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Chapter Text

            “Nick, it was a date!” Judy said to her partner in their station cubicle.

            “It was not!” he insisted while looking over their pile of paperwork. “Going to a concert with your co-workers and parents doesn’t count as a first date!”

            “I bought the tickets and asked you to go with me.”

            “As friends!”

            “Ugh! Fine, then. What is your version of a first date, Mr. Fox-Who’s-Obviously-Been-On-So-Many-Dates-Before?!”

            A blush crept up on his face.

            “Ah-ha! So it seems my partner has had past romances in his lifetime…”

            “It was a long time ago,” he stated before he quickly started writing, but Judy wasn’t letting him get off that easy.

            “Who was she?” she asked with a smirk.

            “None of your business,” he said as he faced her, “and I’m sure you had some bunny boyfriends you’re not telling me about, either.”

            Now it was her turn to blush. She held her arm, rubbing it, as she confessed, “I’ve…never had a boyfriend or a first kiss…”

            His eyes widened at this new information.

            “I…don’t know why…but no one in Bunnyburrow held my interest. I’ve been asked, sure, but…I found I couldn’t go out with them…I figured it was my ambition to be a cop because I knew I couldn’t get distracted if I wanted to get accepted into the academy.”

            Nick put two and two together, “But since our newfound relationship…”

            “I find that I have feelings toward different species…” she shrugged with a smile. “Not that’s a bad thing.”

            He smiled back at her, “See? This is what I’m talking about. The first date needs to be extra special, especially for a bunny who’s never been in a relationship before.”

            She playfully nudged him just as a stern tone broke up their sweet moment.

            Chief Bogo said, “Hopps, Wilde. My office, now.”

            Nick muttered as they followed after their boss, “What did we do now?”

            Bogo heard the comment, “Nothing, but make a smart remark again and you’ll find yourself on parking duty for a month, and that includes Hopps.”

            Judy gave her partner a glare, saying, Don’t you dare say anything.

            They got to the chief’s office as they sat down and Bogo began looking over his files with his reading glasses.

            “Now, I asked you here because I have a very important assignment for you.”

            Judy perked up at the mention of “important assignment” while Nick mentally chuckled at his eager partner.

            “Now, I’m sure you’re aware of the famous Gazelle…” Nick could see the chief was holding his excitement in, but due the fact that he was at her concert a couple days ago, he wasn’t doing a very good job. “She’s going to have a major party celebrating her success - black tie, very fancy - and her agent called us to see if we could provide additional protection just in case.”

            Judy frowned, “Why? Is something wrong?”

            “Well, it’s unclear, but ever since the concert, there have been small accidents…”

            “What kind of accidents?” Nick asked.

            “Things that have fallen too close to Gazelle, and once, she nearly slipped into an open trapdoor.” His nostrils flared, obviously not happy that his favorite popstar was being threatened like this.

            Judy wasn’t happy, either.

            “Which is why I’m sending you two to the party. As the smallest members of the force, you’ll be less conspicuous and you just might be able to pick up on something that’s not right. Got it?”

            Judy stood on her chair and saluted, “You got it, Chief!”

            Nick slowly rose up and said, “So, how come you didn’t want to personally volunteer for this assignment?” Despite that, Nick figured it out when Chief said that they were the smallest members.

            Bogo caught on the fox’s sarcasm, “You’re lucky I need you two or else you would be wearing matching meter maid uniforms right now, handing out tickets! Now get to Clawhauser so he can give you the details and get ready for that party!” He practically chased them out of the office and slammed the door behind them.

            Nick had his smug look on, “That went well.”

            Judy groaned as they headed to the front desk, “You’re lucky he didn’t fire us.”

            “Please, like he would be stupid enough to fire his best cop team. Ever since the Night Howler case, we’ve been bringing in all sorts of crooks.”

            Ben Clawhauser had his mouth full of doughnuts when he heard that part and mumbled out, “Yeah, the jail has never been fuller, thanks to you two.”

            Nick gestured and gave her a look, See? Told you so.

            Judy sighed and told Ben, “Chief said you had details of Gazelle’s party.”

            He swallowed and gleefully said, “Do I ever! You guys are so lucky!” He handed the paper over.

            “If this were a social call, we would have invited you along with us.” Judy smiled.

            “Think while you’re there, you can get me Gazelle’s autograph?” he asked with hope.

            “Sure, buddy.” Nick said.

            Clawhauser mustered every part of his body to keep from geeking out.

            Judy waved him off as they headed outside to their squad car.

            “So partner, I guess we’ll have to hold off on that first date for now,” she said, taking the driver’s seat as always.

            “Who says? We’ll be dressing up tonight, won’t we? And we’ll be partying with your favorite singer. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.”

            “And how is this any different from the concert?”

            He counted the reasons with his fingers, “No boss, no parents, and thousands of screaming fans.”

            “But we’ll be on assignment.”

            “So? We can mix business with pleasure…” he twitched his brow.

            Judy sighed. “Alright, I give.” She started driving as she said, “I’ll drop you off, then I’ll call Fru Fru to see if she can help me pick out a dress for the party.”

            “I still can’t believe you’re such a lucky rabbit. My history with Mr. Big, as you know, isn’t a good one, but just as we were about to be iced, his daughter recognizes you for saving her and now you two are the best of friends.”

            Judy smirked, “You jealous?”

            “No! No, I know it’s all girl talk when you’re with her. You don’t need me there for that.”

            She giggled.

            “I tell you, Carrots, you were born with a lucky rabbit’s foot. Two, in fact, because you always manage to get out of the worst scrapes.”

            “Hmm… maybe you’re right. I mean I was pretty lucky when I met you when I did.”

            “You sure were.” he grinned at her.

            They kept flirting when Judy stopped at an apartment complex. Nick kissed her cheek before getting out and said, “Pick you up at seven?”

            “You better,” she batted her eyes before punching it and driving away from his sight.

Chapter Text

           It was a quarter to seven as Judy checked her alarm clock and was finishing applying the make-up that Fru-Fru and her bought after an afternoon of shopping and catching up. Fru-Fru gave her some great tips of what to use to match the dress she was wearing and also some dating tips as she had confessed to her girlfriend it was her first ever date especially with the fox she loved. Being a married shrew, Fru-Fru knew what she was talking about so Judy trusted her advice.

            She took a deep breath as she faced the mirror, she was wearing a long red dress, earrings, a single gold chain, eye shadow, and blush. She said to herself, “Okay, don’t be nervous… Just because it’s your first date doesn’t mean you have to be scared. You know Nick enough to not have to worry about anything… we’ll both have a good time tonight, we get to meet Gazelle in person! What could be better?”

            A voice from the thin wall behind her said, “Nothing.”

            Another voice followed, “That is so unfair! She gets to see Gazelle in person, why don’t we ever get to do stuff like that?”

            “It’s also her first date.”

            Nick’s right, I really should move out of this place… Too many nosy neighbors… A knock came at the door, Speaking of which…

            The voice had read her mind, “Bet that’s her date right now.”

            She rolled her eyes as she headed to the door and quickly checked herself to make sure she was looking good. When she had opened the door she saw the fox was dressed in his finest, have a black tuxedo and black tie, he was holding a bouquet of roses while gawking.

