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

…..

"Here you go, Emmett," said Samuel Furston, usually a General Store clerk, sometimes a Postal worker, and occasionally a notary, the latter two were today's reason for his friend being here this morning.

"Nice sized envelope there, good heft to it. If your lawyers bill by the page, you may be needing to stop by the bank and take out a loan before being able to pay them."

Emmett undid the clasp and unsealed the large envelope while his friend chuckled at his own joke. "Yup, and if you only knew the half of what this mating ceremony is going to cost me."

Scanning the enclosed summary letter, and bill, Emmett flipped through the rest of the stack of legalize until he found what he needed for right now and set both pages on the counter.

"Have you got your embosser? I'll need you to notarize my signature on both these copies."

"Nearly slipped my mind," replied Furston as he rummaged under the counter. "Got it."

Setting an old metal embosser on the counter along with an equally as old ledger book, Samuel flipped open the book and waited.

Hayes did a quick check to make sure both single paged documents were the same, signed them with his usual flourish, and…

…read the top copy again, causing the sour look on his muzzle to grow.

'This is everything you've built up since you finagled all that money out of Dad. It broke him when he found out, but it was worth it. Now you're about to bet it all on a doe you're hoping will be more afraid of being shamed in public than she is of being mated to a detestable buck.'

"You okay, Emmett?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. You don't really need my driver's license, do you?"

"Sorry, yes. It's one of the slots I have to fill out in my ledger. That's how we know it was all done legal-like."

Setting his license and a $5 bill on the counter, Hayes watched as his friend stamped, signed, and embossed his documents and then as he filled in his ledger.

"Initial my ledger here and here, and we're done."

Initialing where he was told, Hayes put away his license and said, "I'd appreciate it if you'd keep this under your hat. It's Border Warren business and very personal."

"Of course, I don't look at any more than I have to fer filling out my book. Besides," said Furston, putting the fiver in his cash register, "with the new market that opened up crosstown, I can't afford to lose any more of my loyal customers."

"The Bunnley's new place? I haven't been by yet," replied Hayes, putting all his papers back in the shipping envelope.

"I heard Victoria took out a substantial loan against her warren's next few years of harvests as collateral. Quite the risky move just to restore that old five & dime into a proper market."

"Yup, I heard they have an old-style soda fountain too."

"Don't worry, I'm sure that once the newness has worn off, all your old customers will be back."

"I expect you be right, heck I figured once folk found out that the Bunnley's hired mostly preds to run the place, folks'd be back here in droves."

"Preds?" said Hayes, "I don't remember hearing anyone on the Town Council saying anything about Victoria weighing her store down with a bunch of useless preds."

Furston shrugged, "I don't recall anything in the licensing or zoning paperwork that asks about employees, just who's going to own it. And the Bunnley's have always had preds working for their warren. Kind of unusual now that I think about it with them being Border Warren and all."

"Yes, it is. Some of us in this town have lost sight of the old ways," and patting his large manilla envelope, Hayes said, "and hopefully with this, I'll be able to remind a few of them what those old ways are."

-/-/-

"How about on that stop sign?" asked Judy.

"I seem to recall that temporary signage on official traffic signs is verboten," replied Nick, holding a roll of tape in his paw. "So how about on that power pole over there?"

"I don't know, more people would see it on the stop sign than on the power pole."

"Yes, but those same people might end up crashing into cross-traffic if the Burrow installed, official stop sign were to be covered over with a flyer."

Judy made a scrunchy face as she thought.

"Carrots, seriously?"

"Fine, tape it to the power pole."

"My, my, who have you been hanging out with that such flagrant disregard of municipal regulations becomes second nature?"

"Good question, Mr. Fox," said Judy, finger tapping a lip, "who could that be? For the life of little ol' me, I have no idea."

"Sure, sure. Next, I'll be getting blamed for that crazy stunt you pulled driving into town."

"Crazy?" scoffed Judy. "I don't recall anything crazy happening on the way to work this morning."

"A right turn from the opposing lane around the guy in the bale hauler in front of you, in your dad's old truck."

Judy shrugged.

