It had been nearly three months. Three months without working. Three months of brooding, spats of rage and sadness. He'd even shed tears; real tears, after years of dry eyes and unfailing emotional stability.

The walls he had built around himself and maintained for so long were damaged; perhaps beyond repair.

With the flood gates opened he found himself haunted by old memories. His father, mother, the ranger scouts and the streets. And it was all because of a rabbit who he had known for less than a week. A rabbit that turned out to be as prejudice and small minded as any prey he'd ever met.

But she wasn't

Or at least she hadn't seemed to be. She had been special in a way. He could admit that much to himself. She had made him feel special.

"What the hell is wrong with me!" he exclaimed to the deserted landscape.

You know full well what is wrong. You can lie to the world but not to yourself.

"Well what am I supposed to do?"

Go and talk to her you stupid bastard.

"And what? Beg her to be my friend again? After what she did! I have a bit more self respect then that."

No you don't. You are pathetic and you know it. She knew it too obviously.

"Shut up."

You could have explained why she was wrong. She probably would have apologized too. You could have said how you were feeling but you didn't. Know why?

"Shut up!"

Because you're a goddamn coward!

For the hundredth time in the last several weeks Nick gripped the carrot pen which he had been twirling, listening too, and fiddling with obsessively.

This time however he marched out to the field behind his bridge and threw it far out into the long grass. It arced high towards the cloudy sky and dropped out of view.

After standing in silence for several minutes, fighting a torrent of conflicting emotions, Nick sat back down in his lawn chair and put his aviators on.

"There, it's done. This is finished and I'm forgetting it ever happened."

You don't care how she made you feel? You don't care that she thought you could be something more? She might even have cared about you.

"No she didn't." Nick practically growled at his inner thoughts, "She. Did. Not, and I am not thinking about this anymore. Tomorrow I'm going back to my life. Screw you. I am done."

Nick closed his eyes and tried to focus on not thinking. He attempted to nap but the familiar tightness in his chest caused him to stir restlessly.

He rolled to his side and let out a long wavering breath. He felt as if he had been holding it for hours.

Minutes later he found himself lying face down onto the plastic strapping of his lawn chair. The sheer discomfort of the position seemed to help ward off stray memories.

It's supposed to rain tonight. An unwelcome thought echoed in the back of his mind.

With a sigh Nick whispered, his nose jammed between the plastic slats, "Goddamn you."

A few minutes later Nick slid out of his chair and walked into the long grass. "Goddamn me too", he breathed.

It took him close to two hours to find the carrot pen.

As he searched he eventually promised himself that if he could just find the stupid thing he would talk to her. He would give her a chance to apologize if that's what she wanted to do.

The sky was getting dark and a gentle rain was beginning to fall.

He was beginning to panic when he finally found the pen. Shaking slightly, he reached down and plucked it from the earth.

Holding it in his hand Nick felt a palpable sense of relief. He thumbed the button to rewind the last message and then pressed play. As he walked home he listened to the sound of her voice as it echoed slightly over the quiet field. For the first time in many days he felt almost calm.

The next day Nick found himself at the base of the ZPD building. It was a truly forbidding structure quite literally swarming with cops.

Being a fox he was attracting a great deal of attention by just walking up the steps.

This is a terrible idea. I've gone completely mad.

An extremely muscular rhinoceros wearing a ZPD uniform stopped short his lumbering progress down the wider stairs and followed Nick with his gaze. Nick felt that if looks could kill he would have melted on the spot.

"Good morning officer! Lovely weather." Nick waved sheepishly as he rammed into the building's glass front doors with a thud. He left a long watery smear on the glass where his nose connected with it.

"AAaa Ha Ha! Oops", he managed to laugh in perhaps the most awkward way imaginable.

It's over. You are going to be arrested because you are stupid. You are so, so dumb. Just turn around and leave right now.

With those and other thoughts on his mind Nick pushed open the door and walked inside.

The cathedral like interior of the ZPD was surprisingly quiet. Only a few mammals seemed to be going about their business.

