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Assistance and Support Thanks to:

The WildeHopps Navy

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(Navy's) Disclaimer:

Wait, you object? Hold on one second. 'Chief Petty Officer, we need more personnel, right?'

'Good, press gang them.'

Chapter 3 - A Seed of Conspiracy

"Come in," Chief Bogo said at the knock on his door.

"Chief? You wanted to see me?" asked a nervous Clawhauser.

"Yes, take a seat Clawhauser," Bogo gestured to the chair in front of his desk, which Clawhauser sat in before fidgeting worriedly.

Bogo took off his reading glasses and eyed the tubby cheetah for a moment, waiting. He couldn't simply tell Clawhauser what he wanted done, that would ruin his reputation. He needed to do this right, let him worry a bit, then prod and nudge him along until he suggested the end result Bogo wanted.

Clawhauser's nervousness grew until he finally burst out, "Chief, is this is about my yearly physical fitness test? I've been sticking to the prescribed workout schedule. I even lost a few pounds this last month."

Perfect, two birds with one stone.

Bogo held his gaze for another moment before giving him a slight nod, "You're a good officer Clawhauser, I'd hate to lose you if you can't pass your make up exam, how are your practice scores?"

Clawhauser relaxed just a bit, "Fangmeyer said that I made the minimum requirements last weekend."

"I want to see you do better than the bare minimum Clawhauser. This department can't afford to lose you." Bogo said, using his stare to impress his seriousness. Clawhauser squirmed but nodded back with a, "Yes, Chief. You can count on me, I'll do better than the bare minimum."

That's one issue I don't have to worry about, now to the real problem.

Bogo let up on his 'Don't disappoint me.' look and leaned back in his chair, lowering the tension in the room slightly.

"Good, now that wasn't the only reason I called you up here Clawhauser," Bogo continued, "Since you work the front desk, you get a good impression of how everyone in the department is doing. I'd like to get you opinion on how things are going, especially because this year's winter mating season seems to be a little more… rowdy than normal." Bogo looked back at Clawhauser and as ominously as he could without sounding fake continued, "I'd like to hear what you think before I'm forced to take any necessary administrative actions to resolve department… problems." He finished, ratcheting the tension in the room right back up.

The cheetah's relaxing face did a 180 and became twice as worried as it was before, which didn't surprise Bogo in the least. Clawhauser probably had the biggest heart out of all the officers in Precinct 1. It only took a hint from Bogo that something might happen to one of them to make him more worried about that than he would ever be about himself.

"Umm, well… sir. Ah… Anderson found a mate last year so he's taking winter far better this year; if anything people almost wish he was still grumpy and would stop gushing about their upcoming wedding. Wolford seems a bit more haggard than he usually is this year but he's handling it well, hasn't had any outbursts, he's keeping it locked down, doing that whole alpha control thing. And…" Clawhauser paused becoming visibly more worried, his thumbs now fiddling together as he seemed to try and think of anything he could do to avoid the inevitable final subject.

Bogo prompted him, asking, "And?"

Clawhauser glanced at Bogo almost pleadingly, "Well, sir… Everybody knows that Nick isn't handling it well, but he's trying. And Judy's also a bit… distracted and worried over his… situation, but they're both getting the job done and nobody's been complaining about it. It's just an itsy-bitsy tiny issue." He said holding his paw up, fingers barely apart.

Bogo dropped a file on his desk, "Francine had to see a therapist after Hopps's car chase,"

Clawhauser flinched but replied defensively, "Sir, Francine said she's always had a bit of an issue with car chases, and it didn't help that the robbers had a team of mice working with them. She said that… event, just made her realize that she needed to face those fears instead of ignoring them."

Bogo dropped another file on the desk, "Firefighter report on the warehouse Wilde destroyed."

Another flinch, "That warehouse was already scheduled to be demolished, he just did it a little early."

Bogo lifted another file, putting his reading glasses back on, "This is from their interrogation of Mr. Huffins, the house burglar yesterday after they swapped out and let Delgato try," he said before reading from it,

Delgato: 'You ready to talk yet?'

Huffins (suspect): 'Why the **** would I ever **** talk to the **** fuzz?'

Delgato: 'Because I can simply let Wilde and Hopps back in here to continue questioning you.'

Huffins (suspect): '**** **** for the love of ****. That's got to be against some **** law. Cruel and unusual **** punishment! You can't **** do that!'

Delgato: 'I don't see why not, they were mostly arguing with each other and they didn't do anything to you.'

Huffins (suspect): '****, those ******* idiots need to get a **** ******* room and just **** each other. Making me watch them is **** torture!'

Delgato: 'Not in the eyes of the law, we checked. So, you gonna talk or do I bring them back in?'

Huffins (suspect): '****, **** ****** *** **** and ****! **** fuzz, **** *** *****!

Delgato: 'Okay, if you want to deal with the rabbit and the fox that's fine by me,'

Huffins (suspect): '****, wait a **** second! I'll ******* talk!'

Bogo dropped the file onto the stack.

Clawhauser was chewing on his lip, "ah Chief, it might be a bit… unconventional… but the guys checked the laws carefully before using Hopps and Wilde's… situation, to help with interrogations. It's perfectly legal and it's been working surprisingly well."

A fourth file hit the stack. And Bogo said, "A comment regarding their visit to the Savanah Acorn Heights school for a presentation with the new Anti-drug education initiative, stating that while the presentation was a success, that their 'current courtship situation' left the student body rife with gossip and rumors to the point that it was distracting students from their studies, and asked that until they resolve their 'situation' that we send different officers in the future."

"Highschoolers are going to be highschoolers?" Clawhauser tried, though his defense of Hopps and Wilde was weakening.

Another file, this one looking like a letter, "A comment from the citizenry thanking us for our work but suggesting something should be done about the officers 'cute romantic issue'."

