Chapter 14 - Finite Fine-ness

Author's Note : This chapter has only been partially beta-d! Please bear with the mistakes while enjoying the story ! :)

They stopped at an alleyway a few blocks off the ZPD. Nick clambered to the back of the van to change into his officer's attire. Placing his civilian clothes into the bag, Nick attached the radio to his waist, zipping the bag. Anxiety began to creep into Nick's heart. Who was he kidding? He was gone for a considerable amount of time - Nick expected to be burdened with questions and looks from the other officers. But, what tugged at Nick's heartstrings the most was lying to Judy - he couldn't tell her he was hustling again. Fingers crossed, she wouldn't pry.

He checked his phone for the time - it was 1.45PM, since he was already out, he might as well be fashionably late. Deciding that he'd best leave - as the later shift would start at 5.

"Hey Fin. Thanks." Opening the back door of the van to leave, Nick was stopped as Fin called his name.

The voice deep voice called after him - "Officer Wilde, don't forget your sunglasses." As the fennec threw the case towards Nick. "Don't bother bringing your sunglasses next time - I'll get you another pair for the van. Keep those for your work, Nick. Those glasses suit your police clothes more than that drabby dress shirt of yours."

Nick caught the case. "Hah! These are a nostalgic design! Catch you later, Fin. I owe ya."

"From what universe or era?" shouted Fin as Nick exited the van - closing the doors as he did.

Well, Nick's choice of fashion was nostalgic. It was similar to the wallpaper of his childhood home - ever so slightly, there were good memories that came from there. Reassured that his fashion sense still made sense to himself - Nick walked to a nearby donut shop to get a 2 dozen donuts. One for Clawhauser to pacify him, and the other to shared with Judy - without a doubt, there was a carrot cream donut and a blueberry-icing donut in the package for Nick and Judy.

2PM, Nick waltzed casually into the ZPD. To Nick's slight shock, no one seemed to bother that Nick had went out for a long time, however the glares were still there to welcome him back. Moving towards the receptionist's desk - where a plump cheetah sat smiling at his phone (probably watching Gazelle's video - oh look, he was right as the cheetah giggled in his seat).

Looking up his phone - "Where have you been, Nick?" came a cheery voice - presumably from watching Gazelle. "It has been some time since you've went out." His eyes were fixated with boxes that Nick held in his arm.

"Hey Clawhauser, I'm back - anything I miss? The radio had been silent." said Nick redirecting the question.

"Oh- umm, nothing really. So where-"

Cutting Clawhauser off once more, Nick plopped the box in front of the cheetah - and opened it. Immediately the waft of chocolate donuts with sprinkles filled the air. Clawhauser seemed to melt before its aroma as his words dissolved into mumbles. "W...w….what are these?"

"They are - for you. The next few days I got some things to settle - so I'll be going out. Think of this as a token of my gratitude for keeping an eye out," said Nick slyly - pushing the open box of donuts towards the cheetah.

"Oh… uwah… Thanks." muttered Clawhauser - who was hypnotised by the donuts, mouth bordering on drooling.

Nick knew when he had won over Clawhauser this time. He knew that the cheetah was a smart one - even though on the outside, he seemed to be gullible and innocent, it was the cheetah's emotional intelligence that made him the ZPD's 'frontline' as he knew exactly what to say to lighten the air and exactly how to act to disarm a tense mammal. This ability of his made Benjamin Clawhauser an efficient and invaluable asset to the ZPD, plus he was someone who was close to Chief Bogo due to them having a mutual interest - Gazelle. Nick had to get Clawhauser on his side if the his 'hustling' was going to fly. Thankfully, donuts was a viable option to silence and gain a favor from the Cheetah.

As Nick left Clawhauser to the mercy of the donuts, Nick went to find Judy at her cubicle. There would be no other place that Judy Hopps would be - especially if she was assigned to it, even if she hated being put on the backburner. Judy Hopps was the type of mammal to see through her job till the end - such was the ZPD's first bunny officer's determination.

It came as no surprise for Nick to find his bunny partner sitting in her cubicle typing away on the keyboard. What baffled Nick the most was how Judy managed to keep herself occupied with work for such a long time. Upon closer inspection Nick noticed that her shoulders sunk and her ears perked up in response to the sound of the plastic bag filled with donuts in Nick's hand.