            She giggled, “Hi. Those are for me?”

            “Uh…” he stammered before coming back to his senses, “You look amazing…” he handed her the flowers.

            “Thank you.” she quickly set them in a vase. “You look great yourself.”

            “Ready to go?” he held his paw out.

            “Yes.” she took it as they headed down the hallway, Judy took a quick glance back of the neighbors watching them from their door.

            She said to her date, “Think you can help me find a new apartment next week?”

            “Oh?” he smirked, “The neighbors giving you trouble again?”

            “They mean well, but they can be so snoopy.”

            He chuckled, “Can you blame them? After all that’s a thin wall between you and them.”

            “I guess. I just wish they would mind their own business.”

            “Listening in on you is their business.”

            “Thanks… that makes me feel so much better now…”

            “Well, it just means that I’ll be helping you find a new place.” he held the car door open for her and she smiled at him as she stepped in.

            Nick had shotgun this time, as it was part of their agreement, on-duty, Judy drives, off-duty, Nick drives.

            “You have the address to Gazelle’s penthouse apartment?” she asked him.

            He took out the sheet, “Right here, it’s a good thing Ben has good handwriting, or else we would have gotten lost.”

            “When we get there, there will be a security guard asking for names, it’s a good thing the Chief had the agent write us on the list.”

            “Let’s face it, Carrots, you’re a lucky charm.”

            “I am lucky, lucky to have you by my side.”

            The fox smirked back at her.

            The penthouse party was in full swing as animals, predator and prey, was dressed up, drinking champagne, and eating at the dessert table.

            Nick whistled as he took in the scene, “Fancy digs…” he looked up to see the large chandelier.

            Judy whispered, “It belongs to a famous celebrity, what did you expect?”

            “Speaking of celebrity…” he moved his partner’s head toward the crowd of animals mingling with Gazelle wearing a long red sequined dress.

            Judy gasped, “It’s her, it’s really her…”

            The famous singer started walking to where Judy and Nick were and Judy panicked and ducked underneath the table.

            Nick followed after her and asked the bunny, “Carrots? What are you doing?”

            “I was…” she took off her left earring and planted it on the floor, “looking for my earring, I dropped it.”

            “Judy, don’t tell me you’re scared of meeting Gazelle?”

            “No! No, why would I…” she stopped when she saw the ‘not buying it’ expression on his face. She sighed, “Yes, I’m scared… It’s just I’m such a huge fan and if I say something to her, I might offend her…”

            He smiled, “Hey, if you do you do… Gazelle is just an ordinary animal like you and me; she’s not some goddess that’s going to smite you for saying the wrong thing. Besides, we still have a job to do, and we’re not going to be able to do it if you’re just going to hide all night.”

            She took a deep breath, “You’re right. You’re absolutely right!”

            “You know I am.”

            She started crawling out, “I thought making you an officer would deflate some of that ego of yours… and I…” she looked up to see Gazelle staring back at her. “Miss Gazelle! I was just… looking for my earring!” she nervously chuckled and she could her partner’s stifle laughter that she wasn’t doing a very good job covering up.

            But Gazelle was smiling, “Officer Hopps, is it?”

            Judy was blushing, “Yes?”

            “I remember you from the rally, and I’ve heard how you discovered the truth that predators were going savage against their will.”

            “Well, it wasn’t just me…” she looked at her best friend.

            Gazelle faced Nick, “Yes, Officer…”

            “Wilde. Nicholas Wilde at your service.” he gave a corny bow causing Judy’s eyes to roll.

            “I’ve also heard how you helped Officer Hopps solve the case, we’re quite lucky to have you with the police.”

            Judy had to ask, “I don’t suppose you know why we’re here? Your agent called the station asking to give you addition protection.”

            She lowered her voice, not wanting anyone around them to hear. “Yes, it was at my request we bought in the police due to the… incidents…”

            Nick whispered back, “Yeah, the chief told us of your so-called accidents.”

            “It has become unnerving… Once, I can understand, but so many strange things have been happening that I do not think it’s a coincidence.”

            Judy inquired, “Do you think there’s someone who would intentionally hurt you?”

            “I do not want to believe that, I am much loved by my fans, that I do not know who would.”

            Nick had a pen and paper out, “That reminds me, we have a friend that is one of your biggest fans, in fact, Officer Hopps here is also a huge fan.”

            “Nick!” her cheeks went red with embarrassment, “You didn’t have to tell her that!”

            Gazelle however was giggling, “It’s alright, I am use to it,” she took the pen, “What is your friend’s name?”

            “Ben Clawhauser.” Nick replied.

            Gazelle wrote and handed the autograph back which Nick and Judy read it and their eyes widen.

            Nick cleared his throat, “Gazelle, no offense, but if we give this to him, he’s liable to get a heart attack.”

            Gazelle just giggled as a spotted leopard came up to them.

            “Gazelle, it’s time for your speech.”

            “Thank you Carlos.”

            “And are these the cops we requested for?”

            “Yes, sir,” spoke Judy, “Officers Hopps and Wilde.”

            “Excellent. Now if you’ll excuse us.” he lead the popstar to the middle of the room where the chandelier was and he tapped a glass to get everyone’s attention. “Thank you all for coming, as we celebrate the eight years of growing success of Gazelle’s music career. What started as a young soloist in her high school’s choir is now one of the hottest singers around! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, Gazelle!”

            The crowd applauded as did Judy and Nick.

            Gazelle spoke, “Thank you my friends, as I never would have made this far without your support and the millions of animals I am proud to call fans…”

            She kept on speaking as Nick noticed how crooked the chandelier was looking… That’s odd… it wasn’t like that before… then he saw it was slowly slipping and it was on top of Gazelle! With one quick move he pushed her out of the way just as the chandelier had fallen!

            There was screaming and Judy had to shout, “Everyone remind calm! ZPD is on the case!” she rushed to where Nick and Gazelle was, “Are you alright?!”

            “We’re fine, Judy.”

            “Yes, thanks to this brave officer…”

            “You better call the Chief; this was no ordinary accident…”

            “How do you know?”

            “I checked out the chandelier when we came in, and it wasn’t the same when Gazelle was speaking…”

            “Got it.”

            The chief and the squad had arrived at the crime scene in no time, and began questioning guests and investigating the broken chandelier.

            “I commend you on a job well done, Wilde.” Chief Bogo told the fox.

            “Thank you, sir, that’s very big of you to say.” he smirked knowing he was reminding the chief of his bigotry ways of when Judy was first enlisted.

            Gazelle told the chief as he was mustering his professional stance as much as he could, “I want to thank you for sending Officers Hopps and Wilde, I fear things would have been different, had they not been here…”

            Bogo nodded and told his small officers, “You two clean up nice and it looks like I made the right call sending you in. From now on, I want you to protect Gazelle 24/7. I’ll take over for the rest of the night, but I want you back here bright and early tomorrow morning. So if you were planning on doing anything else tonight, I suggest you forget about it and get some rest.”

            “Yes, Chief.” Judy said, and she looked over to Nick who didn’t seem so happy about the new order and nudged him to respond.

