reporters by saying, "The building was wired with explosives by some sort of prey terror group, and after a fierce gun battle, they blew up the building with all the perpetrators still inside."

"All except for their leader, who was dispatched shortly thereafter."

"And Officers Hopps and Wilde?" asked Cassy.

Bogo looked around at the now attentive reporters and then over to Elkdon, or at the empty space where the buck used to be, and said, "Approximately six weeks ago, Officers Hopps and Wilde opened a case involving what appeared to be an attempted kitnapping involving a copycat poisoning similar to what happened to the victims in last year's missing mammals case."

Cassy raised a finger and said, "But I thought you said the Nighthowler drug wasn't involved."

"It wasn't Nighthowler. It was something else, less effective and eradicated in the building explosion."

"How do you know that, sir?" asked the rabbit doe correspondent.

"Through the diligent and brave work of Officers Hopps and Wilde. Their wide-ranging investigation—"

"But wasn't Officer Wilde transferred to the Bunnyburrow Sheriff's department?" asked Cassy.

"Transferred? Technically, yes. But in close coordination with the Bunnyburrow Sheriff's Office, he continued to be shadow rostered with the ZPD while working across jurisdictions. This allowed him to consult on the case as needed, and when the investigation required him to take a more active role, he was able to team back up with his partner and the case lead, Officer Hopps."

Raising a paw, the BNN reporter squeaked out, "Does Officer Wilde have a mate or anyone he's seriously dating?"

Everyone turned to the rabbit doe with questioning looks on their muzzles.

"Uhhh," started the doe as she brushed back her now pinked-up ears, "My viewers would like to know for… background."

Bogo raised a brow.

"You said a more active role," interrupted Cassy, "does that have anything to do with what happened last Friday night?"

"Yes. Friday night's events were the results of a meticulously planned, multi-organizational, ZPD led undercover operation in which Officer Wilde, acting as bait, allowed himself to be tranqed and taken by the terror group so that Officer Hopps could track him back to the group's base of operations."

"Is Officer Wilde okay?" gasped the BNN reporter.

"Yes, he is. Officer Hopps successfully found the illicit group's headquarters, infiltrated the building, and once she found Officer Wilde and proof positive that the facility was being used to manufacture and test the copycat drug I mentioned, she called in the ZPD teams that were on standby alert in support of this operation.

"So," Bogo continued, nodding to the rabbit doe, "to the best of our knowledge, the copycat drug, its component ingredients, and all the technology required to manufacture it were destroyed when the terror group activated what we believe to be a significant amount of pre-positioned explosives and destroyed all evidence of their operation."

"Last question," said Cassy raising her paw, "you mentioned that Officer Wilde sacrificed himself as a kitnapping victim so that the terror group's location could be found. Were there any other victims involved?"

Bogo hesitated, then nodding slowly, said, "Yes. Officer Hopps identified one deceased victim who corresponded to a homeless mammal reported missing, and she effected the rescue of two other mammals that the terror group was holding. I cannot provide you with any details on these victims except to say that the two rescued mammals are both healthy and under observation by the City's top medical professionals.

"Thank you, and good night."

"Sir," asked Cassy as all the rest of the reporters, except for the BNN correspondent, were shutting off their gear, "were they predator or prey mammals?"

Picking up the muzzle on his way off the stage, Bogo glanced at the still running BNN camera before stopping in front of Cassy and saying, "All the victims, in this case, appear to have been predators.

"Good night, Miss Longtooth."

-/-/-

Brown wanted to throw something at the TV monitor on the wall, 'How the hell does this happen?'

Hopps was supposed to be dead three times over, and that rutting pelt… Damn them both to hell! Months to find the right lab location, months more building an organization that he could trust to prototype the formulas and find test subjects. Then, after all that, to have Bellwether go rogue with her own drug variant, and finally, his backup plan turned out to be more fiction than reality with White skimming who knows how much of the budget off of this place.

Years of work flushed down the toilet all because one gods damned rabbit and her pet pred couldn't be put down like they should have been.

"And would someone shut that doe up," moaned Brown, as the BNN reporter finished her analysis of whatever the hell a Burrow Meister was and why his relationship status was so damned important.

"What else could go wrong with my perfect plan?"

Sitting on a box, Brown groaned again as the screen shifted from the hormonal bunny doe reporter to a pair of talking heads who were now giving a recap of the press conference. Shaking his head, he relived the horror as Chief Bogo, step by step, crushed his plans as he spoke.

And when he got to the end of the recap where Bogo gushed over that vile rodent and her lapdog fox rescuing a pair of his test subjects, he wanted to crush the remote in his hoof and—

"Shit."

Brown tapped the remote to replay the last 15 seconds.

"Both healthy and under observation."

