Guys Night Out
Quitting time, which was what was one the mind of many of the officers at Precinct 1 and pretty much all of them couldn't wait to get out. As the officers were switching out of their uniforms into civilian clothing and began going home in order to enjoy a relaxing evening. However one particular fox was a little excited as he adjusted his tie in the locker room.
"Hey Wilde we still up for drinks?" Delgato asked as he was putting on a blue collared shirt.
"Yeah, I'm giving Ben a ride and we'll meet the rest of you at the bar." Nick said.
Delgato gave him a nod and left the locker room, Nick soon followed suit as he closed his locker door and exited out into the hallway, where Judy was waiting for him.
"Hey." She greeted.
"Hey yourself." Nick responded as he kept walking with her following.
"So it's Friday night, you want to catch a movie?" She asked as she caught up to him.
"Sorry Carrots, but me and some of the guys are going out tonight." Nick said.
"Ah, that's tonight." Judy said in disappointment.
Several months ago, Nick and some of the guys at the precinct started hanging out at a bar called the Bull'n'Horns, there they would eat, drink, watch sports and everything else in between. After a short while it became sort of a tradition that at least on Friday a month they would get together for a guy's night. Judy didn't mind much, Nick was allowed to hang out with other animals and they already hang out enough both on and off the job.
"So yeah, sorry about that Carrots." Nick apologized.
"No problem, you guys just have fun." Judy said with a smile.
"We will try." Nick replied with his signature smirk.
Judy playfully rolled her eyes as she walked to the front entrance and Nick made his way to the front desk where a certain cheetah was preparing to leave, he was out of his uniform and wearing a grey short sleeve shirt and a pair of jeans. "Hey Ben, you ready to go?" he asked.
"You bet, so are we just meeting the others at the bar?" He said as he slipped on a light brown jacket.
"Yep come on let's get to the car before traffic gets too bad." Nick said grabbing his keys and with that he and Ben made their way through the parking lot.
"Hey, do you know that Gazelle has a new app out?" Nick asked.
"Of course." Ben said with pride, "I downloaded it this morning, I tell you Nick I love Gazelle." Ben said with a love-struck look on his face.
"Really, I had no idea." Nick joked.
"I swear if I ever got to meet her in person that would be the single greatest moment of my life." Ben explained as they both got to Nick's car.
"Well Ben this city has a weird way of making dreams come true." Nick said as they both got into the vehicle and drove out of the lot.
The two cruised through the busy streets, all the while listening to music and talking, after about 15 minutes they managed to come across a particular street in Savannah Central. Pulling into a parking structure they began to walk down the bustling sidewalks until they finally came to the Bull'n'Horns. Entering the bar they found themselves caught in the middle of a crowed, many of the animals attending were watching the many televisions which were broadcasting various sporting events.
"Hey Wilde, Clawhauser, over here." They heard someone shout, looking over the two saw Fangmeyer waving at them from a booth on the other side.
The two made their way to the booth and were greeted by Fangmeyer, Delgato, McHorn, and Johnson were sitting. "Sup fellas?" Nick asked as he and Ben sat down.
"Not much, we just ordered some drinks." McHorn said.
"Jeez, this place is crowded." Ben said.
"Yeah there several games going on," Fangmeyer said pointing to some of the screens, "But then main attraction is the match between the Sahara Sandstorms and the Tundra Blizzards, winner goes off to the championship against the Rainforest Monsoons." He explained.
"That's not going to be easy, the Monsoons already have like what, 9 championships under their belt?" Johnson asked.
"I don't know, I've heard that they've been slipping lately, rumor has it that there was a contract dispute involving the head coach." Nick said.
"Either way it should be interesting." McHorn said as the others nodded in agreement.
After a minute or two a waiter comes down and gives the guys their drinks as well as a large dish of fries. The groups then spent the next few minutes talking, drinking and eating until a comfortable silence fell upon the table, until Delgato opened his mouth. "Hey Wilde, a lot of us have been wondering and well…" He started but then drifted off.
"Yes?" Nick asked looking suspiciously at the rest of the group.
"Is there something going on between you and Hopps?" Fangmeyer finished.
"What?" Nick asked in surprise.
"You know, are you two like…a thing?" McHorn asked.
"What makes you think that?" Nick asked a little agitated.
"Hey no one's judging you, it's just that you guys spend a lot of time together." Johnson said.
"We're partners." Nick stated.
"We mean off duty." Fangmeyer added.
"So what we're friends, suddenly two friends who just happen to be different genders can't just hang out without it meaning something?" Nick questioned.
"It's not that, we were all just wondering." Johnson said.
"Yeah, and not just us, some of the other officers at the station are wondering the same thing." McHorn said.
"Really, well I would just like to say that for the record, Carrots and I are just good friends okay, we are not romantically involved." Nick said.
"Hey Nick, don't worry about it I'm sure none of the guys meant anything by it right?" He asked looking at the others.
The others all nodded their heads in agreement, this made Nick calm down a little. "Okay, sorry about that." Nick apologized which the others accepted. "So how about we get the mood back on track?" Nick asked to which he received a cheer from the others as they continued on with their activities.