"Up on two wheels, shooting the gap between him and the guy in front of him?"

"Not my fault. They were all driving really slow."

"A long line of slow trucks and trailers headed into town, that's kind of how it works around here. I should probably take your license away."

"You don't have to do that, Officer Fox." said Judy, making big eyes at Nick, "I promise from now on, I'll be a good bunny."

Nick shook his head, "Not gonna work."

Judy let her lip tremble.

"Nope."

Judy dropped her ears and, holding her paws together in front of her, breathlessly whispered, "Pleeeeeeeaseeee."

Nick looked up at the heavens for the strength to resist his bunny, but after only seeing shrugs and smirks from the audience of angels, Nick sagged.

Judy fist pumped and returned to form before Nick looked down and said,

"Fine, you can keep your license, but consider this a very serious warning."

"Yes!"

"And you owe me a backrub."

"Anything else?"

"We'll see. The day is young, and we're down to our last few flyers."

Hip bumping her fox, Judy said, "And not too many Burrow approved spots left to hang them."

-/-/-

Hayes grumbled as he left the small conference room near Councilor Vorrell 's office. 'What fools. All of them, including the supposedly esteemed Lawyer Duggett. One simple thing, shut down a clinic run by a degenerate, for degenerates, and they can't do it.'

"Damn that fox."

Away from the Council offices and about to push open one of the large double doors and exit City Hall, Hayes stopped and ripped a colorful flyer off the other door.

'Bunnyburrow's Got Talent, A Fun(d) Raiser. Hopps farm. Food starts Friday at Noon, show and contest start at 3:00. Come support the Predville Clinic!'

"Double damn that fox, this has to be more of his doing."

Hayes made his way amongst the town center shops and diners and almost went apoplectic when he finally reached where the 'Hopping Good Eats' was, "How in the world is this kind of behavior even allowed?"

Kits, teens, and even some adults were plastering posters about the upcoming fundraising show everywhere they could. And walking past an Ice Cream and fudge shop, he even overheard some young adults soliciting for vendor table space or outright food donations.

"The madness of it all."

And not even a few blocks further on, far, far away from the Predville line, he saw the most stomach-turning thing he'd ever seen, two young girls, one a doe and the other a kitten of some pred breed, were holding paws, skipping and singing as they followed their parents and helped as the whole group passed out flyers and solicited donations.

Slipping into an alley, Hayes lost it and spat out the bile making its way up his throat.

Leaning against the wall, Hayes shook his head. He knew the Mayor was unreliable in standing up for species purity, and the Sheriff wasn't a rabbit, but maybe if he reminded the Sheriff that he worked for the town and he, Emmett Hayes, a well-connected town leader, was demanding something be done. Maybe, just maybe—

"Oh dear, god," groaned Hayes to himself as he spied a horror beyond horror right across the street from where he was standing, "please don't let the evil I'm seeing blind me forever."

-/-/-

"How about right over there," said Nick, pointing at an undecorated window and the hoof attached to a black wooled arm removing a 'Back in 1 hour' sign.

"Yes!" said Judy, grabbing Nick by the tie and almost dragging him across the street. "I haven't seen Sharla in forever."

"Really," said Nick, seeing his bunny bounce through the door and start yelling for her friend. "I never would have guessed."

Hip bumping Nick, Judy leaned around the counter and yelled out again, "Sharla?"

"Judy!" came a screech and the clatter of hooves, "Oh my gosh, you're here. It's so great to see you."

Now in a hug, Judy gushed, "I know, I can't believe it. It's been so long."

"I know, I know," said Sharla, holding Judy at arm's length. "And just look at you. I love your uniform, it's so cute on you. And look at your badge, 'Bunnyburrow Deputy Sheriff.' Wow, I bet your mom and dad lost their minds when they saw you in this."

Judy fake primped and brushing the badge with her sleeve, said, "Actually, Mom thinks it's pretty cool."

"And your dad?"

"I don't know. He's been working in the fields a lot and hasn't seen me in it yet."

Sharla laughed, "Holy sourdough! I so totally want to see your dad's face when he sees you in this." And to Nick, she said, "I need pictures, please take a bunch and send them to me. I've never seen a rabbit explode before."