"Hey Carrots. I'm back," said Nick. "I got some donuts."

"Welcome back," replied Judy as she turned her seat to face Nick, smiling at him. However, Nick noticed the fatigue in her eyes beneath her smile. What she needed was a good warm drink, food and a massage - and that was when Nick swore to himself to drag Judy away from her cubicle.

"Let's go, Carrots," making up his mind to pamper Judy.

"Go, where?" asked his partner, dazed from all the work she'd been doing.

"Out. Come on - let's get you to the mess room. I'll make you a cup of coffee and I'll even throw in a free Wilde massage," said Nick - proffering his paw to Judy.

"Now that…" a genuine grin growing on her face, "sounds like an offer I can't refuse," She accepted Nick's paw to pull herself up.

They then walked to the mess hall without a care in mind as they talked about anything and everything. As promised, Nick performed as he promised - making Judy a warm coffee and giving her a good massage.

At 5, the duo was dispatched to begin their patrol of Savanna Central. Nightlife was a hectic as it was during the day - that meant they had to exercise more effort in looking out for crime. The day was already mentally taxing, especially for Judy. On the bright side, there was a lot of spots for them to get takeout while they were on duty. That night, they had some sandwiches and coffee ; Nick then took over driving duty, while Judy was on lookout (though she seemed to doze off around 1100). It was a peaceful night without anyone causing a ruckus, making patrolling an easy task.

Their shift ended as the clock struck 12 after which Nick drove them to the ZPD to return the vehicle. By then, Judy was asleep - Nick wanted to wake her up and chide her for overworking herself, but lost his will as he saw Judy curled up with a peaceful countenance as her soft snores were the only sounds in the deserted compound.

Nick had to carry her back to her apartment, taking his shortcuts to avoid unwanted attention being directed at Judy. Even in the dead of night, Nick Wilde was concerned for negative rumors arising about the bunny cop. Finally after a few turns and detours, Nick arrived at the doorstep of the Grand Pangolin Apartments - Judy had shown no signs of stirring. Eventually, he decided to 'deliver' her to her room. Nick himself was drowning from exhaustion at this point - wanting so badly for his pullout couch that's musty self seemed to be akin to a fluffy cloud - as he clambered up the stairs to Judy's apartment. Unlocking her room door with the spare key she gave to him, Nick wanted to set her down upon her bed. However, Nick had one more duty to do - he had to wake Judy Hopps up. Her face was relaxed and appeared to be genuinely comfortable to be in Nick's arms - neither Nick nor Judy, as he believed, wanted it to end for waking her up from such a comfortable rest felt like high treason. So, Nick attempted to place Judy down on the bed slowly as to not wake her suddenly and risk her falling from his arms - sleeping Judy wasn't going to make it easy on him - as he tried to sit her on the steps, she clung to his shirt. The unconscious gesture struck something in Nick, it just occurred to Nick that Judy might have missed being in the arms of her parents. Compared to Nick - who was an only fox, Judy was one out of 276 brothers and sisters - she might not have had as much comfort or attention given to her when she grew up either.

This was one of the times Nick Wilde was proud of his predatory night vision as he navigated Judy's small apartment (this was one of the few times he went into her apartment) to her bedside.

'I'm a dumb fox, aren't I?' Nick asked himself - as he cradled his sleeping partner in his arms as he sat upon the bed.

An hour or so later - Judy stirred as she finally felt the discomfort of sleeping in that posture.

As she begun to stir, Nick gently moved her to lie on her bed - pulling a blanket over her - allowing her to smoothly transition into proper rest. As it is, Nick knew Judy would beat herself up over falling asleep on duty when she sobered up. Nick slid out of her room whispering a silent goodnight as he left.

Nick finally reached home at 2.00AM. He promptly fell dead asleep on what felt like a fluffy cloud that smelt of dust and moss - but who cared about that?

The next day, Judy whispered a silent thank you to Nick as both of them entered work with eyebags under their eyes - but the mirth and banter they shared was no less than any other day at the ZPD.

The following few days went by just as well - by the books.