Composing himself, Nick walked with practiced casualness up to the front desk which was manned by a female antelope. She looked down at him and spoke, not bothering to hide her boredom, "May I help you... Sir."

"Uh yes" Nick managed not to stammer, "I was hoping to leave a personal item for Officer Judy Hopps. Is there any chance I could give it to you to pass on to her?"

The antelope raised an eyebrow and brought a nail file up to her delicate fingers, "I'm afraid Miss Hopps no longer works here. She resigned last week."

Resigned?

"Oh.. um.." Nick's mind was racing. For some reason his emotions were doing back flips.

"Could you tell me why she chose to resign?"

"I'm afraid that is a personal matter between her and the chief. Now if you will excuse me I am very busy at the moment".

Nick opened his mouth but could think of nothing more to say. Hesitantly he turned around and began to walk away.

So what now? Going to slink back under a bridge?

Nick felt a sinking dread creep into the pit of his stomach. At the same time the swindler in him started to come alive. He still had his skills didn't he? In his head he could hear his inner voice, the voice of his mentor:

"Get your shit together Nicky… in a hassle there's always a long shot."

Nick swiveled on his heels and marched back to the receptionist quickly glancing at her name tag, "Sorry, Officer Einhorn, I forgot to mention something. So many things to do today it slipped my mind, you understand. You see, I was supposed to drop in and talk with the chief after my involvement with the missing mammal case and I've just been so busy I never got the chance. Could you please let him know that the fox who assisted officer Hopps - Nicholas Wilde, is here to see him as requested."

Officer Einhorns other eyebrow decided to rise to accompany the first, giving her a slightly comical look of disbelief, "Mr. Wilde, the chief is very busy at the moment. I will forward you to the officer that has taken over the case file but I expect no one will be available to talk to you today."

Nick slid on his sincerest face of patient understanding, "That sounds just fine, Officer Einhorn. However the last time I spoke with chief Bogo he seemed quite adamant that I speak with him directly. I'm sure if you just mentioned to him that I'm here he would be able to see me for the few minutes necessary."

Nick's face was now perfectly innocent... or as innocent as he could make it under the piercing gaze of the antelope towering over him. Finally she stabbed her finger down hard on the intercom button, "Chief there is a fox here. Says he assisted Judy Hopps on the missing mammal case and that you wanted to see him."

Barely audible static emanated from the intercom with nothing to be heard for several long moments.

Finally a gruff voice returned, "Send him up."

The Officer removed her finger from the intercom and slapped her nail file down on the desk. She leaned forward and fixed Nick with another glare, "Up the elevator, third floor."

Nick decided to keep his mouth shut and merely smiled, taking off immediately for the elevator.

Now I have to face down the chief of police. It's over. I'm dead. Nicholas Wilde, destroyed utterly by a ridiculous bunny cop.

Before he could expand on these thoughts the elevator doors opened on level three.

Moments later Nick found himself standing in front of an office. 'Chief Bogo' writ large on the fogged glass of the door left little doubt that this was the place.

Nick reached out slowly intending to knock but before his knuckles connected, a deep bass caused the glass to shudder, "Come in!"

Nick jumped like he'd been stung on the ass and entered the room with all expediency.

"C-chief Bogo, thank you-"

The chief's voice cut him off cold, "Don't talk!" At the desk the enormous water buffalo was wearing a pair of reading glasses and as of yet had not looked up from an open folder in his hands.

After a moment where Nick imagined several ways to escape the station, Bogo finally lowered his glasses and skewered him with a look, "Sit."

As calmly as possible Nick slid into the low chair positioned in front of Bogo's desk.

The huge mammal seemed to contemplate Nicks unfortunate existence before saying, "Let me be clear fox. I am not exactly sure why I let you up here. So you are going to give me a good reason or things are not going to go very well for you. That goes double if I detect one ounce of Bullshit. So, what do you want?"

What do I want?

Nick had thought he would be talking to or at least leaving his little 'message in a carrot' for Judy. Now it turned out she was gone, and therefore so was any idea he had of what he was doing.