Nick gave Sharla a thumbs up and asked, "Is Gideon around? We actually wanted to ask you guys a favor. There's going to be a fundraiser out at the Hopps farm Friday for Doc Stoan, and we wanted to post one of these flyers in the window."

"For Doc Stoan? No problem," said Sharla, taking the flyer from Nick and taping it in the window. "What does Doc Stoan need so bad? I heard someone got mugged or something, and Doc Stoan had to help them. I hope whoever it was is okay. Are you guys investigating whatever happened? That's so cute you guys get to work together."

Judy paused for a moment and then said, "Thank you. An X-ray machine. Yes, yes, someone did, and yes, Doc Stoan helped. The victim's okay now. We were, but we're not allowed to anymore."

Sharla's gaze narrowed as she mentally walked through what Judy had just said. "Uh... why not?"

Putting an arm around Sharla, Judy said, "Because Dalton Diggar was attacked, and aside from him and Janae practically being mates, there's stuff we can't talk about going on. Which means the Sheriff wants Deputy Buckstein to head the investigation up to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest."

"And since Judy's not upset about the Sheriff's decision," added Nick, "we're looking cute working together on other stuff."

"Ow," said Nick after a physical finger prompt from Judy.

"That's awful," said Sharla.

Nick raised a brow.

Sharla shook her head, "Not you guys being cute working together, about what happened to Dalton. And why does Doc Stoan need an X-ray machine so bad that you're doing a fundraiser?"

"His clinic can't be certified by the Commonwealth without one, and if it isn't certified, the Town Council will shut it down and probably run Doc Stoan out of town."

"Oh no," said Sharla, checking her paw's motion toward her midriff, "Who will I get to– I mean, where will all the predators in Predville go when they need to see a doctor, and what about all the prey that aren't rabbits that might be… might have kits? That's not fair. Doc Stoan knows a lot more about complicated conditions than any of the doctors at Bunnyburrow General."

Nick turned his head a little before saying, "Yeah, Doc Stoan's good people. He's helped out a couple of folks I know with some pretty off-the-wall stuff, which is why we were able to buy him thirty days of staying open as long as he can come up with a half-million dollars to buy the machine."

"Well, I'll talk to Gideon when he gets back from his uncle's place in Burrow's Edge, but I already know what he'll say. He'll want to know if we can set up a table, sell a van full of pies, and donate all the money to the fundraiser."

"Yes," said Judy, bouncing next to Nick, "that would be great. I'll tell Colton to save a great table space for you guys and make sure to let everyone know you'll be there."

"Great! Gideon will be so excited when I tell him all about the fundraiser," replied Sharla, noticing that Nick's tail was draped around Judy's ankles, which brought up another thought. Something that Gideon still needed to do.

"Actually, would you guys like to meet somewhere for lunch tomorrow? I know Gideon would love to hear about how you both are doing and everything else that's going on."

"Nick and I are working a 5 am shift tomorrow, so how about a late lunch, say 2 pm at…"

"The Mid-Rats diner in Predville," said Nick, "I'm not sure if you've eaten there or not, but their lunch menu is pretty good for both predators and prey."

"Perfect," said Sharla, hugging Judy, "I'll get Gideon cleaned up, and we'll see you there."

Pulling Nick into their hug, Sharla started to thank him when Nick tensed up and, barely letting Sharla finish, chuckled nervously and said, "Thanks, see you guys tomorrow," while backing away.

"Wait," said Sharla, a bit confused, "How about a cupcake for the road? I've got some blueberry and strawberry ones that came out of the oven just before I left to pick up my order at the new market."

"New market?" asked Nick.

"Yup," replied Sharla, handing them each their favorite flavored cupcake. "You should check it out. The Bunnleys rehabbed the old five-and-dime and hired mostly predators to run the new place."

"Good idea," said Nick, taking a bite of his cupcake, "Miss Hopps here has a list of groceries she needs for the recipe she's cooking tonight."