The ZPD had no change of assignments and neither was there any cases that they could take on (Judy seemed to be on the verge of losing it). Paperwork was light - enabling Nick to get his job done swiftly - giving himself even more time to hustle with Fin. The debt he owed Jules had already been dented by half with Nick's own earnings - with the 'help' he got from Fin, he only had 300 bucks left to pay Jules. Even better, his off day had finally arrived, on a Friday too - coupled it with a weekend - giving Nick a total of 3 days' to hustle freely without having work commitments. He maximized this to his benefit (by mostly performing odd jobs such as : selling cheap suits at a high price, deliveries, selling oddities and so on). Nick worked from dawn to midnight - travelling from place to place to complete hustles all over Zootopia. Within the next 3 days, he had managed to earn so much that he was able to pay Jules back (the full payment with interest was made in full to a half-frustrated and half-surprised landlord - whom Nick believed to be scheming about what he was going to do to Nick if he failed to pay) - and even meet half of of the amount he needed to pay for his ever-increasing rent.

Nick felt great, to finally be able to be 'free' from the grasp of his landlord.

Things were finally looking up : he no longer had to worry about not being able to pay Jules ; he got his chance to spend (much needed) time with Fin too - best of all, Judy's birthday was 2 days from now. Nick was going to make it a memorable one for her.

The new week had begun and Nick's psyche was the best as it could've been. He hadn't had one of those bad dreams plaguing his mind - he guessed that it was because he was too tired after all the work to even dream.

The second day, new assignments came from Bogo who was ever so unpredictable - as these meetings in the bullpen were called arbitrarily. As Bogo entered the bullpen - greeted with a salute from the officers, he went to the podium.

"I have 2 items on the docket today. Firstly, Officer Hopps - happy birthday."

The chief had the habit of announcing the birthday mammal in the bullpen - but apparently the birthday mammal's reception was somewhat lacking, the room was silent - that silence was broken by Nick himself who'd begun clapping the loudest. Slowy, but surely the room slowly picked up the momentum of clapping, although Nick noticed that the applause was blatantly different from the applause they gave to the other officers.

Nick turned to look at Judy, who appeared the most stupefied at the announcement - as she sat there with a blank expression. Nick grasped the gift he prepared for her in his pocket, choosing to give it to her at another time as right now wouldn't be the best place to flaunt such an expensive gift. As the meagre applause died down, he nudged her to pull her out of her trance to wish her a happy birthday.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Judy and Nick were assigned to day traffic patrol - Downtown and Savanna Central - again, it seemed that the chief still didn't want to rely on them. There was already one patrol at Savanna Central and Downtown - it irritated Nick to see Judy getting looked down upon by the chief . However, Judy herself was over the moon excited as she was finally free from the boredom of office paperwork. Nick decided to text Fin to inform him the time he expects to be available for their hustles. With food and drinks packed into the car the duo went about their duties, giving out warnings and tickets to traffic violators. It was a lengthy patrol as it cut through 2 prime districts of the city - Judy made the most out of it, paying full attention as she drove for signs of criminal activity - squinting more and more as the sun rose to it's peak.

The area was clear and had low traffic (it was 2 roads off the main street, was what Nick had surmised) - from Nick's experience, this area had nil crime. It had well developed infrastructure with parking lots clearly drawn and there was no cause for traffic violations to occur. The time was right, plus Clawhauser had just given them the greenlight to take a break.

Digging into his pocket - he pulled out a small wrapped box with a ribbon on top. Motioning Judy to park the car in an empty slot. As she put the gear into 'Park' - the gift was shoved into her hands from her partner. It was a orange box - rectangular with a carrot motif on it, the ribbon was green - on top of the box was a card 'Happy Birthday, Carrots'.

"What's this, Nick?" asked Judy - as she stared at the package in her hands.

"It's called a birthday present, Carrots." looking at her amusedly in anticipation of her reaction when she'd see the sunglasses.

"It's… it's for me?" asked Judy meekly as she looked slowly into Nick's eyes.