            He begrudgingly said, “Yes, sir.”

            “So much for dinner…” Nick said behind the wheel.

            “We’ll just have to try again after the case.”

            “Is this what all our dates are going to be like from now? Work getting in the way?”

            She sighed, “Being a police officer wasn’t going to be easy, we have to protect the city of Zootopia.”

            “I took the job so I could be with you, Carrots. You know how great a team we are.”

            “I know…” she chuckled, “I would still be a meter maid if it weren’t for you…”

            “I was under the impression you were going to be fired…”

            “Well… yeah. You really saved me back there when the Chief was throwing the book at me.”

            He sighed as he wrapped his paw around her. They didn’t need to say anything else on the car ride.

            “Tell me everything!” Fru-Fru was on video cam with Judy’s phone.

            “Well, we didn’t get very far… You see a chandelier nearly came down on Gazelle!”

            “Whoa!” both her neighbors said behind the wall.

            “Oh my goodness! Is she alright?!”

            “Yeah. Nick pushed her out of the way in time.”

            “Gracious!”

            “I can tell you when he picked me up; he was shocked to see me in my dress and make-up.”

            “Aww! I told you so!”

            “And he gave me roses.”

            “That’s so sweet!”

            One of the voices said, “When do you think you’ll go out again?”

            Fru-Fru said on the phone, “Neighbors again?”

            Judy sighed, “Yes…”

            “You really need to move out, girl.”

            “I know, that’s why Nick’s going to help me look for a new apartment once everything with Gazelle has been straightened out.”

            Fru-Fru gave a sly look, “You know if my father heard you said that, he would think that you were moving in together…”

            “Well that’s certainly not the case, but does he have a problem of couples living together before marriage?”

            “Well, Daddy is a traditional shrew… After all he took pride in me getting married.”

            “That is true…”

            “When do you think we’ll hear your wedding bells?”

            Judy blushed, “Not for awhile, that’s for sure… but… I have no doubt in my mind that Nicholas P. Wilde is the one for me!”

            Fru-Fru clapped her hands together.

            “Aww…” the voices said.

            Judy drowned them out as she imagined her wedding, at the station or her hometown. She was wearing a white gown and was walking down that aisle, to where her groom was. Her best friend, Nick Wilde.

Chapter Text

Nick woke up with a startle, did he seriously just dream of his and Judy’s wedding? The place was fuzzy on where they were at, but there was no mistaking Judy in a white gown and veil, with her father escorting her down and giving her away to him, where they said their vows.

            Kind-of jumping the gun aren’t you, Wilde? You just started dating, there’s no guarantee that it’s going to last that long. No matter how much you want it to… He never met anyone like Judy before. When they first met she was some innocent cop that didn’t know a con job when she saw one until after the fact. Sure he damped her spirits but she got back at him when he was needed as a witness. Blackmail. He hated her for that sure, but he was impressed later on. How they always upped each other was amazing. She understood him.

            Having her for a partner on the force was great but being a partner for life would be even better.

            He slowly got up and reached for a small old cardboard box beneath his bed in the apartment he got after he started getting a decent salary from his new honest job. He opened it up to see the things he had from his previous relationships, most of them were actually just dates he used to pull off another con job. But he held a picture booth picture in his paw of him and a female fox, behind the picture it said, ‘To my favorite fox! (heart) Vivian’. Vivian was the longest relationship he ever had with until the day he decided he would propose marriage to her only to find her place empty and with a note telling him she had been seeing another fox on the side and left with him.

            Other then when he been muzzled, Nick had never felt so heartbroken in his life. It was another crack on his heart he knew that was never going to fix. But when Judy came along… it was like she cemented that crack. Nick threw the picture back in the box and shoved it back in it’s hiding place. He didn’t understand completely why he didn’t get rid of the box but he figured it was part of his philosophy in life. Never let them see they get to you. They were reminders that they didn’t get to him, no matter how painful.

            After everything that happened with Vivian, he couldn’t bring himself to dating foxes again. That was probably why he was attracted to Judy during the Night Howler case, she was refreshing as a different species and for her to be so much like him… But he knew he had to take it easy, dating was a key moment in their growing relationship. Chances are they won’t get romantically involved in the future and just end up being co-workers and friends. But there was no way of knowing that if they couldn’t get some alone time together whenever duty calls.

            He got some cereal and started getting ready to put on his uniform when his phone rang and saw Judy’s picture. He answered it.

            “Hey, Carrots. Sleep well?”

            “Yes, I did. You?”

            “Oh, somewhat.”

            “Had a bad dream?”

            “Well, I wouldn’t call it bad per say… More like surprising.”

            “Huh. So, ready to start the day with protecting Gazelle?”

            “I’m always ready, Carrots, but it would be better if the Chief had assigned someone else for bodyguard duty.”

            “Oh come on, I know you better than that, you’re flattered that we were chosen because you’re a hero.”

            “Had you known the chandelier was out of whack, you would have been the one saving Gazelle.”

            “I can’t believe it, is this the same Nick Wilde I’ve met on the streets with his smooth talk actually being humble?”

            “It’s temporary, I assure you.”

            “What exactly happened last night to make you act this way?”

            A rabbit in a white dress that’s what…

            He just smiled and replied, “Who knows, Carrots… Who knows…”

            “I know you’re still disappointed we couldn’t get dinner after the party, a chance for us to sit down and talk about things. There’s so much I want to share with you.”

            “Really? What’s stopping you from telling me now?”

            “Because it’s important and it calls for something special…” she smirked from the camera phone. “It’s like you said, it’s my first time in a relationship, I want to make it last.”

            “I want to make it last too, Judy… But you know there’s no guarantee we’ll… end up that way. We could just be what we started out as…”

            “Rivals?”

            “I was going to say frienemies.”

            She laughed.

            He said, “All joking aside. If this doesn’t work out like we hoped it would, can we agree right now, that we’ll still be friends and partners?”

            “Of course. I need you in my life, Nick.”

            “And I need you.”

            “But we can worry about that when the time comes. Right now, I believe we can make it as a couple.”

            He scoffed, “That is if we can make it past the first step.”

            “Once we know Gazelle is safe, I promise we’ll have that date.”

            He checks his digital clock, “Speaking of which, when are you going to get here?”

            “I’m already on the way. Just make sure you’re ready to go.”

            He shook his head in amusement, “See you in a moment, Carrots.” and he hung up.

            Nick was playing with the many buttons that Gazelle’s stretch limo had. One had controlled a mini bar, another lowered and raised the seat, and another opened the sun roof.

            “Judy check this out!” he put on his shades that made him hot, of course, Judy would never admit that to him without inflating his ego more. He went up to the open roof.

            She was getting on an annoyed look that her partner wasn’t acting professional at all. Gazelle saw it and just smiled.

            “Don’t worry, I know that animals aren’t as fortunate as me… It was not that long ago that I was young and hoping to make it big.”

            “Yeah… I know from your personal bio you had a hit album from the moment you graduated high school and had top songs since then, but nothing about your life before that.”

            “Yes, I liked keeping my personal life private.”

            “At the party, Carlos said you were a soloist in the choir.”

            “I’ve always loved music, ever since I was a little gazelle.”