-/-/-

Judith Hopps, pathetic police hangers-on, ostracized doe that no buck will ever be interested in, self-professed desperate spinster whose biological clock was alarming, and traitor to her species, just came out of the biggest blight on this town's decency, Lewis Grazer's old bakery, now inhabited by a fox who scammed his way into the building.

She came out while eating a cupcake that left frosting on her nose. A nose quickly licked clean by another fox whose presence was a moral affront to this decent town, Nick Wilde.

Hoping against hope that the Hopps doe would slap away the fox's muzzle and scream for help like any normal doe would, she compounded her failings as a doe and a rabbit with a sickening display of depravity. She glanced around and, not seeing anyone, including him hidden in the alleyway, gave the pelt a quick kiss on the side of his muzzle.

Hayes leaned back into the alley, spat out another mouthful of bile, and growled out, "Not only is Hopps consorting with a fox, she lied to me. The vile creature lied to me. Everything she said about wanting to settle down and be a normal doe was a lie. Muzzle to muzzle, she disrespected me, and then she had the audacity to fool me into letting her say gods knows what to Courtney."

Patting the envelope in his pocket, Hays straightened himself up and, peeking around the corner to make sure Hopps and her pelt were safely out of view, spat out a vow he intended to keep, "Stu Hopps, you may not have any idea the depravity your kits are involved in? But I do, and I plan on doing something about it."

-/-/-

"Thanks, Mom," said Judy, sliding past her mom, who was holding the front door open.

"Of course, dear. Do you two need any help with the bags?"

"Nope, we got it all," said Nick, taking his load of four bags and a carry box to the kitchen.

"Nicholas, that looks so heavy. You didn't have to carry everything in one trip."

"It's okay Mom, not a problem. How's it going here with the prep work?"

"The kits are almost ready to start rolling the veggie balls. They have 50 pounds of potatoes peeled, quartered, and ready for mashing, a dozen of our best carrots peeled, red onions ready for chopping, and plenty of cheese. Any problem finding the bell peppers you wanted or the ginger? I was beside myself when I found my ginger root had spoiled."

"No problem. Carrots and I found everything we needed at the Bunnley's new store. You should see their vegetable section, they're carrying produce from almost all the farms in Bunnyburrow. The bell peppers from the Pawfield's warren smell great. Something to do with how they rotate their crops, I'm guessing."

"Did you see our display?" asked Colton, setting a sealed container of tomato puree on top of the others he'd been carrying in from the Warren larder. "Cody and I negotiated a sweet deal with Mrs. Bunnley, especially on the blueberries. Seems like there's a lot more demand for them lately. Mrs. Bunnley said she ended up putting out recipe cards on account of all the girls asking about the best way to prepare blueberries if they're trying to ask someone out."

A growl came from behind Nick.

"That explains a lot. Fortunately for me, I like my fruits and vegetables au natural. My policy is, why mess with perfection if it's standing right in front of you?

"Or next to you," whispered Nick as he felt a soft paw on his back.

"So, my Sensei," said Judy, smiling now. "What happens first?"

Putting his arm around Judy, Nick said, "We get changed. I have a feeling this is about to get messy."

-/-/-

Bonnie rolled the sample taste around in her mouth and, after a slight shrug, said, "I don't know, spaghetti sauce isn't really my strength. I usually go for quantity, and most of the time, I just serve butter noodles."

Standing over a large pot, Judy and Nick, along with Kristy, Colton, Sunni, and all their littermates at attention behind them, waited nervously for the final judgment on all their work.

The end of the third period was ticking down for team Judy, and the refs had already added what extra time they could. Huge bowls of pasta were cooked and covered. The veggie balls, made from ingredients that tested Judy's chopping skills, were rolled, coated in cornflour, and crispy from being fried in oil. Plenty of cheese was grated, and for the little kits, a yummy butter sauce with hints of lemon and cream was ready and covered in kit-safe gravy bowls.

Only one thing remained.

"It tastes… okay, I guess," said Judy.

Nick shook his head, "It's missing something." Taking another taste of the sauce off his spoon, Nick closed his eyes and rolled the taste around in his mouth.

"Mom, do you have those spices I gave you that first night I was here?"