"Pfft- what? Yeah! Of course it's for you. It's your birthday after all." Nick look away - to avoid eye contact with Judy - if he looked into her eyes then, his already red fur would've been much redder. Nick settled to distract himself as he took out the specially ordered carrot cake (from a well-known pastry shop) he placed at the back of the squad car, as the box was opened - as sweet and delicious aroma of carrots engulfed the car. Nick took out the complimentary candles from the side of the cake and begun arranging them into a nice circle around the words written in icing - 'Happy Birthday, Judy'.

He only turned to look at Judy when he heard something akin to sniffling. To his surprise, the bunny begun to tear up.

"Carrots! What's wrong?" frantic - as his eyes darted around, desperate to find the cause of her sudden tears.

"I-it's just that… No one had decided to celebrate my birthday… like this." muttered Judy as she wiped her tears.

Nick gave her a questioning look, "What do you mean like this? We could go into restaurant to have your cake if the car is too difficult."

"NO! It's not that… it's just that no one has decided to celebrate me for my birthday. You-you see… for us bunnies, we have a big family - thing is… if we decided to celebrate everyone's birthday like this - we'd run out of money and time. I have 275 siblings alone - not counting me, my parent's and their relatives."

"So… how do you bunnies celebrate birthdays?"

"We have a... birth-month celebration. At the end of the month, we'd gather round a nice big cake and blow it out together." said Judy - embarrassed.

Noticing her embarrassment, "Then, let's make today - a first. Happy Birthday, Carrots." as he begun to light the candles.

Then came a cheesy 'Happy Birthday' song, a blowing out of candles and the cutting of the carrot cake. They settled on taking a small slice per person, after Nick told her to go home and savor it at her own leisure - they sat in the car eating the cake. Judy seemed to have a field trip eating her slice - seeing such a satisfied face, Nick gave most of his cake too. The cake was good, it was fluffy and moist - a masterpiece (of cake).

At Nick's request, Judy began unwrapping the gift. It took her sometime - apparently, Judy reasoned that the wrapping paper could be recycled for another time.

Eventually, with the wrapping paper taken off cleanly - the sunglasses' case was revealed. Upon the velvety red case was the words in gleaming gold - "Preyda x Gazelle ; Limited Edition Eyewear". Beside the words, was a signature that read 'Gazelle'.

That wasn't all - as Judy slowly opened the case, there was a pair of golden framed sunglasses and a folded note. At Nick's direction, the dumbfounded Judy unfolded the note. It was addressed to her by Gazelle herself!

From : Gazelle

To : Ms. Judy Hopps

Happy Birthday, Officer Hopps. Have a blast!

Signed,

Gazelle.

Nick knew Judy had a soft spot for Gazelle. She always played it on the radio from her playlist. Good news was that Judy wasn't too overboard about Gazelle unlike Clawhauser or the Chief. Gazelle was an inspiration to Judy because Gazelle too struggled a lot to reach where she was today, being met with a lot of criticism and discrimination for her activism and performing style. Judy talked about Gazelle once, as the one of her songs came on the radio. Gazelle had lost a lot of fans and supporters when she decided to perform with tigers at her concerts - being ridiculed by mostly prey fans for putting herself in danger and scaring the audience (as if the suddenly performing tigers would jump off stage and maim a fan - it's not the stone age people), but Gazelle was determined and didn't back down despite the threats and rumors - after a while, the aggressors died down - and the tigers became a staple for Gazelle's concerts.

Nick felt proud of himself. Finally, he managed to do something for Judy. "You no longer have any excuse not to wear sunglasses at work, Carrots!" stated the fox triumphantly.

But, when he turned to see Judy - her face seemed to be desynchronised with the situation. It was supposed to be a celebratory mood - but the her face was serious and dark, the air seemed to become heavy. Slowly, Judy turned to face Nick.

"Nick… how did you afford these things?"

Author's Note : This chapter was a doozy. I wanted to post it up for some time, but I was second-guessing a lot. But here it is, in all it's long winded glory !

Side note, I've popped up my Tumblr (Herr_Mancyni). You can follow me there for updates and et cetera.

Side note 2, in my insomnia last night - I've given birth to a new Zootopia fic. This one is darker and much more grimmer than this fic. It's my side fic (this is still my firstborn, and unlike unfair - favoritismistic (not a word) parents, I'll be there for both my children.

Until next time,

~HerrMancyni