"A small rabbit and a worthless fox rescued two of my test subjects. And now they're both healthy and under observation. Hmmmm."

Sitting back down at his terminal, Brown accessed the data that was uploaded prior to the self-destruct going off. "If I remember right, the final tests were done on a male-female pair of lions. How in the hell do a rabbit and a fox rescue a pair of lions without help?

"Unless…"

Brown accessed the video logs from just before the building went up and spent half an hour sifting through partial recordings that were partial because that damned rabbit kept shooting the cameras until he found one Hopps missed.

A lobby camera.

The lions were helping Hopps with their own escape.

No audio, but as Brown watched, he could see the interactions between all the mammals. The fox obviously unconscious on the floor by the lobby entrance door. The lion nodding at some request from the rabbit, and then his paw reaching out toward Hopps just to be slapped away by his lioness mate. And finally, the lioness glaring at Hopps until the rabbit moved well and far away from her mate.

Chuckling at the jealous move, Brown replayed that section again and nearly laughed, idiot predators, so worried about their mates when they should be worried about—

"Wait, both the lions were fully dosed and under observation for side effects. How is any of this possible?"

Standing, Brown began to pace. Maybe Orange had gotten sloppy and hadn't implemented the safeguards. That might explain the male, but not the female.

Sitting back down, Brown brought up the last test results Orange had saved. The lab blew in the middle of the night. The last results logged were from earlier that evening. Scanning down the male's test results, they looked nominal, but the female's… interesting.

Brown brought up the baseline results from before he and Orange had modified the formula, and comparing the two, he… groaned.

"Damn, Orange was right about the botanicals not being the problem. I should have let him work the prohormones."

Looking back at the video log at what he thought was just a humorous tabloid TV scene of jealousy, Brown huffed, "Damned preds. Well, if preds think they can actually feel something akin to love for their vile breedmates, it's going to be up to me to modify the formula to overcome it."

-/-/-

"…so that's everything official I have on the Burrow Meister and his status. For those of you girls who'd like to read the less official news about Officer Wilde, please check out my blog, 'Bunnyburrow Life' where I keep you up to date on everything we know about Bunnyburrow's most eligible bachelor.

"I'm Monica Goodpaws, and this has been a BNN special report. Good night."

…..

Emmett Hayes, superior rabbit, self-appointed conscience of Bunnyburrow, and purveyor of a moral code he'd spent his whole life trying to inflict on those around him, slammed his TV remote down hard enough for it to lose a couple of buttons.

"Dad, what's wrong?" asked Courtney, ears at high alert.

"Holy gods, girl. You just saw the same thing I did on TV. That damned filthy flea-bitten pelt just tricked that Hopps girl into helping a bunch of predators. Any decent rabbit would have left things alone. Who knows, maybe whoever was running that lab would have found something to rid this world of predators. Filthy creatures."

Courtney stared back at her fuming father for a couple of moments with a mix of concern that started to ease into disbelief on her muzzle. "Come on, Dad, I don't like predators any more than you do, but kitnapping and torturing them with medical experiments? That's crazy no matter what you think about them."

"The hell you say! Predators are filth, and why us rabbits put up with them living in our town, eating our food, and talking to decent folk, I'll never know. The minute that fool Burns forced this town to give non-rabbit folks equal rights and opened up our glorious town to outsiders with his train station was the beginning of the end.

"Well, I'm not going to stand for it anymore. I've got to stop this infection and cut out the rotting flesh before it gets any worse. Rabbit folk never should have agreed to, let alone promoted, any kind of dealings with outside species, and trying to keep them in Predville isn't good enough anymore, either. The rabbits in this town need to see point blank the evil happening all around them and fight it with everything we have."

"Everyone who's not a rabbit? But Dad, that's not… I mean, some of… them, aren't totally… evil. Look at Dalton, he seems nice once you talk to him and—"

"Shut up before I start thinking you're being taken in by the evil wiles of a damned hare. You are a rabbit, and if you ever consort with creatures outside your species, I will banish you from this family."

"But, Officer… I mean, the Burrow Meister said you can't do that anymore."

"Enough! How dare you mention that pelt in my presence. That vile animal is the biggest reason our town is going to hell, and the fact that you're practically defending him and all the other filth in this town is disgusting. Don't you remember what he did to get you fired and how humiliating that was? Do you have any idea how hard it's going to be to find any buck anywhere willing to take you as his mate after that fox practically pissed on our warren?

*sniff*

"If only your sister—"

"Courtney," interrupted a matronly voice. "You need to get going. You're going to be late for your shift at the motel."

Courtney, lip still quivering, stared at her father for a few moments longer before wiping her eyes and giving her mother a hug, "The old station wagon died again, so I have to take the truck."

"What—," started Hayes.

"That's fine, dear," replied Martha, gently brushing her daughter's ears down. "Drive carefully it will be dark out soon."

