Welcome back to chapter 5 of, Zootopia: Boundaries. Hope everyone is enjoying the story so far. Feel free to leave reviews and any suggestions for the story.

Chp. 5: The Awakening

5:30 a.m.

Abandoned laboratory, Rainforest District, Zootopia

The Night Howler Case had turned the city upside-down. It pitted coworker vs. coworker, friend vs. friend, but most importantly, it pitted predator vs. prey. All of this was accomplished through the leadership of a small, underestimated assistant mayor. She single handedly threw Zootopia into chaos. Although Bellwether was arrested and thrown into jail by the ZPD, that hadn't exactly stopped her from carrying out her plans. On the chance she was arrested, Bellwether had set up a hidden bank account in which she put funds into in case she was ever caught. Her and only one other mammal knew the account code, Doug.

The same stubborn ram who had carried out her bidding by darting predators with the Night Howler serum. Even before the first mammal had been darted, Bellwether hired Doug to conduct experiments on various mammals using different recipes of drug cocktails containing Night Howlers and a mysterious crystal, known only as Agent Z to Bellwether. Even she didn't know exactly what it was other than the fact that it contains an extremely rare crystal rumored to have the ability make animals bend at your will. Bellwether had never seen the dealers face whom she had bought it from, only knowing that the mammal in question had the same intents add her.

For weeks before the Night Howler Case was solved, Doug had been conducting numerous experiments on kidnapped mammals, with many of them having disastrous results. So many animals had died due to his testings, but tonight, he had possibly just found the perfect mixture.

To him, it was just another animal bound to die. So many before this one had died as well, why not this one too? The mammal in question was a good candidate as well. Predator, mid 30's, and someone who nobody would care about if they were to perish. The wolf was strapped down to an old hospital bed, rag stuffed in its mouth to stiflei it's screams. Doug began to gather the cocktail in his syringe, which was to be injected into the the artery in the neck for quick results. With terror on the wolf's eyes, Doug stuck the needle into the neck, injecting exactly 15 milliliters of the drug cocktail. After the 15 milliliters had been inserted into the wolf's bloodstream, the life seemed to escape it's breath, and the eyes began to turn a milky white. Doug closed the animal's eyes, seeing it as another failed experiment, a clap of thunder echoed overhead, and the wolf's eyes sprang open.

Judy sprang up from her deep sleep, awoken to the sound of thunder rolling across the city. She was covered in sweat, her bed soaked from a dream that even just now she couldn't recall. Still startled by the thunder, she turned to face her alarm clock.

5:35

To Judy, this was around the time she would normally get up to get down to the station on time since her apartment was on the other side of town. If she was already awake, she might as well just go ahead and stay up. As she swung her legs over the side of the bed, she almost let out a scream. She had completely forgot about Nick, who was lying next to get bed. The fur around his eyes seemed damp, as if he had cried himself to sleep. Judy felt the need to wake him, but decided to just let him get some sleep.

Trying not to disturb Nick, Judy eased out of her bed, putting one paw in front of the other. She held her breath until she had successfully edged past Nick, she let out a deep breath. Even though she had showered just yesterday afternoon, she decided a nice hot, streaming shower would help get rid of her groggyness. Judy shuffled her way into the bathroom, trying to make add little of noise as possible, and quietly shut the bathroom door.

She proceeded to strip out of her sweaty clothes, and hopped into the shower. She let the steam help to clear her senses and revive her from the sleepy state she was still somewhat in. With the calming sound of the shower, Judy began to let her mind get lost in deep thought. The fact that Nick had lied to get still bothered her. She could tell when he was lying, and the fact that he did it disturbed her to a great extent. At first, Judy had thought Nick was going to open up to her, just like Clawhauser said he would. But, maybe Clawhauser was wrong. Maybe Nick didn't have anything for her. After all, she was a bunny and he a fox. Predator and prey. It would never work. And Judy didn't know what she felt for Nick. Sure she liked him as a friend, but she didn't know if she loved him exactly. She never felt love for anyone before to an extent because of all the time she put in to make her dreams come true. Although whenever she was around him, she always got a tingly feeling in the pit of her stomach. Judy became so lost in thought, she didn't hear the door open.

After she was done washing, she began to smell coffee, which was strange since she had no recollection of starting coffee before she got in. She turned the shower knob off and began to step out.

"It's about time you got out Carrots."

She was halfway out of the shower before she saw Nick. Judy instantly slipped and fell back into the shower. Nick gingerly walked over to check on her.

"You alright there Fluff?"

Judy began to feel an intense great building in her cheek.

"N-na-Nick! What are you doing in here?! Can't you see I'm not exactly clothed right now!?"

"Well if you wanna get technical sweetheart, you're all na-tur-al at the moment."

"Nick, get out now!"

"Ok ok, I'm going. Calm down." Nick began to close the door before cracking it open for a brief moment. "Oh, and by the way, I went and got us some coffee."