            “Were… other animals jealous of your talent? I’m not going to lie, if I had a talent like yours I wouldn’t have wanted to be a cop.”

            “I… don’t know… I don’t like thinking the worst in anyone. That’s why I dislike how Bellwether planned to divide Zootopia. We shouldn’t have to hate anyone for anything. That’s why I’m so grateful you and your partner saved the city, it was proof that we can live in the same place without fear…”

            “Me, too. That’s why I hate seeing you getting hurt like this, the only theory I have is someone wants to get rid of you for some reason.”

            Nick came down and put his shades away as he sat back down.

            Judy filled in on what he missed, “Gazelle has told me a little about herself before making it big.”

            Gazelle said to Nick, “I’m curious to know if you give your friend his autograph.”

            Nick gave his usual smirk, “We did and he almost fainted.”

            Judy was smiling, confirming what he said.

            Gazelle also smiled, “I do what I can to make animals of Zootopia happy.”

            Judy pointed out, “Meeting you in person would make him even more happy.”

            “And I would love to meet him.”

            Nick cringed, “You sure about that?”

            “I’m aware of fans being out of control…”

            “Oh, Ben isn’t like that!” Judy quickly said, “He just gets a little overexcited, but he’s a very sweet officer and takes his job quite seriously.”

            “That’s good to know. You should bring him to the studio tomorrow.”

            “Is that where we’re headed right now?” Nick inquired.

            “Yes, I have a recording session to record my latest song from the concert.”

            “Nick and I were there! ‘Try Everything’ has to be one of my new favorites!”

            Gazelle tittered, “I’m glad you think so.”

            The limo came to a stop and the driver opened the door for the singer and Nick and Judy followed after her. Just as they were about to enter the building, Judy’s ears suddenly picked up a sound of something, falling… She looked up and saw a flower pot heading for Gazelle!

            “Watch out!” she said as she pushed the popstar out of the way.

            When the pot landed with a crash, Nick exclaimed, “Not again!” he turned to his partner, “Good call, Carrots.”

            They looked up and saw no one was around, but Nick’s keen eye sight spotted an open window on the 3^rd floor…

            “Thank goodness you were not hurt!” Carlos said as they were in the studio and Judy updated him of what just happened.

            “I really don’t understand what is going here…” Gazelle said with sadness in her tone. “I’ve always consider myself a peaceful creature why would anyone want to hurt me?”

            “That’s what we’re going to find out.” Judy assured her and asked Carlos, “Mind if we look around?”

            “By all means! I want to know who is responsible for these terrible occurrences!”

            “We’ll get on it.” said Nick and him and Judy left the recording booth.

            They went to the 3^rd floor to find the open window. When they did, they searched the area of any clue the perpetrator could have left. So far it looked like a clean get away.

            Judy said while still searching the floor, “It had to be a guest at the party, because there is no way anyone could have gotten in to mess with the chandelier without being on the list.”

            “But that’s over twenty suspects! Are you suggesting we question everyone who was at that party?”

            “Not without some evidence… So far we got nothing leading us to…” she stopped when saw something shining on the ground. It was a ring. A class ring. “Nick… I think I got something…”

Chapter Text

They were walking back to the recording studio as Judy held the ring up to show Nick, “A Zootopia High School ring. See the little designs of musical notes around the ring? That meant they were either in band or choir.”

            “I get the ring is a good find but why should it matter of what extracurricular activity they did?”

            “Because, Gazelle was in choir in high school as a soloist! So someone from her past could be sabotaging her!”

            “That sounds a bit farfetch, Carrots…”

            “We’ll just have to wait and ask Gazelle if this ring means anything to her.”

            They saw Gazelle was recording in the sound booth and they couldn’t find Carlos anywhere. The sound mixer working the controls was a buck, as he had his antlers help him reach buttons he couldn’t with his hooves.

            Judy couldn’t help admire the way Gazelle was singing into the microphone, she had such an amazing voice.

            “She is so awesome.” she couldn’t help blurting out.

            The buck heard her, “You’re just about the few loyal fans she still has.”

            Judy frowned, “What do you mean?”

            “Gazelle is slowly losing popularity.”

            “What? No!”

            “Ooh, tough break, Carrots. I feel sorry for Gazelle, she’s not bad.”

            “Yeah, the manager of the studio is worried, Gazelle was their biggest hit, profits were coming in like you wouldn’t believe. Carlos is especially worried for his star. That’s why he’s trying hard to raise her publicity.”

            “Is that why he’s not here now?” Nick asked.

            “As an agent he’s very busy.”

            “Well I would think he would want to be here right now, keeping tabs on his meal ticket.”

            “Nick!”

            He smacked his forehead, “Not like that, Judy…”

            “Well, you can’t joke something like that not after the scare we had from the Night Howlers.”

            “Right, my bad.”

            When the buck signaled the end of the recording, Gazelle came to them.

            “Did you find anything?”

            “We sure did.” she held out the ring.

            Gazelle gasped, “I know this ring! It’s the one my class wore in high school! I have a similar one at home!”

            Nick questioned, “Think we can see it?”

            “Yes, I won’t be needed anytime soon, we can-“

            “You are not going anywhere!” Carlos came into the room, “You have to prepare for a photo shoot this afternoon!”

            “Carlos…” Gazelle gave a stern look, “Did you not insist on bringing the police in to protect me?”

            “Well, yes, and that’s their job right now, to look after you while you retain your schedule.”

            “But it is also their job to figure out who is trying to hurt me, and they found something that could help! Now we are leaving and I don’t know when I’ll be back, but this cannot wait.” she went pass him.

            Nick whispered to Judy, “I like her.”

            They were back at the penthouse, and Nick and Judy were sitting on a loveseat as a tiger butler was serving them while Gazelle was searching her room and came back with a ring and a book. She showed them the ring then the yearbook.

            “When we were set to order class rings, the choir and I decided to have matching rings, to show we would always have a love of music.” she open the book to a class photo of the choir. “Perhaps this will help narrow your search?”

            They looked over the picture until Nick gasped and Judy looked up to see her partner had turned pale like he seen a ghost.

            “Nick? What is it?”

            He pointed to a pretty fox in the second row on the far left.

            “I knew her…” he uttered.

            “Who?”

            Gazelle looked and said, “You knew Vivian?”

            He slowly nodded.

            “I don’t understand, how do you know her?” Judy asked.

            “She’s…” he gulped, “my ex-girlfriend.”

            They were back at the precinct and Judy hadn’t spoken since Nick’s revelation. He was getting worried that his partner was mad at him for not saying something sooner, but how was he supposed to know that Vivian and Gazelle went to the same high school let alone be in the same choir?! He decided to ease into it.

            “Carrots… uh, Judy… sure you’re okay?”

            “I’m fine.” she stated.

            “I know it was a shock…”

            “Shock? Shock?! Shock doesn’t begin to describe it!” she yelled causing half the station to look their way.

            “I know you had past dating experiences but to see the fox that use to…” a number of things came to her head, Kiss you… hold you… love you… She’s so pretty… and I’m… tears started falling and Nick grabbed a tissue box from Clawhauser and offered it to her.