3 hours later
Nick and Ben stepped, or more like staggered out of the bar, it was late at night and the streets have become close to deserted. The fox and cheetah took in the night air as Nick reached into his pocket and pulled out his car keys.
"Hey are you okay to drive?" Ben asked.
"Don't worry I only had like 2 drinks." Nick said.
"Well I'm more concerned with your tolerance." Ben said.
"Hey I may be smaller but trust me I can hold my drinks." Nick said.
"Look I just don't want you to get into an accident, I mean a cop driving drunk the papers would have a field day with that one." Ben said as he started crossing the street unaware that a car was coming his way, but luckily Nick noticed.
"BEN LOOK OUT!" Nick shouted.
Ben turned and saw the car coming and panicked, meanwhile the car tried to stop and even though the vehicle managed to reduce its speed considerably, it still 'bumped' into Ben which sent him hitting the ground. Nick stared in shock as Ben laid on the ground moaning, he then heard the car door open and noticed a figure stepping out of the car through his peripheral vision and turned to give them a piece of his mind.
"Hey, what do you think you were…" He yelled until he got a good look at the figure and instantly his words died in mouth as it hung open. Because in front of him, with a very worried look on her face was none other than Gazelle.
"Oh…my…" He said slowly registering what was happening.
"Oh no, I am so sorry I tried to stop," She explained clearly panicking about what had just transpired. She then went over and kneeled down next to Ben to make sure he was alright, Nick, having finally snapped out of his stupor quickly went to join her. "Is he going to be okay?" Gazelle asked.
"I'm not sure." Nick said looking over the seemingly unconscious Cheetah, his ears then perked causing him to turn and saw the door of the bar open and the rest of their group came rushing out.
"You guys alright, we heard shouting and…" Fangmeyer said but fell silent when he saw Gazelle and the others followed suit.
"Holy crap you're…" Delgato said but was interrupted by Nick.
"We know right now Ben needs some help." Nick said, the others instantly came over to check on their injured friend.
"What should we do?" Johnson asked.
"I don't know there's got to be something we can…"Nick said until he noticed McHorn was holding a take-home box. "Are those left over fries?" He asked.
"Yeah." McHorn responded.
"Give them to me." Nick said as McHorn handed him the box, he opened it and took out some the fries and waved them over Ben's nose. "Come on buddy, don't quit on me now." Nick said.
After a few seconds, Ben's nostrils started to flare as he took several whiffs of the seasoned spuds and then his eyes slowly opened. "That's it big guy." Nick said.
Ben moaned as he slowly stood up with Delgato's and Johnson's help. He looked around while rubbing his head, "What happened?" He asked.
"Well you kind of got hit by a car." Nick said trying to sugar coat it.
"What!?" Ben asked in shock.
"But there is a silver lining to this." Nick said.
"What could the silver lining be to me getting hit by a car!?" Ben shouted.
"I'm really sorry about that." Ben heard a familiar voice say, that caused his eyes to widen and he slowly turned and was face to face with Gazelle. "I didn't mean for this to happen it was an accident, are you okay?" She asked in concern.
Ben's mouth then dropped as he stared at her for almost a solid minute, as if his brain had completely crashed. "You're, you're, you're." He stammered.
"Yeah?" She asked in slight confusion.
All of a sudden, Ben's fell to the ground with a heavy thud much to the shock of everyone. "Whoa, Clawhauser are you okay?" Fangmeyer asked.
"Ben, Ben?" Nick asked snapping his fingers, trying to get him to wake up, but it didn't seem to be working. "No good, he's out cold." He said.
"I'm sorry, did I do something wrong?" Gazelle asked.
"No, no, of course not, it's just he's like you're biggest fan and I'm guessing meeting you in person caused him to become very overwhelmed." Nick said.
"Really?" Gazelle asked.
"Oh yeah, he pretty much spends most of his free time listening to your music and playing around with those new phone apps." McHorn explained.
"Not to mention he keeps saying you're the 'greatest artist of this century'." Delgato said.
"Oh, that's so sweet." She said.
"Yeah, too bad he's unconscious." Nick said, but then his face lit up. "Hang on, I have an idea, now Miss Gazelle." Nick said.
"Oh Gazelle is just fine." She said.
"Well Gazelle, if you have to time, maybe you could let me take a picture of you and our unconscious friend here." Nick explained.
"I would be happy to, but how are we going to do that?" She asked.
"Leave that to us, McHorn, Johnson, could you guys grab Ben?" Nick asked.
"Sure." Johnson said as he and McHorn grabbed the unconscious cheetah, though Johnson was having a little difficulty. "You know, next time we see we got to tell him to lay off the donuts." He said.
The lion and rhino manage to prop their friend against a streetlight so that he was sitting up. "Alright let's do this." Nick said taking his phone out.
Gazelle walked over to Ben and kneeled down so that she was almost level with him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
"Okay, smile." Nick said, gazelle did so and Nick took the picture, looking at it he smiled, "Beautiful, thank you so much Gazelle." Nick said.
"Hey no problem, it's the least I could do." She said standing up.