Luckily he panicked and said the first things that came to mind, "I need to talk to Officer Hopps. I need to know why she quit the ZPD and I need to tell her that I miss.. uh, that she needs to come back." Nick shut his mouth with sharp click of his teeth and Bogo continued to stare at him inscrutably.

"Hopps left for personal reasons. I have no intention of telling you where she lives or what her personal number is as that would be a breach of privacy. Assuming you could convince her to return, what makes you so certain that we would take her back?"

Involuntarily Nick felt his hackles rise, "Because she is a good cop. In fact she's the best cop I've ever seen. Better than this city deserves. She told me that being a cop was her dream since childhood. So, the only reason I can imagine that she would have quit is if you wanted her gone. Which wouldn't surprise me seeing as that is what you were trying to do-"

*SLAM!*

Bogo brought his open palm down on the desk hard enough that a free standing lamp in the corner of the room toppled to the ground. "Enough!" he roared.

"Now listen here fox! Do you know why I wanted to be rid of Officer Hopps in the first place? Well I'll tell you. I wanted her gone because as much as she said she hoped to serve and protect this city the true reason she became a cop, from the very beginning, was glory. She wanted to prove what a rabbit could do. She wanted to show predator and prey alike that she was every bit as capable as any other officer."

Nick was overcome with the urge to interject, "Why shouldn't she want those things?!"

Bogo however was not done, "Shut your mouth and let me finish. Hopps scored at the top of her class in the academy and became valedictorian, yes. But in all her time there she never made a single friend. In order to achieve her scores she wouldn't think twice about using her fellow trainees as literal stepping stones. She was ambitious, driven, and she had a chip on her shoulder the size of my head. For a rookie this is a very dangerous combination. In the short time she worked here she disregarded the chain of command and threw herself into danger on a whim purely for a chance at recognition. In order to solve the missing mammals case she threw police protocol out the window. From what I understand she literally blackmailed you and attended the wedding of a known mob boss. She was guilty of grandstanding and bad judgement on multiple occasions. I personally had to massage the report she gave so that she wouldn't end up under investigation."

Having run out of steam chief Bogo sat back into his chair and heaved a long exasperated breath.

Silence settled over the office until Nick finally spoke, "You are right. She really didn't do things by the book. She cared more about proving herself then she cared about being part of the team. But I think you're wrong about one thing. She really did want to make the world a better place. She broke rules, but in the end no one could have cracked that case but her. She sees and does things differently than you. Better, actually, in my opinion. The way I see it, that makes her an asset."

The buffalo assessed Nick as he took another deep breath. He was visibly calmer when he spoke, "I know that. I was wrong about her and in the end she stepped down because she felt responsible for the fallout of the missing mammals case. And if you hadn't noticed, this city is in a sorry state at the moment. She felt that the hardships currently befalling many predators in Zootopia could be traced back to her press conference."

Nick didn't know what to think. He was trying to come to terms with what was being said.

She quit because she felt guilty?

Warmth was creeping into Nick's chest. A mix of emotions that were hard to separate. Elation, sadness, vindication, shame; he didn't really know what he was feeling.

Lost in his own thoughts Nicks was surprised when Bogo started speaking again, "Let me read you an excerpt from her report."

The chief took a moment to extract a page from a folder that had appeared in his hands:

"IN THE END, NO PART OF THIS INVESTIGATION WOULD HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE HELP OF MY FRIEND NICHOLAS WILDE. HIS SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE WERE CRITICAL TO MY SUCCESS AND WERE IT NOT FOR HIM, THE MISSING MAMMALS THAT WERE RECOVERED MIGHT STILL BE LOST. ANY RECOGNITION I MIGHT BE AFFORDED SHOULD BE AWARDED TO HIM IN EQUAL AMOUNT."

Bogo dropped the page back onto the desk, "Since the end of the case, whenever any mammal tried to congratulate her or tell her what an excellent job she did, Hopps would always mention your name. She would say, 'I was just doing my duty and I had a lot of help from my friend Nick'. Before the conference she recommended you for the police academy. Even said that she wanted me to bring you to the precinct after you graduated so you could be partners. Tell me fox, what happened to all that?"