            She took one to wipe her eyes and blew her nose. Nick saw his nosy co-workers still looking and glared at them, they knew that was their cue to go back to work. His gaze softened at the rabbit and hugged her, “Tell me what’s troubling you.”

            “It’s just… hard seeing you and her… and how you had something together… How… close were you?”

            He winced, he knew she wasn’t going to like the answer, “Are… you sure you want to know?”

            That did it for Judy as she bawled.

            “Carrots… Judy…” he sighed, “That came out wrong, I should have told you how we broke up and then pointed out why you’re so much better than her.”

            That made her tears stop and stared at him.

            “She cheated on me.”

            She covered her mouth, and whispered, “Oh… Nick… I’m so sorry.”

            “Forget it, after all what’s my motto?” he was trying to lighten up the situation.

            She gave a small smile, “Never let them see they get to you.”

            “Exactly. She was the past, Carrots. You… are my future.”

            In one swift move she grabbed his face and kissed him on the lips, not caring a wit if anyone saw, that was the sweetest thing she heard Nick say to her. I can hear the bells…

            Nick was shock by the sudden impact but he ended up closing his eyes to the bliss. Am I hearing bells?

            Turns out those bells were coming from the front desk as Clawhauser was busy answering calls but the lovers didn’t notice. They however came out of it when a voice shouted at them.

            “Wilde! Hopps!”

            It was the chief as they turned to him and returned to their professional roles as officers.

            “Why aren’t you with Gazelle?!” he demanded.

            “Relax, Chief,” said Judy, “She’s safe back at her penthouse where her security guards are watching out for her and we called in patrol cars that were nearby to survey the streets. We just got a big break of whosever causing the accidents.”

            The large mammal took a breath and they felt the hot air as he lowered down to them, “And yet you don’t seem to be in a hurry to catch them…”

            Nick spoke up, “Well, sir, there was information that caught us off-guard, and we were…”

            “I am very well aware of what you two were doing. I would be stupid to say that I didn’t see this coming. I knew it would be a matter of time before you two would care less about protocol and I’m happy for you, really, but the fact reminds that you still have a job to do, so whatever information you have you put it to good use! Is that understood?”

            “Yes, sir.” they both said.

            He grunted and walked on.

            “Did… the chief just give us his blessing?” Nick questioned.

            “We’ll worry about that later, right now, we have a fox to track down.” she headed for their office.

            It was nighttime when the duo made it to the low sectors of Savanna Central and stopped at a run-down house. They went up to the door and Judy was about to knock when she turned to her partner, smirking.

            “Why don’t you do it? You’re a cop now and this is your girlfriend’s house.”

            He glared at her, “Payback, uh?”

            “It’s called a hustle, sweetheart.”

            “That was my line first, you know.” and he went to the door and knocked.

            There was a pause before the door opened a crack and a feminine voice said, “Yes?”

            Nick tilted his head in confusion, “Vivian? Is that you?”

            “Who wants to know?”

            “It’s me. Nicky…”

            “Nicky…?” Judy said under her breath.

            He gave her a look, saying, ‘just go with it’.

            “Nicky? Nicky Wilde?!” she opened the door all the way and flung her arms around him, “I do declare! It’s been so long!” she batted her eyes.

            Nick was feeling uncomfortable while Judy was glaring daggers at the pretty fox. She cleared her throat reminding Nick why they were there.

            “Um, Vivian,” he removed her arms from him and stepped back to get closer to Judy, “as much as I agree it’s been a long time, I can’t forget that little note you gave me before you walked out of my life.”

            Vivian mocked a pout, “Oh… Nicky… I’m sorry… I just couldn’t help myself… It was not you personally, it was me… I just wanted something more.”

            “Well you would have gotten it if you hadn’t cheated on me and accepted my proposal.”

            “What?!” both the fox and Judy shouted out.

            Crud… Sorry, Judy… I meant to tell you… but not like this.

            Vivian was speechless, “You… were going to ask me to marry you?”

            “Well… yes. I really thought we had something, because not two minutes ago I saw you were putting on the mask to hide your true self, that’s something we always had, pretending to be something we’re not. Except I didn’t see the mask as real sometimes…” he had resentment in his tone, “You almost had me there… thinking you loved me but you didn’t…”

            Vivian was silent for a bit before she said in a soft voice, “Nicky… I did love you… but my heart… it wondered… I’m sorry I ever made you feel that way and I can see now that I made the wrong choice…”

            Before Nick could reply to that there was a baby cry coming from inside and Vivian had a concerned look on her face.

            “Please, come inside.” she ushered them in.

            They looked around the quaint house and Vivian came back holding a tiny kit in her arms. Judy was in awe.

            “My son, Joel.”

            Nick rubbed his neck, “Cute kid. So… where’s his dad?”

            “He left. The minute Joel was born, he just went on…”

            He hung his head, “I’m sorry…” Judy sadly nodded her head in agreement.

            “I’m the one who should be sorry… I left a good guy and I didn’t bother to tell him to his face that I cheated on him. I deserve this fate.”

            “No.” Judy spoke for the first time, “No one deserves this fate, yes, what you did to Nick was terrible, but you have to look at the plus side of all this, you have a son, that I can see you love so much.”

            Vivian smiled, “I do…” she kissed the kit’s forehead.

            “And we need your help in something, that’s the reason why we’re here. Even though Nicky needed the closure too.” she smirked.

            “Just get to the point, Carrots.”

            She took out the ring, “Do you recognize this?”

            Vivian got a good look and her eyes widen, “That’s the class ring I had with the choir in my high school.”

            “That’s right, the same school you went with Gazelle.”

            “Gazelle? I don’t remember Gazelle was in…” she then realized, “Oh! Giselle! Of course!”

            “Huh?” both Nick and Judy said.

            “Gazelle is her stage name, Giselle was her real name in school before we had the big concert where her agent discovered her and made her the star she is now.”

            Nick said, “Uh, I wonder why Giselle didn’t tell us that.”

            “It’s like she told me, she doesn’t like talking about her personal life, so I guess her name was personal too.”

            “We were close as a choir, and we were so happy for Giselle when she made it big.”

            “How come you never told me you knew Gazelle while we were dating?”

            “You never seemed to have an interest in Gazelle so it was never brought up.”

            Judy gestured, “I know what you mean, I practically had to drag him to the concert a few nights ago.”

            “I noticed Nicky, that you’re a police officer now. How did that happen?”

            “Long story.”

            “We got time, I am curious as to what you had been up to since… our relationship ended.”

            They took a seat as Vivian had set Joel in his bassinet and Nick relented all that happened to him.

            “…And now Judy is my partner and we’re currently dating…” Nick finished.

            Vivian sighed, “You’ve come a long way Nicky…”

            “So have you.”

            Joel started fussing and Vivian was about to pick him up, when Judy volunteered, “I can calm him down, I know a trick or two when I’m babysitting my goddaughter.” she gently picked up the kit and slowly he began to relax. “Mind if I feed him his bottle?”

            “Not at all, it’s in the kitchen.”

            Judy nodded and headed into the next room.

            Vivian let out another heartfelt sigh, “You picked a good one, Nick…”

            Nick was smiling at where Judy went, “I did…”

            “Just make sure she treats you right, not like me…”

            He chuckled, “That won’t be a problem. And that’s a nice boy you have there.”

