One week later:

Finnick pulled up in front of the Thorneycroft Orphan's Home and got out of the van to open Nick's door. "Need some help?"

The red fox rolled his eyes. "I can walk by myself, Finn. You don't have to baby me."

"See that?" Finnick nodded towards the porch where Judy and Sister Margaret were waiting, surrounded by children. "You put a paw wrong and they're going to be all over me."

Nick got out of the van. "Just stay close." They went slowly up the walk and stopped at the stairs. "Give me a minute."

"Nick!" Eddie evaded Sister Margaret and ran down the stairs. "You got better!"

"Sure I did." Nick smiled. "Thanks for the bear."

"Did you bring him back?"

"I brought all the toys back." The red fox looked at the stairs. "Want to give me a paw?"

Eddie looked up at Sister Margaret and she smiled and nodded. "Okay. What do I do?"

"Just let me lean on you a little." Nick looked at Finnick and the little fox moved in and supported his friend as they started up the stairs, one of Nick's paws resting lightly on Eddie's shoulder. They made it to the top and Nick went over to the porch swing and sat down to catch his breath. "Thanks, Eddie."

"No problem," said the little possum proudly.

The other children swarmed around the swing and Sister Margaret clapped her paws. "Be careful. Nicholas is still getting better." She smiled at the fox. "I made blueberry cobbler just the way you like it and lunch is ready whenever you want it." The badger went inside, shooing the children in front of her.

Judy and Finnick sat down in the porch swing with Nick and the bunny rested her head for a moment on her partner's shoulder. "You have no idea how good it is to see you out of the hospital."

"You have no idea how good it is to be out of the hospital," he said earnestly. "I asked the doc when I could get back to work but he said it would still be a while. And Bogo wants me to take some extra time before I come back."

"Good!" Judy sat up. "You can help Finnick and the mayor."

Nick was startled. "Finn and Mayor Burney?"

"Didn't you tell him, Finnick?" asked Judy exasperatedly. The little fox shrugged and she gave him a look. "Fox Alley is a terrible place, Nick. You should have told me about it."

"And what would you have done?" he asked pointedly. "It's been like that since before I was born."

"Well, it's going to be different. I set up a meeting with Finnick and the mayor and now there's an action committee to work on improving things there. And you'll never guess who's in charge." Judy giggled. "Leodore Lionheart!"

"I thought he was still in prison," said Nick.

"No, he got out early for good behavior. He didn't have any qualifications for a real job, so Mayor Burney made him an aide. And Lionheart was very interested in the problem of Fox Alley, so the mayor said he could work on it."

"I doubt it will make much difference, Carrots," said Nick dubiously. "You think if Fox Alley got fixed up it would stop animals like Jerry Jumbeaux?"

"No, I think there will always be animals like him. You can't stop animals who want to hate." Judy paused, then went on thoughtfully, "I think if the foxes work with Lionheart and don't expect the mayor to do everything for them, it'll get better. I talked to Mayor Burney too, Finnick, about something you said."

"I say a lot of things," the little fox grumbled.

"You said there aren't laws against discriminating against foxes. Maybe there should be. Mayor Burney wants to talk to both of you. Maybe you can find a few other foxes to go with you and let him know how foxes are treated." Judy reached in her pocket and pulled out a container of fox repellent. "Maybe start with this. Foxes are the only animals that have specific repellent. It should be for criminals, not species."

Nick took the repellent. "That's a good idea. When does the mayor want to see us?"

"There's no hurry." Judy stood up. "He's giving Lionheart a couple of weeks to go around Fox Alley with Matt Renard. You remember him, Finnick. He's the photographer that Jerry III hit with his car. He got his casts off, and he's going to help Lionheart do a report with photographs of the most urgent issues in Fox Alley. After the mayor gets the report he'll get in touch with you but he wants you to be well first, Nick."

"Sounds good." Nick rested his head against the back of the swing and closed his eyes. "Right now I feel like I could sleep for a week."

"I'm going to go see how lunch is coming." Nick nodded and Judy went inside.

"Now I got all this extra work," said Finnick crankily. "It ain't enough I got the garage, now Judy expects me to fix up Fox Alley."

Nick smiled a little. "She's something else, isn't she?" He opened his eyes. "It's good you were looking out for her, Finn."

"I didn't do nothing."

"I got a call from Mr Big this morning while I was waiting for you." Nick waited for a response but Finnick was determinedly silent and after a moment the red fox went on. "He told me to let Judy know if she ever changed her mind back to give him a call. You know anything about that?"

"Nope." Finnick stood up and stretched.

Nick contemplated his friend, then said quietly, "I got the feeling whatever it was she changed her mind about, it wasn't good. If you kept her out of trouble, that's a pretty big debt I owe you. Again."

"Told you I don't know nothing about it," Finnick snapped. "Ain't you hungry yet?"

"Yeah, I'm hungry." Nick stood up, swaying, and Finnick steadied him. "Thanks, Finn. You're a good friend. More than a friend." Their eyes met. "You're like a brother to me too."