"Shame he wasn't awake for this though." Nick said looking at his friend with a look of pity in his eye.
"I think I know how fix that." Gazelle said as she walked over to her car where she took out a pen and small piece of paper. She then scribbles something on the paper and folds it, "Give this to him when he wakes up." She said handing the paper to Nick.
"No problem." Nick said putting it in his pocket.
"Well you guys it was nice meeting all of you, but I have to be somewhere, you all have a good night." She said walking to her car.
"Believe me, the pleasure was all ours." Nick said as he and the others waved, Gazelle waved back and then got into her car and drove off.
"Wow, I can't believe we met Gazelle." Fangmeyer said.
"Believe it, and I can't wait to see how Clawhauser is going to react when he finds out what happened." Delgato said pointing to still sleeping Ben.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, right now we need to get this guy home." Nick said.
"I'll take him home, after all I'm probably the only one here who can actually lift him." McHorn said.
The group members proceeded to wish each other a good night and made their ways to their respective vehicles. Nick drove back to his apartment and when he arrived he parked his car and entered the building. Making his way to his room he felt his phone vibrate, taking it out he saw that he got a text message from McHorn which said that he got Ben home safely. Smiling Nick unlocked his door and entered his room, he slipped into his nightwear and after placing the note that Gazelle gave him on the table he went to sleep.
Next Morning
Everything was relatively peaceful at the precinct, a certain cheetah was sitting tiredly at his desk as he propped himself up on one hand.
"Morning Ben." He cringed slightly when he heard the familiar cheerful voice of Judy Hopps and the rabbit in question noticed his reaction. "Are you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah, just a rough night." He said.
"Maybe you should stay away from bars more often." Both officers turned to see Chief Bogo walking towards them.
"Don't worry chief, all I need is some coffee and I'll be right as rain." Ben said.
"What exactly do you and Nick do on guy's night?" Judy asked.
"You wouldn't believe us if we told you Carrots." Nick said as he approached the desk with a cup of coffee. When he got close he placed the coffee on the desk and pushed it towards Ben who took gratefully took it.
"Thank you." Ben said taking a drink.
"Man you guys must have had a crazy night." Judy said.
"Oh you have no idea." Nick told her and then shifted his gaze to Ben, "So how are you feeling Ben?" He asked.
"Better, I tell you though, it was weird, after I got hit by that car…" He said but then Judy cut in.
"You got hit by a car?!" She asked in shock.
"Yeah, wasn't fun, anyway after that I had this weird dream that I met Gazelle." He said.
"Coming from you that doesn't really sound weird Clawhauser." Bogo said.
"I know, but the weird part is that it felt so real." Ben said.
"Um, actually Ben it was more real than you think." Nick said.
"What are you talking about?" Ben asked.
"Have you checked you're messages recently?" Nick asked to which Ben responded by shaking his head, "Why don't you take a look and see for yourself." He said.
Ben took out his phone and saw that he had a new message from Nick with an attachment, giving the Fox a confused look he opened the attachment. As soon as he did, the look on his face to Nick was priceless, it was somewhat of a mix of utter shock and complete joy.
"O. M. GOODNESS!" Ben exclaimed.
"What is it Ben?" Judy asked as she and Bogo came to look over Ben's shoulder and soon their faces matched his.
"Is that…Gazelle?" Judy asked completely astonished.
All three of them were staring at the picture of Gazelle with the unconscious Ben that Nick had taken the night before. "Yes it is, turns she was the one driving the car, she apologized of course and I asked her to take a little picture with Ben." Nick said.
Ben looked over at Nick for a second until without warning he practically leapt out of his chair and enveloped Nick in a hug that would make a bear feel insecure. "Thank you so much Nick this is the greatest thing anyone's ever done for me!" Ben exclaimed.
"Hey, not a problem." Nick said as he felt his spine about to break, "You think you could let me down now?" He asked.
"Oh sorry." Ben said as he placed the Fox down. "I still can't believe that I got a picture with Gazelle." He said, but then his face dropped slightly in disappointment.
"What's wrong Ben?" Judy asked.
"I just wish that I was awake for this, the picture is fantastic but I wish I could have talked to her." Ben said.
"Oh yeah, she said felt about that too so she gave me this to give to you when you woke up." Nick said taking the note out of his pocket and handed it to Ben.
Ben opened to the note and after a second his eyes widened to size of truck tires, on the note in Gazelle's handwriting it read as such,
Dear Ben, I'm sorry about what happened and I hope that you're okay. Your friends told me that you were a big fan and I felt bad that I didn't get to talk to you, so to fix that here's my personal number.
951-6489
Give me a call when you feel better.
Sincerely Gazelle.
Ben looked like he was about to pass out again but managed to regain his composure. "I can't believe it, Gazelle wants me to call her." He said.
"What!?" Judy and Bogo said it unison.
"This is without a doubt the greatest moment of my life, excuse me everyone, I have a phone call to make." Ben said and with the speed appropriate for his species he took off with a second thought, leaving a shocked Judy and Bogo as well as a satisfied Nick.
"Wilde, next time you have a guy's night out, make sure to invite me." Bogo said, well more like ordered as the Fox smirked.