            “He’s all I have now that you moved on… I’m not going to lie, when I saw you at the door, I thought I had a chance to make things right, and have the fox that truly loved me back in my life…”

            “Sorry, Viv… Maybe if I had never met Judy we could have the life I wanted with you, but as it is… I can’t live without her…” his phone suddenly vibrated and he saw Clawhauser’s picture, he answered, “Hello-“

            “Nick! Gazelle has almost been kidnapped!”

Chapter Text

Police cars were flashing their lights as Judy and Nick made it back to Gazelle’s penthouse building. They got some details from Clawhauser but he was blubbering most of the time so it was hard understanding him.

            Judy said, “He said there was a blackout?”

            “Yeah, all that was reported was that the entire building went dark and Gazelle was almost taken by someone.”

            “The chief won’t be happy that this happen on our watch.”

            “He’ll want that in the report, no doubt.” he bitterly said.

            When they made it to the penthouse, Clawhauser was already there offering Gazelle a cup of hot chocolate. They were impressed of how Ben was acting calm around her.

            “Ben, kind-of surprised to see you out the station.” pointed Nick.

            Clawhauser smiled, “Yeah, Chief thought he needed someone that’s friendly around others,” he lowered his voice, “and he knew what a big fan I was.”

            Judy asked, “Did he warn you to be professional?”

            “Did he ever, over and over again. But I couldn’t make a big deal out of it knowing she had a major scare.”

            They gave a knowing nod and went to Gazelle.

            Judy started, “Gazelle, we are so sorry! We never should have left you.”

            “Please, no, it wasn’t your fault.”

            “She’s right, Carrots, for all we know the same thing could have happen even if we had been here.”

            “But we were still responsible for her safety.”

            “As frighten as I am, I cannot stop living my life and you are doing your job finding who is trying to hurt me.”

            Nick said, “We were questioning Vivian when Clawhauser called us and told us what happen.”

            “Is that the officer I met?” she pointed to the cheetah as he was handling cocoa to the security guards as paramedics were looking after them.

            Nick smirked, “And the one who wanted your autograph.”

            Gazelle smiled, “You were right, he is very sweet, when he came here he wondered if I was alright, we talked for a bit and he was very pleasant…” her eyes ended up staring at the cheetah which Ben saw and gave a timid wave.

            The rabbit and fox were amazed of how Ben kept composed around Gazelle. Had they met under less stressful conditions, they were sure he would be geeking out.

            “Do you know if he’s seeing anyone?” she asked.

            They gawked at what she just said.

            Judy was flabbergasted, “Gazelle… are you telling us you want to…”

            “I’m just curious.”

            “As far as we know he’s not seeing anyone.” said Nick.

            “Could you ask?”

            Judy mentioned, “Of course we can, if you’re really interested.”

            “I am.”

            Nick rubbed his paws, “This will be a snap.” and he walked over to Ben, pulling him to the side, “Say, Ben, just out of curiosity, are you seeing anyone?”

            Clawhauser raised his brow, “That would be nice, but I’m not as lucky as you and Judy,” he gave a small chuckle, “yeah, I caught that smooch…”

            “As private as that was, I’m more interested if you want to date someone.”

            “Oh! Do you have a friend or cousin that needs one?”

            He briefly glanced back at Gazelle, “You might say that.”

            “Oh, I would be happy to go out with her!”

            “Great, Because…” he turned the cheetah’s head toward Gazelle, “that’s her.”

            Clawhauser gasped and sputtered, “You mean… Gazelle and me… We…” he started to lose his balance and fainted.

            Nick told the paramedics, “Officer down!” and he casually walked back to Judy and Gazelle.

            Judy asked in concern, “Is he alright?”

            “Oh he’s fine, just got a little starstuck when he realized he was going on a date with his favorite singer.” he told the gazelle, “You’ll have to work out the details once he wakes up.”

            She giggled, “There’s just something about him… He’s very nice and I can tell he enjoys talking to animals just like I like to make them happy with my singing.”

            Judy was smiling as she realized she was right and looked at Ben coming out of his trance, You know… They actually wouldn’t make a bad couple… She ended up looking at her foxy lover who gave her a confused look but she just smirked.

            Gazelle continued to spoke, “Tell me, how did things go with Vivian? How she is?”

            Judy went back to business as she gave her the details of their visit.

            They were outside the penthouse door later that night and were sitting on folding chairs as they had gotten a strict order from the chief to stay close to Gazelle for the rest of the night and that he would come first thing in the morning so they could get some rest themselves.

            Nick yawned, “Sure has been an exciting day, uh, Carrots?”

            “Yeah…” she softly said.

            He could tell something was off, “What’s wrong?”

            “Well, it’s what you told Vivian, before we went into her house…”

            “Oh.” he gave a guilty look, which was rare with him, “I didn’t mean for you to find out that way… I’m sorry.”

            “I suppose it was unavoidable… but still… it kind-of stung, knowing you were that close to marrying someone else…”

            “I know…” he somberly said, “But I never got the chance to propose, not when she ran off with another fox that was much more handsome than me I’m sure.”

            “I can’t see that, you’re the most handsome fox I ever seen.”

            He smirked, “I’m the only fox you’ve ever known.”

            Judy knew she had to tell him, she wanted to save it for the date but given their lack of chances, she had to say something now.

            “That’s… not true.”

            He look at her with his brow raising.

            “You remember the fox spray I had?”

            He nodded. Kind-of hard not to…

            “I told you my parents gave it to me because they had little views of predators, well… there was another reason…”

            He wasn’t saying anything and kept listening.

            “There was a fox named Gideon Gray, he was the bully of my hometown.”

            She could see Nick scowling to know where this was going.

            “He was taking carval tickets from some bunnies and I stepped in to get them back, he pushed me to the ground and…” she couldn’t finish and instead touched her cheek to lift the fur, revealing the three small scars, she heard Nick gasping and gave a small growl.

            “He… he did that to you…?”

            She slowly nodded.

            He let out a frustrated grunt, “Had you told me… Had I’d known that’s why you kept that spray and told those things to the press…” tears started escaping him, “Judy… I’m so sorry…”

            She cupped her paws to his face, “No, Nick… I’m glad you didn’t know… It made me open my eyes that I was hiding a fear I didn’t know I had, and guess what? When I went back to my parents’ farm, I saw Gideon again and he was sorry for what he done to me… He’s in the pie business now and working with my parents.” she smiled.

            His eyes were wide, “Really?”

            “Uh-huh. See? Everything worked out in the end…”

            “That’s true… but… I’m still a dumb fox for judging you like that…”

            She laughed and moved in for a hug.

            “…a dumb fox…” the recorder played and she looked up to see him holding the carrot pen.

            She smirked, “Makes us even, uh? Now give it to me.”

            He stood up, “You have to catch me first.” and started running.

            “Hey!” she playfully said and went after him, managing to tackle him and started tickling him.

            “Oh no! The cute bunny’s got me!” he laughed.

            “Give up, Officer Wilde?”