"Yes," said Bonnie, going to the pantry. "Which one do you want?"

"All of them, please."

Bonnie set the spices down on the counter in front of Nick and stepped back.

"Okay, Carrots, you're up. This sauce is missing something, and we need a Hail Mary spice to get us across the finish line."

"Yes sir," said Judy, saluting. "One buzzer-beating three-pointer, coming up."

Bonnie rolled her eyes as she tried to imagine a couple more in love than these two. 'Maybe once Stu sees how happy Nicholas makes Judy feel and how he's helping her to branch out and learn new things unrelated to being a police officer, he'll make amends with her so we can all be a family again.'

Judy opened each of the spices one at a time and took a sniff. A couple made her nose twitch cutely, one made her sneeze, but the last one…

"How about this one?" said Judy, holding up a jar of Moroccan saffron threads.

Nick smiled as he set a pestle and mortar on the counter in front of Judy and said, "Well done, the student has become the master. A Senpai, you no longer are."

-/-/-

"Are you about home yet, dear?"

"No Hun," replied Hayes to his wife on the phone. "I'm stopping off at the Edwards place first."

"Emmett, why? He's a nasty old bun who causes you nothing but stress and heartache. Why don't you leave things be with him and come home instead."

"I have business with him. It'll only take a few minutes."

"Does this business have anything to do with Courtney? She's been moping around the warren all day."

"She'll be fine, we'll all be fine after I'm done. I'll be home in a bit."

Pulling up to the Edwards' place, Hayes parked outside the gate and trekked to the porch. After knocking on the door for a good long bit, Edwards finally opened it.

"Evenin' Emmett, ready to make the deal?"

Following Edwards back to his study, Hayes said, "Yes, I have the paperwork from my lawyers in New Yak City. They researched the proper legal wording and sent me a contract we can sign."

"Dowry first, like we agreed," said Edwards just before spitting a bit of chaw into a spittoon.

Taking a deep breath through his nose, or most of one before coughing, Emmett scrunched his nose as he glanced around. Aside from a vague gamey smell, Edwards' study hadn't changed much since he'd been here last. Although, the room did look a little more lived in, like he was spending a lot more time in here managing the farm's day to day goings-on.

Well, that at least might change once the contract is signed, no one entity needs two heads.

But to get to that, he had to give up what was most important to him in the hopes that he'd get everything back, plus the power he needed to make a difference in Bunnyburrow.

Hayes fished the two notarized copies of the dowry agreement out of the manilla envelope he was carrying, and handed them to Edwards, "Initial them both, keep one for your records, and I'll keep the other."

Chewing and spitting again while he read the document, Edwards looked to make sure both copies were the same, initialed them, and handed Hayes his copy before saying. "And the mating contract?"

Handing the contract over, Hayes' nose started to twitch as he sat.

Watching Edwards look over the two-page letter-sized contract, Hayes relaxed as the first page was flipped, until he caught a slight whiff of that gamey smell again. 'The old bun was deteriorating right in front of him. Maybe this whole deal wouldn't take as long to play out as he'd thought it would.'

With another look around, Hayes shook his head at the bookcases stuffed with ancient books and documents that hadn't been touched in years, and on the corner of his desk a stack of magazines and yellowed papers…

… and a plate of discarded vegetable rinds. 'That's probably what it is.'

"Everything look alright?" asked Hayes, getting comfortable again.

"Wordin's fine by me," replied Edwards, "But what yer lawyer types done given you is worse than useless for what we need."

"What?" said Hayes as he watched Edwards open an old book, pull out two legal-sized copies of the same document, and put one back. "What are you talking about?"

Handing Hayes back the document he'd just spent a lot of good money having drafted and the old, slightly yellowed one from his shelf, Edwards said, "Contracts like these 'tween Border Warrens got's to be written in the old tongue to be legal. Your folk wrote theirs in Common. The one I gave you I had done up years back when our kits were young'uns and we first talked about doing a deal like this with your oldest daughter. I made a trade with some college kit wantin' to study Lapine and the Old Law. I git her something, and she wrote me up that."

Hayes held out the parchment document covered in what appeared to be Lapine script and said, "What does it say?"

