Aftershocks

It had been one long month since we closed another crazy case in Zootopia, with all the five bosses from their respective gangs in cuffs and thrown away in their own cozy little cells, never to see daylight ever again. A lot had happened since then and things were changing around us, for better or for worst.

Let's see… where to start… probably best to start with what happened right after. Judy and I basically left town about as soon as we could for Bunnyburrow as we were honestly afraid that Bogo might check to see if we were even there. Turns out he did check before we got there but Carrots' folks managed to lie for us which turned out to be pretty simple since he only made Clawhauser call because he's "a very busy buffalo".

As a result of the five bosses getting arrested in the raid, the four remaining underbosses began to make their move, replacing their bosses as the new leaders of their respective gangs. For their sake, they better lay low like the roaches they truly are, but if they really do plan on making their next move, then we'll be ready for them when the time comes.

The Flood, on the other hand, were pretty much scrambling to fix the mess they were unceremoniously handed; losing their underboss and boss in the same day had really wrecked the chain of command. Their lieutenants were now fighting amongst themselves, trying to see who was best suited for the positions of leading the Flood. Of course, the bastards failed to realize that their infighting would draw more attention to them than they could ever imagined; the ZPD quickly found their base of operation not long afterwards and pretty much cuffed them all on the spot. It's easy to arrest people when they're trying to kill each other as it turns out. We were pretty lucky back there or Zootopia would have a bloody civil war on their hands. I have no doubt that the Floods will most likely die from their inflated egos and idiocy, not that they were smart to begin with anyway.

As for the bosses themselves...their own gangs practically turned their backs on them, leaving them high and dry without a second thought, as the case was moving towards the courts at a pretty fast pace and the lawyers that normally would back them up were nowhere to be found as they were under new management. I don't know what will happen to them next, but one things is for certain: they'll be spending time in prison for a very long time, collecting dust as a group of long forgotten problems.

With the bosses dealt with, there was another matter that we had to contend with: our ties with Mr. Big and the criminal underworld itself. Staying connected to Mr. Big would have been a career suicide for us, figuratively and if we think about why things happened the way they did, would have been literal suicide. If anyone, especially Bogo, were to find out what really happened behind the scenes, then the case that me, Carrots, Swift and Harris had worked so hard on will be all for nothing. I can still recall our last conversation we had with Mr. Big a month ago...

"We don't want to sound ungrateful to you, Mr. Big, but we can't stay in contact with you forever. Don't get us wrong, we really appreciate the help you give us, but we're worried that if someone were to put two and two together about this case, it would put us in hot water big time," Judy explained.

"What is it that you're trying to say, Judy?" Mr. Big questioned her.

"What Judy means is that it would be best if we would be cutting ties from you...forever," I replied with a slightly heavy heart (but secretly, I felt good to get away from someone who doesn't like me one bit).

"I hope you understand, Mr. Big and I'm sorry it had to be this way," Judy looked down on the ground with shame.

We waited for what might have been a few minutes, but it felt like eons, as Mr. Big stared up at us, like he had never felt so offended in his whole life, especially after all he had done for us. After a long and tense silence in his office, he finally gave us his answer, which would decide what our fates would be.

"I figured that this would happen eventually. It might be for the best. After all, you two have helped me out when I needed it the most, so I'll return the favor and remove any possible links between us. I'll make sure that no evidence ever surfaces about what you two have done."

"Thank goodness," I felt a wave of relief hitting me...figuratively speaking, of course. While it might be another criminal act, let it be the last one so that we can do our job the right way from now on.

True to his word, he did just what he said he would do a week later.

"There, all done now. You two are now free from any links to me and the criminal underworld."

I don't know how Mr. Big did it, but somehow, he managed to pull off the impossible. Somehow, he managed to get inside all of the gang's' base of operation and removed any evidence that could have been used against us, thankfully before the raid on the Flood who happened to have the most of it. Because of that, no one could ever blackmail us and we can return back to our lives once again. Though the relief was tainted by how we got it, I'm just glad we can start over again.

"That's great news," I said, pleased with Mr. Big's assistance.

"We really appreciate the help, Mr. Big. We really mean it," Judy thanked him, before she switched into serious mode. "But in the event that we'll have to come after you in the future, we will with everything we got and we won't hold back."

"I understand your reasons, Judy. I really do," Mr. Big answered back, bowing his head down to her respectfully. "This will be our last conversation then. Farewell, you two."