            “Go ahead and arrest me, Officer Hopps, because I surrender.” he passed the pen to her and started sitting up. He sighed, “This is the closest we’re going to get to alone time isn’t it?”

            She sighed as well, “What it would be like to be like other civilians, right now other couples are done having dinner or finished dancing and are probably on a moonlight stroll, holding paws, sharing a kiss…”

            “Meanwhile, a cop couple gets reprimanded for sharing one kiss and has to keep following protocol…”

            “I know… it’s been agony for me too…”

            “I wonder… would it be better if one of us quits the force? And by “we” I mean “me” because this has been your lifelong dream and I don’t want you giving up on it.”

            “Don’t say things like that! If anything that’s just going make it worst! We would hardly see other if I was the one who kept working! At least now we can be together, it’s not much privacy, but at least we’re working together.”

            He rubbed his neck, “I guess I’m just feeling frustrated that we can’t solve this mystery any quicker. Every time we think we’re close, we’re one step back.”

            “I’ve been thinking, twice now something has happen to Gazelle in her penthouse. What if we move her to a safer location? It’ll give us a chance to move further in the case without having to worry about her safety.”

            “What kind-of safe location did you have in mind?”

            “I would think it would be obvious, whose home has giant polar bears protecting it and would like to ice anyone who likes to cause harm?”

            “Oh no…”

            “Why so down? I thought you were on good terms with him again?”

            “Only because of you. He trusts you completely, but even with this badge on my shirt he doesn’t have much faith in me.”

            “Give it time, you did after all sold a skunk rug which he buried his grandmother in. You’re doing so much good for the city, he’ll see that and realized you were mislead and are now on better path.”

            “I hope you’re right, Carrots…”

            When morning had arrived, Judy told Bogo of her plan and with Gazelle’s consent, he agreed to it. Once they dropped her off at Mr. Big’s house in Tundra Town, Judy and Nick were allowed to get some sleep. Once they stopped at his apartment, he noticed how tired Judy was and was afraid she would get into an accident if she kept on driving to her apartment. Before he got out he grabbed the keys.

            “Nick! What are you doing?!”

            “You’re in no condition to drive, Judy. I can tell from those bags under your eyes, even your ears are drooping in exhaustion. Come on, you’re coming in my apartment.” he gently held her and carried her out of the car.

            “I can walk by myself.”

            “Not taking a chance.”

            Judy looked annoyed but secretly she thought this was one of the sweetest things he’s ever done. And it also made her realize that this could be good practice for when he carried her over the threshold… There’s those bells again…

            Not realizing it was just wind chimes from the house next to the complex.

            “Think of it this way, Carrots, at least you don’t have to worry about those noisy neighbors disturbing your beauty sleep.”

            She released a giggle. He was right.

            “Are you sure you want to sleep on the couch?” she asked from the bed.

            “I’ll be fine, it’s you I’m more worried about, we both know you’re the brains of this partnership.”

            She rolled her eyes, “Yeah, right. You’re pretty smart yourself. Selling pawsicles to lemmings for a large sum of money, then using the leftover sticks for construction to sell to mice in Little Rodantia. You had all your bases covered. You may have been a con but you were a clever con.”

            He crossed his arms, “If I was so clever how did you figure out my tax evasion?”

            She giggled and laid down, “Good night, Nick.”

            “Technically, it’s good morning, but it’s nighty-night for us anyway.” he went on the couch and fluffed up the pillow he had and pulled the blanket over him. “Night to you too, Carrots…” but he could see she was already fast asleep, he smiled, Good call, Wilde… Good call… and he fell asleep.

Chapter Text

It was late in the afternoon when Judy and Nick woke up and headed over to Big’s place. A polar bear escorted them into Mr. Big’s office where the shrew was waiting for them.

            “How is she?” Judy asked.

            “She is doing very well, I had my servants treat her as the important animal she is. Zootopia would be lost without her, bringing her here was the smartest thing to do.”

            “Where is she now?” Nick inquired.

            “In the nursery with Fru-Fru and little Judy.”

            They went down the hall and saw Gazelle leaning on a table with Fru-Fru on it as there was crib holding the baby shrew.

            Both of them were humming a lullaby and Judy took that as an oppunity to join them and stared happily at the shrew that was named after her.

            Fru-Fru smiled up at her then made a shushing gesture as she started climbing into her paws and they moved out of the room. They were sitting in a living room as a polar bear served them drinks.

            “Gazelle and I spent the whole day playing with little Judy.”

            “She is just the sweetest thing. I can see why she was named after her godmother.”

            Fru-Fru told her rabbit best friend, “I can’t wait until you become a mother, Judy.”

            Nick spit his drink out of shock and started coughing, “It’s a bit early to discuss that, isn’t it?”

            “Oh! Sorry! But just the thought of it makes me happy, just think, our kids can grow up together.”

            “I would like nothing more.” Judy smiled until it faltered, “But Nick’s right, we have take it slow before we get to that.”

            Gazelle asked Nick, “Do you not want children?”

            Nick looked down at his drink and started swirling the ice cube in it, “Wanting kids isn’t the problem, getting them however…”

            Judy knew she had to change the subject, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, right now, we have a case to solve. All we have is a ring and a class photo…”

            “Gazelle told me about the blackout, so awful that she was almost kidnapped like that.”

            “All I know is the room went dark and someone grabbed my arm and started taking me, I fought out of his grip and then the lights came back on and I saw my guards were knocked out and whoever tried to take me was gone…”

            Fru-Fru shook her head, “When I was growing up, Daddy made sure I was protected so no one could kidnap me and use me for leverage against him.”

            “Is he doing the same for little Judy?” Nick asked.

            “Yes.”

            Judy asked the singer, “Are you feeling safe here?”

            “I do, and I’m surrounded by good animals caring about family, but all the same, I would like to get back to my life soon.”

            “You got it.” Nick said.

            “As long as you stay here we can go and find the culprit.” she started standing up and her partner followed.

            They said their goodbyes and headed out.

            Nick and Judy had a list of Gazelle’s past choir classmates’ current addresses. Some of them lived out of Zootopia, so it seemed unlikely that they would come a long way just to drop things on Gazelle’s head but Nick pointed out that they could be staying at hotels or with friends.

            “We’ll have to check that out.” she made a note.

            They stopped at an apartment complex and questioned the landlord of where Gina Grazer was at and he pointed to a nightclub down the street. They saw the nightclub had a poster and the title said, ‘Gina, the Gazelle Impersonator.’

            The cops exchanged an odd look and went inside.

            They looked around the area when Nick pointed out, “Hey, look whose here.”

            Judy turned and gapped seeing Finnick at the table.

            Nick smirked, “Might as well go over and say hello.”

            “Are you sure that’s a good idea? He could be mad at you for leaving.”

            “Finnick doesn’t care I left. When I told him I was heading off to the academy he just gave a “meh”.”

            “Okay, he may not be mad at you but he could be mad at me for stealing his partner in crime.”

            “It’s cool, Carrots, Finnick and I go way back.”

            She gave an unsure look.

            “Come on, it’ll be fine.” he led her to the table as he addressed his old associate, “Hey! Finnick! Long time no see!”

            The fennec fox gave an emotionless expression, “What are you two doing here? Tracking a seedy drug lord or something…?”