"I expect what yours says, 'ceptin in the Old Tongue if that doe was true to her word. I checked me a few of the doe's words to make sure she weren't gypin me, so I reckon it be good enough for what we need."

Standing, Hayes nodded to Edwards and said, "I'll look it over, and if it's good, I'll sign it and bring it back.

Edwards smiled a too-long-in-the-tooth, bucktooth smile as he said, "Dowry's settled, so you take your time."

-/-/-

Stu and Bonnie took their places at the head table. Everyone eyed the large bowls of spaghetti and tureens of sauce that were on each of the tables, while all the kits' noses twitched at the earthy, sweet smell of the sauce or, for the little kits who preferred plain pasta, the glistening sweet smell of butter noodles.

It had been a while since the whole family had sat down for a meal. Not that spaghetti was normally considered special, but most of the family being together to eat was.

Stu hushed the room with a raised paw, motioned for everyone to bow their heads, and gave the blessing, "Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this rich and plentiful food before us. And we humbly ask that you please continue to send rain for the seeds we have sown in the ground so that we may continue to share your bounty with all mammalkind. Amen."

Letting go of his mate's paw, Stu looked up and smiled as Judy brought a tray with two plates already prepared for her parents. Not once in her life had she been involved enough in preparing a real family meal that she could claim the privilege of serving her parents, but today, she was all smiles, having gotten that opportunity.

Stu tried to look around or past Judy as she set the tray down to see if there was anyone else with her, but there wasn't. "Judy, did you cook?"

Judy nodded, "I had a lot of help, but yes I did."

Stu looked like he was going to make a joke about needing a fire extinguisher, but looking around the room at the earnest muzzles in the room, Stu took a bite of the meal placed in front of him and, after slowly savoring the taste, he was about to take another bite but caught himself and said, "Thank you, Judy. The meal is delicious. It's the best tasting sauce I've ever had."

Judy glanced over to where Nick was sitting, and seeing him nod, she bowed a bow of respect, did a slight exposure of her neck, and said, "You're welcome. To create a meal and share it among friends and family is the highest of honors."

Stu looked at Judy and then around the room and replied, "It is. Friends and family."

Judy straightened up and, about to do a fist pump, she was interrupted by Lucas coming up next to her and saying, "Friends and family is what this warren is about."

Stu nodded as he took another bite of Judy's delicious handiwork.

"Dad, I committed our Warren to host a fundraiser this Friday night to raise money for Doctor Stoan's clinic in Predville."

"Doctor Stoan? Predville?" asked Stu. "What are you talking about?"

Andie stepped up beside Lucas and said, "Doc Stoan is the doctor who operated on my ear. He's the only one, here or in Zootopia, that had the skill to heal me."

Putting his arm around Andie, Lucas added, "Doc Stoan's clinic is in Predville because that's where the patients that need him most live. Doc Stoan takes care of all those mammals that Bunnyburrow General won't."

"Scoutmaster Stoan is a good mammal," said Kristy, now standing on the other side of her big brother. He's taught Charlie, me, and all the scouts in our troop how important it is to help others and always do your best. Now he needs our help to keep his clinic open, and that's why all of us scouts have volunteered to help at the talent competition fundraiser."

"Scoutmaster? Do you mean the skunk in charge of that predator troop that helped rehab the Burrow 'Welcome' sign?"

"Yes," said Lucas. "We need to raise a half million dollars in thirty days. Otherwise, Doc Stoan's clinic will be shut down by the Town Council.

"And I volunteered the farm as the host of the fundraiser."

Stu nodded silently until, after a few moments, he pushed his plate away, stood, and said—

"Stuart, please," whispered Bonnie.

And said, "As the oldest kit of the oldest litter, you should have—"

"No," interrupted Lucas, "Oldest kit of the second oldest litter."

Stu glared at Lucas for a moment, then without another word, he nodded once and left the dining room.

…..

A/N: Thanks for all your kind comments, thoughts, questions, and suggestions over this last year. I hope all of you have a very relaxing and enjoyable Holiday season, Christmas or otherwise, and the Happiest of New Years!