Nick's mind was spinning. He needed a moment to sort things out. The memory of the press conference still left a bitter taste in his mouth. Remembering the reason he was angry in the first place Nick spoke with a dismissive tone, "She said some things I didn't agree with. We had a difference of opinion. It was decided that predator and prey probably wouldn't make the best partners."

The chief rose from his chair again banging his knuckles on the wooden surface, "Didn't I say no bullshit? How about this: she wasn't perfect and said some things she shouldn't have. You got your feelings hurt and decided to cut her up. Then you ran away with your tail between your legs and left your friend to stew in guilt; left her to deal with the fallout when she probably needed you the most. How does that sound!?"

Sound about right, Nick thought.

What he did though was jump out of his chair hard enough to knock it backwards. And what he said was, "Eat shit you buffalo bastard!"

Nick all but ran for the door but Bogo's booming voice cut him short, "I'm going to tell you where to find her. But if you walk out that door you get nothing. And you will have proven her wrong. You will have proven that when things get tough you just run away."

Nick was on the very cusp or walking out and leaving for good but something held him back. Standing in the doorway he practically vibrated with indecision until Bogo broke the spell, "Now sit back down and take this."

Functioning mainly on autopilot Nick turned back around, picked up the chair and sat back down taking a clipboard that Bogo was hold out to him in the process. Looking at it he realized he was looking at a blank application form for the ZPD.

Bogo started speaking again without looking up from his paperwork, "Fill it out. If and when you can convince Hopps to return you will have a chance at the academy. The way this works is, I hire you and you attend the academy on my recommendation. If you succeed I will overlook your somewhat 'colourful' past."

This was just too much; too much to process. Nick could have said a thousand things but instead he filled out the form in silence. Once he was done he handed the clipboard back the chief who gave it a cursory glance.

"All right I'll tell you what you need to know to find Hopps. Are you ready?"

Nick again had no response but looked at Bogo expectantly.

"Hopps lives in Bunnyburrows... that's all I'm going to say. Now it's time for you to leave."

Nick was incredulous, "Bunnyburrows? I guessed that much. Do you know how many rabbits are in Bunnyburrows?!"

The vein in Bogos neck was beginning to stick out again, "No, and I don't care. Do you know how many bunnies have become cops and solved newsworthy cases? Just one; so ask around. Now get out of my office!"

Nick was enraged. Having been on the verge of leaving only moments before he decided to wash his hands of the entire situation and charged out of the room slamming the door behind him.

He retained no memory of his walk out of the station. Instead he cursed the chief of police to a thousand horrible deaths.

The bastard, he hustled me. He toyed with my emotions and gave me nothing!

It wasn't until Nick had walked halfway home that he began to think clearly. It was true that among bunnies Judy was probably fairly well known. In fact a few hustles and a phone book would probably turn up a few leads.

Nick abruptly stopped walking.

Maybe he could find her. In fact a plan was already forming in his mind.

Shit! The buffalo might have been right. It was painful to admit.

Nick found that he was even feeling slightly optimistic.

I can find her.

He abruptly changed course and jogged a few blocks to a car rental place he knew of.

It took him thirty minutes to fill out forms and pay the ridiculous fee for a small red hatchback. The thing was barely a step up from the three-wheeled joke mobile that Judy had driven around, but it would do.

Nick got buckled in and set the GPS to take him to downtown Bunnyburrows which it noted was about four hours away.

Nick was fine with that. In his mind the anger and hurt that he had felt towards Judy was beginning to wane. There was new information which needed to be accounted for. Nick wasn't sure what he was going to do exactly when he got there or even how he felt. But that was fine. He at least had the next four hours to figure it out.

And so it was that Nick Wilde, deep in thought, some three hours and forty-five minutes later had to exercise every ounce of his self control not to slam on the breaks of his tiny car. Because right there, sitting at a small roadside produce stand was Judy Hopps.