"If it's only one comment…" Clawhauser started, but Bogo brought out an entire stack of similar papers and dropped them on the pile.

"Um…" Clawhauser said, seeming to scramble to find some way to defend them, "None of them are bad comments, are they?"

"No, but it's become a noted concern of the public. In fact," Bogo pulled out another paper and placed it delicately on top of the heap like the crowning cherry on a desert, "The new mayor sent this asking what the hell is up with the ZPD's two most publicly recognizable officers. Their tinsy 'issue' is fast becoming one of public concern and gossip. They mayor is worried that because of their role as not only the first small mammals on the force but the most prominent and well known predator and prey police team, that if their little relationship falls apart and results in a public fight between them, that it could cause massive harm to healing predator-prey relations in the city."

"Um…" Clawhauser was a bit wide eyed and now very worried as he seemed to be grasping the full scope of the problem.

Now, just need to add a little focus to that worry, Bogo thought, watching Clawhauser's reaction to make sure that his little show had the desired effect.

"If their situation can't resolve itself, I'm afraid I might be forced to suspend both of them," Bogo said looking absolutely serious but with just a touch of sympathy.

"Suspend?!" Clawhauser choked out, "Sir! That would just about kill Judy, and Nick would go nutz if she became depressed like that!"

And now to direct all that worry and concern.

Bogo shrugged, "I don't seem to have much of a choice," he said regretfully, pulling out a disciplinary action form and starting to fill it out, making sure Clawhauser could see that he'd marked the 'suspension' category. "There's not much else I can do, Clawhauser. If they just got together that would solve all of these issues but it's not like I can force them to be reasonable."

Clawhauser froze, before nearly shouting, "Sir, Wait!"

Bogo stopped writing and looked up, raising an eyebrow in question.

The cheetah visibly tried to calm himself down, before continuing, "Sorry sir, I didn't mean to shout." He looked at Bogo hopefully, "If they were to get together, you wouldn't need to suspend them right?"

Bogo nodded in answer, "Doing so would probably solve Wilde's and by extension Hopps current problems, so there wouldn't be any need to suspend then. But from how utterly oblivious they are, that's not going to happen, and I can't order them to." He sighed dramatically picking up his pen as if to finish filling out the form, "It's too bad, they make a good team… I didn't want to lose them."

"But sir," Clawhauser said and then lowered his voice to an almost whisper, "You might not be able to order them to get together, but… but…" he paused a bit looking at Bogo nervously before continuing, "but, that doesn't mean we couldn't give them a little push."

Bogo just continued to look at Clawhauser, his expression not shifting, simply remaining completely neutral.

Almost Clawhauser. You're almost there. He thought, willing the cheetah to continue.

Clawhauser spoke in a sudden flood, trying to keep his voice low, though there was a nervous excitement to it, "Sir, that's all they need, just a tiny push to get things rolling. Judy thinks Nick is in love with some vixen, not her and Nick's too terrified to make a move because he doesn't think she's interested in him that way and is too worried he'll lose her as a friend. They just need a bit of a nudge to get them past that, then..." he gestured at the small mountain of paper on Bogo's desk, "all those problems will be taken care of."

He stopped to breath before continuing in a conspiratorial voice, "I know all their friends. All of them who have tried to talk to them directly have just made the situation worse because they don't listen, but… well sir, all of them want to help, they just don't know how. I could talk to them, I'm sure that all of us could put something together. Instead of trying to reason with them we can… we can… just sort of nudge them, put them in a situation where they can't ignore how the other feels about them. Valentine's day is coming up. If you can just give them a little bit more time, just until then, we can give them that nudge they need. That'll solve their relationship problem and then you won't have to suspend them. You'll get their team back to what it was and won't have to suspend them. Everybody wins."

Perfect. Thank you Clawhauser. Bogo thought pleased with himself, though he made sure not to show it.

He leaned back in his chair slowly, tapping his chin as if thinking it over. He scowled just for good measure, before stopping his tapping and looking right at the cheetah.

"You think that you can actually get them to stop being blind fools?"

The cheetah nodded his head enthusiastically.

Bogo paused again as if mulling the idea over before speaking in a stern voice, "Fine, Officer Clawhauser. I'll give you until the day after Valentine's day to have the issue taken care of, otherwise I'll be forced to suspend them." he pulled out a few more forms and filled them out. "I'm putting you in charge of this little operation you suggested, though I'll be supervising it. Don't go blabbing about it to anyone. If anyone asks what you are up to, you've been assigned to a confidential operations team. Don't tell anyone else, anything else, unless they've been brought in on the operation. Get me a list of the names of everyone else you want to bring in and a preliminary plan before you leave today. Understood?"

Clawhauser looked at him with so much excitement that Bogo could almost see it bubbling over, "Yes, sir! You can count on me!"

Bogo put the forms in a file, pulled out a stamp and slammed it down leaving a large red 'CLASSIFIED' on the front of the folder. He handed the file to the cheetah.

"That's everything you need to start. Now, get going Clawhauser, I want to get this taken care of as soon as possible." Bogo said.

Clawhauser saluted, and then bounced his way toward the door.

"Clawhauser," Bogo called out, and the cheetah stopped with his paw on the door handle, looking back.

"Take this seriously and try not to look so excited or you'll give the operation away."

Clawhauser nodded, before working on his expression and heading out.

Bogo gave a snort after the door closed. The tubby officer had managed to change his expression from looking like he'd won a years' worth of free donuts to looking like he was about to go off to war.

Well, not quite keeping a low profile, but no one will suspect what he's up to with him looking like that.

A/N

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Welcome to the WildeHopps Navy. The correct response is 'Aye, Aye!'

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The Conspiracy Count Down: 48 hours

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