Nick eased the door shut so Judy could dry off and put some clothes on. Judy, half furious and half confused, stood still for a moment recounting what had just happened. It's not like seeing her naked was a bad thing, after all, fur covered up anything personal. But in today's society, mammals who didn't wear clothes were thought of as less intelligent and primative. Judy began to get lost in her thoughts again just like she had before Nick disturbed her when she remembered the coffee. Not spending a second longer thinking she died off as fast and add best as she could before she threw on the sane pajamas she had on last night. She scurried of of the bathroom and into her living room/ dining room/ kitchen/bedroom retrieve the coffee Nick got her.

Nick, surprised by her speed, could not let out a witty comment about why it took her so long in the shower and how she fell down in surprise as she took a sip of the carrot frappachino.

"I know it's not the best coffee in the world, but it was the closest coffee shop to your apartment that used fresh ground coffee beans." Nick was rubbing the back of his neck add he usually would when he was nervous about things.

"Nah, it's actually not half bad for some rundown coffee shop." Judy added a wink before downing another sip.

"Yeah, well I try my best." Nick had been trying to scoot ever so closer to Judy without her noticing.

"Mmmm. So, whatcha wanna do today?" Judy seemed to have near instantly perked up since getting some coffee in her system.

"Well, for starters, how about we play some of those games or movies you promised me last night?" Nick was now right next to her. Judy's body heat irradiating onto Nick. Neither Judy nor even Nick seemed to notice how close Nick had gotten. Nick had no clue what was coming over him. Out of nowhere, he had a feeling come over him that he had felt only once before, the instinct to instincts began to take over.

Nick was not in control anymore, his primal instincts and biological clock were taking him over. The fox was now near inches from his bunny friend.

"Nick? Are you ok? You seem tense." Judy had a reason to be concerned as Nick was not responding to anything she was saying to him. She could see his pupils were dilated and his ears hugged the back of his head. His nose sniffing the air as if he was smelling the air for prey. His eyes staring into Judy's.

"Nick? What's gotten into you? Are you coming down with something?"

"C'mon Carrots. I'm the same old, sly fox you met when you first got here. It's just that now, I finally know what I want."

It took Judy a moment to realize what he was talking about. A slight blush filled her cheeks as her emotions ran wild inside her. She never had time to have interest in anyone. With all of the work she had put in to accomplish her dreams, she hardly had any friends as it was. She didn't know what she was feeling at the moment except she had the same feeling last night. Even if she did have feelings for Nick, what would get parents think. Sure they excepted Gideon as a business partner, but would they accept a fox to be her love interest? And what about kids? There was no way her and Nick could have kids, and get parents would want at least a couple dozen grandchildren. But, these thoughts began to slip from her worrying mind as HER instincts began to kick in. Nick was already leaned in and so Judy went to meet him. As her lips were mere centimeters from the foxes, Judy's phone rang.

The ringing caught both animals off guard as they broke free of their instinctive desires. Realizing what they had almost done, both of their faces became as hot as a sidewalk in Savannah Central during the afternoon. Nick spun around in a 180 as not to let Judy see how embarrassed he was.

"Y-you should probably answer your phone Fluff. W-who knows, it's probably important."

"Y-yeah, you're probably right." And sure enough, Nick was. As Judy went to grab her phone to see who it was, the ID of the caller wad non other than her boss, Chief Bogo.

"H-h-hello sir? What?! Of course. Yes sir. Yes sir we'll be right over."

"Who was it?"

"Chief Bogo."

"Oh boy. What did he want? Did he want to thank us for being the best officers on the force? Or did he finally confess his love for Gazelle?"

Judy's ears drooped as she told Nick why he was calling. "No it's none of that. It's really serious"

Nick let out a smirk add he knew Judy was sometimes a little over dramtic.

"C'mon Cottontail, it can't be that bad."

Judy took a long, deep breath before explaining the grave situation they were now in.

"The Night Howler Case is being reopened."

"What?! But that's impossible! We caught Bellwether and destroyed the lab, how could the case be reopened?"

"There, there was an attack on a sloth in the Rainforest District. The sloth said he was attacked from the thick brush that lined the sidewalk. The victim was able to identify the attacker as a wolf who was foaming at the mouth, and had blood spattered about his shirt. The sloth died from his wounds on the scene"

"Oh... well, I guess we better hurry up and get to the station then huh?"

"Yeah, don't want to keep Bogo waiting for us with something like this going on. C'mon, let's get going." Judy and Nick hurriedly got there uniforms on and rushed to get out the apartment's door. As Judy looked back into her room before she shut the door, she couldn't help but to think about what almost happened. Everything ruined by that depressing phone call from Bogo. On the surface, she didn't truly know what she wanted, but deep down, she wished they would've kissed. The bunny closed her apartment door with a silent thud.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading Chapter 5! I hope you all enjoyed it. Sorry for not having this up when it was supposed to be. I'm really caught up in school and football at the moment, so I didn't have a lot of time to write anything except for today. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this chapter one again. Feel free to drop a review and make any suggestions you have for the book. This has been, Zootopia: Boundaries.