And just like that, we were allowed to peacefully leave Mr. Big's mansion, as the polar bears stood in the positions, while we turned around and headed towards the entrance. We know fully well that the next encounter we have with Mr. Big, we'll be just enemies from the other side of the law. It's for the best though.

Before we left, though, we glanced back at Fru Fru; while she understood why it had to be this way, she was nevertheless upset by the whole ordeal.

"Goodbye, you guys," she waved one last farewell towards us, holding back a few tears, before we waved our farewells to her and left Mr. Big's mansion for good.

We haven't talked to her since we left Mr. Big's mansion, but I do hope that whatever Fru Fru was doing now, she, James and their daughter Judy are having a wonderful life together.

With our business with Mr. Big taken care of and our ties to the criminal underworld officially severed, we resumed back to our mundane lives at your typical law abiding police officers of Zootopia, going back to stopping the usual would-be criminals around the city, just like old times. Swift and Harris, no longer the fans of ours like when they started as that ship had sailed and been used for a freaking viking funeral as they got to know us for who we actually were but after we cut ties with Mr. Big, any tense relationships seemed to repair themselves and now the four of us are pretty much a squad. Carrots has been doing better since the case closed last month, but she seems...unhealthily focused on work ever since we got back to ZPD. Everyone in the precinct is so concerned for her wellbeing; hell, even Bogo, of all people, is worried how Judy was behaving lately.

"Hey Judy, are you alright?" I asked her, as she passed by my desk.

"Yeah, I'm good, Nick. Nothing to worry about," she bluntly replied, just like she had done so for the last month. She didn't even look at me when she said that.

"But is there anything that I-" it was all I could say to Carrots, before she quickly headed back to her desk, not even bothering to hear what else I might have to say. I know what was really bothering her since last month, but she still insisted otherwise if that topic was even brought up to her.

'She's trying so hard to drown out her guilt through her work.' I worriedly thought. I happened to notice on the first day that Judy no longer carries her pistol. Only a taser and her tranquilizer. We need to get her help, but we can't do anything about it considering why she's so upset. There aren't a whole lot of shrinks we could take sensitive information like vigilante activity and murder in self-defense to.

Swift, Harris and I are the only ones that Judy could ever talk to about what happened and even then, she would avoid the topic regarding Niccolo. I know for certain that she had to talk about her guilt to one of us sooner or later. By being honest to us about it and coming clean of what had been bothering her lately, she can finally work to getting rid of the guilt that she had been carrying on her shoulders for well over a month now.

But how do I get her to talk? She's not exactly one for conversation anymore. I hesitated on approaching her, but I knew Judy the most out of everyone, or least, I used to.

Carrots seems so detached from life that it looked like she was having a hard time actually living it; she might be putting the face of a hard working officer, but deep down, she was troubled by her actions, but was too stubborn to admit it to anyone, even me. Maybe if I could pry her away from work for a week and just enjoy ourselves together, she would open up and I could finally help her out.

Lord knows that all the ice she's been giving me is straining our already fragile relationship. We may be dating... unsteadily now, but it was still a work in progress and no one but Swift and Harris are aware of it. However, we haven't done anything worthwhile lately and our relationship was now in tumultuous water; Judy's so out of it, it's hard for us to take our relationship anywhere.

I pondered having Swift and Harris helping but outside of what they were already trying to do, they were having as much success as I was. Judy just didn't want to think about what she did and is trying so hard to bury it through work that she's going to hurt herself.

I rubbed my chin, pondering for what seemed like an eternity, trying to figure out my next move would be. This would not be easy but life is never easy. You have to make it work for you, not the other way around. I managed to get Judy to write her parts for this story as maybe a way of coping with it. Admitting it in some form but I can't tell if that helped or not.

Judy hasn't seen this part of the story. This is the last account of what happened from the eyes of two animals who lived it. I'm probably going to bury this somewhere where no one will find it till we're both long dead. I don't know what's going to happen next but I can tell one thing:

I'm going to try my damnedest to make this work.

A/N: Well that's it then. We've reached the end in a sort of... unending way. I'm leaving this open to debate on whether I should do a sequel on the grounds that story has pretty much died down when I look at interest in it. It might get pretty damn good view numbers (700 in one day is amazing for me) but only like 2-3 people are actually saying anything so it feels like there's no real interest. At least from my perspective on someone who places interaction as a high priority.

I thank everyone for sticking with me to the end and if you want to see a sequel, you're going to have to tell me by either telling me in the reviews, favoriting or following. If I do decide to do a sequel, I'll post a small preview of it in this story to tell y'all.

Sal out!