A mumbled 'Love you Mom' was quickly followed by the front door closing and Martha Hayes turning toward her mate with a 'harumph!'

"If only her sister— what? Hadn't run away?"

"If I'm going to fix this town, I need more than a motel, a gas station, and a seat on the Co-op board. I'll need the largest warren in Bunnyburrow. Actually, I need the largest Border Warren in Bunnyburrow."

Martha sighed as she shook her head trying to think up what to say that she hadn't already said a hundred times already, 'Damned thick-headed fool.'

Finally stepping closer to her mate, Martha put her paw on the side of her Emmett's muzzle and said, "It's times like these that I understand why your father insisted our mating ceremony be performed as prescribed for the Border Warrens in the Old Law. Do you remember what our Neach-fianais said as part of his duty to witness the ceremony? Do you?"

Emmett shook his head.

"He said, 'To be Border Warren means Burrow first, family never second.'

"'Border Warren is Duty, Honor, and Family. If you're Border Warren, you're never alone because the defense of the Burrow starts with your family, extends to the other Border Warrens, and doesn't stop until the last defender's sword is broken and his heart is stilled.'

"Family never second."

"Edwards will never let you have his warren, not in trade, not for money, and not for a piece of our family. You need to let those thoughts go. Listen with your heart to what our Neach-fianais said. Heed his words and find a different path to your goal. A path that doesn't tear this family apart any more than it already has."

Emmett's eyes met his mate's, and seeing the sadness, the hope, and even the love, he looked away. She was right. Family never second. He'd find another way.

"Okay."

"Thank you," replied Martha, kissing her mate before heading toward the kitchen to finish cleaning up.

About to put back on her apron, Emmett interrupted her motion with a question.

"Do you remember who the Neach-fianais was for Edwards' mating ceremony? To be proper, it had to of been someone from another Border Warren."

Martha thought momentarily before saying, "He and Claire were mated almost a year before we were, and if I remember right, it was one of the northern Border Warrens they'd asked to attend. The Clawpetts I think. Yes, that's right, Granny Clawpett was their Neach-fianais just before she fell ill and passed.

"No, no, not Edwards' first mating ceremony, the second one. Who was the Neach-fianais for that one?"

"To Lylla? I don't know," replied Martha, having to think about it. "No one from our Warren certainly, and no one that I recall from any of the other Border Warrens. Lylla was sweet but not from Bunnyburrow. She might not have known about the Old Law, and Mason can't read or write Lapine any better than you can, so he might have forgotten, or maybe he didn't care and skipped that part when he filed the paperwork with the Burrow."

Hayes nodded.

"Did you want me to ask the neighbors if anyone remembers?" asked Martha.

Head popping up with a smile on his muzzle, Hayes waved off his mate's question, saying, "No, no, it's not important. Come get me when dessert is ready. I'll be in my office making a call."

-/-/-

"Here you go ma'am," said the dingo train conductor, handing an elderly passenger a pillow, "sorry about the added delay to our schedule from loading that group of sloths. We should be in Bunnyburrow in about two hours."

Reaching up and turning off the news broadcast they'd all just finished watching, the dingo dimmed the car lights and made his way to the observation car for a quick walkthrough before taking his break.

Coming up to the stairs leading to the observation level, the conductor noticed the small 'Closed for Cleaning' sign hanging across the entrance. Not remembering seeing that sign up during the last walkthrough he'd done, the conductor pulled out his flashlight and made his way up the short flight of stairs.

'Has to be kits,' thought the conductor. He'd traveled this route often enough to know that a lot of teens liked to take advantage of the observation cabin as a make-out spot, especially in the evenings, and they liked it even more if they could figure out a way to keep from getting caught.

With his flashlight at the ready and a can of pepper spray just in case, the dingo pounced into the medium mammal section, and about to yell 'Ah-ha' and scare the dickens out of a couple of youngsters needing a lesson, he froze instead.

A fox and a rabbit cuddled together on a seat big enough to be a bed for them. Asleep.

'It couldn't be,' thought the dingo until he looked closer and smiled. 'Wait until I tell my mate who was on my train tonight.'

Shutting off his flashlight, the conductor pulled an over-large blanket out from an underseat drawer, covered the two lovers, and tip-toed back out of the observation deck.

After making sure the 'Closed' sign was still in place, of course.

…..

A/N:

Neach-fianais = Witness

This chapter marks the end of Arc #4.

No writing pause planned this time, but I do want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who've made it this far (or those who skipped ahead to make sure I didn't do anything untold to one of your favorite characters). You've all been great. Thank you again for the comments, the questions, the suggestions, and especially for joining me in the occasional groan, laugh, or emotional bunny/fox moment.

The next chapter should be posted by mid-June.

Take care
~Mikey