            “Good to see you too, Finnick.” the red fox stated.

            Judy said, “We’re on a case of figuring out who is trying to hurt Gazelle and we need to question Gina who was an old classmate of hers.”

            “Well, she’ll be coming up soon, but you’ll have wait until after her performance.”

            Nick questioned, “Come here often?”

            “Let’s just say business has been slow since you joined the hustler here.”

            Judy glared at her partner, saying, ‘I told you so’.

            “Wow, if I didn’t know any better I would say you were intimated by Judy.”

            “Not. I don’t care that you two teamed up since the Night Howlers, I’m just more upset that with you as a cop now, I have to be more careful with my business.”

            Nick lowered his voice, “You know… if you help us find our felon we can turn a blind eye on your… activities…”

            Judy was appalled by the idea while Finnick was intrigued.

            “Nick! We can’t! That’s-“

            “Says the bunny cop that blackmailed a fox con and tried to offer a deal to a shrew crime boss.”

            “I- Argh! Fine!”

            “About time he hustled you back…” he gave a chuckle and took a casual sip of his drink, “So, when’s the wedding?”

            “Uh…” they ended up saying with a blush creeping up their faces.

            Fortunately, they didn’t have to respond when the lights on the stage came on and a voice from behind the curtain filled the place.

            Judy recognized it as one of Gazelle’s songs then the gazelle showed up as the curtain lifted, and she was amazed of how Gina looked exactly like Gazelle, she was dressed like Gazelle, her hair was alined the same way as Gazelle’s, the only difference was the voice and dance moves. Gazelle didn’t sound like that nor did she dance like that. Being the hardcore fan she was, she memorized all of Gazelle’s songs and moves.

            She’s good… but not that good…

            “Whoa…” she heard Nick say, “She really is a Gazelle impersonator.”

            “Not really… her voice is too low and her moves aren’t as flexible… a true Gazelle fan can tell the difference, I bet you a gallon of blueberries that Clawhauser can give you a list of things wrong with this act.”

            “Now there’s a bet I would lose.” he smirked, “Would you still give me a gallon of blueberries?”

            “Next time when we visit my parents.”

            They went back to watching the act and when Gina finished up there was applauding and cheering.

            Judy signaled, “Let’s go.”

            They headed backstage and founded Gina’s dressing room.

            Judy did the knocking with Gina calling out, “Yes?”

            “ZPD, we need to talk to you, Ms. Grazer.”

            The door opened and the gazelle had a different hair color and style then the one she had before on stage.

            Nick stated, “Officers Wilde and Hopps.” they showed their badges, “We have a few questions to ask you regarding the “accidents” to singing sensation, Gazelle.”

            “Accidents? What kind-of accidents?” Gina asked with a concerned look.

            Judy replied, “Things have been falling too close to Gazelle and we have reason to believe that an old classmate of hers is trying to hurt her.”

            Nick took out the ring, “Are you familiar with this?”

            “Why… yes, that’s the ring we used in choir.”

            “Can we see your ring?” Judy asked.

            “I’m afraid I don’t have it on me at the moment. Sorry.”

            Nick said, “That’s fine, we just want to know where you were last night.”

            “I was here, getting ready for my show you can ask any one of the stage hands.”

            “We will.” said Judy.

            “Just out of curiosity, why pretend to be Gazelle? You obvious have your own talent of singing.” pointed Nick.

            “Gazelle or Giselle as that is her real name…”

            “We know.” said Judy.

            “She was my best friend back in school, we even grew up in the same neighborhood. We did everything together, and then… when we joined the choir, Gazelle was noticed right away by the teacher of having the most beautiful voice of whole chorus, that she was given the privilege of singing solos…” she paused then kept speaking, “I was happy for her, she really was a great singer and she deserved it. As her friend, I wanted to be just like her, and so I help those who can’t afford tickets to her concerts by imitating her.”

            “Huh.” Nick touched his chin in thought, he was quite impressed by the idea. “You make a good point, my partner here is a Gazelle fan and just this week it took half of her salary to buy the concert tickets.”

            “It may have been costly, but it was worth it.” the bunny stated.

            “Is there anything else I can help you with, officers?”

            Judy sighed, “No, that’s all. Just make sure to stick around, in case we’ll need to question you again.”

            “Of course.”

            They went out after questioning the stage hands and it seem that Gina had a solid alible. Nick met up with Finnick and started giving him the list of addresses that Gazelle’s old classmates lived outside the city while Judy waited in their squad car.

            “Look around and see if you can find them staying with family or friends. Judy and I will be checking the hotels.”

            “I’ll do it, just remember your part of the deal.”

            The fox gasped dramatically, “Finnick! I’m surprised at you! We’ve been working together for how long and you won’t trust me?”

            “You’re one of the fezz now, I don’t trust fezz…” he glanced at Judy. “But for old time sakes… I’ll take your word but you might want to keep an eye on your partner to make sure she’ll keep her word and I wasn’t kidding when I asked when the wedding was.”

            “Fin, we just started dating, we’re hardly ready for marriage.”

            “Dating is fine, but you better not wait too long… When she came back to the city that day to find you, she was so desperate. I knew then it was more than a friendship you two gained on your little adventure.”

            The taller fox was surprised by this info, “I knew she was being emotional… but how desperate was she?”

            “Pretty desperate. Like she was afraid she lost you forever.”

            Nick didn’t know what to say.

Finnick merely said, “Like I said, don’t wait too long, you’re never going to find anyone that’s going to care for you as much as her.” and he went on his way.

Chapter Text

They were driving back to the station and Nick had told Judy what Finnick was saying about her keeping her promise to never rat on him and she was grumbling under her breath.

            “What’s got you so uptight?”

            “That… that old partner of yours is impossible! Making sure I keep my word! Did he not see how nice I was when he was pretending to be a kid?! I’m trustworthy! I don’t like that we’re letting him keep on conning but Judy Hopps always stay true to her word!”

            Nick couldn’t help but chuckle.

            “It’s not funny.”

            “I know. But you really are making too much of a big deal out of this. Finnick has a hard time trusting anyone at all. Even when I was teaming up with him to make our latest scheme work, he always made sure I wouldn’t stab him in the back.”

            “For real?” her eyes were wide.

            “More like the emotional betrayal meaning not the physical. Finnick had his share of hardknocks, if you think our childhoods were traumatic you should hear his.”

            “How… how did you find out?”

            “I met his associates over the years, and knew what kind-of crowd he was in. He had it rough. It took him awhile to tell me the whole story.”

            Her ears drooped.

            He gave a reassuring smile, “It’s okay. It’s Finnick’s problem. We got our own problems to deal with, such as finding Gazelle’s attacker and figuring out what to do for our first date.”

            She smirked, “First things first, the attacker, let’s see if the ZPD lab has anything from that chandelier crash.”

            They got to the station where they asked Clawhauser if any of Gazelle’s old classmates was staying at hotels. Then they asked for the results of the chandelier crash.

            Ben was typing away at the computer, “So far, there are no registers of these names in any of the Zootopia hotels. And forensics discovered there were two missing bolts from the chandelier.”

            “Missing bolts?” Judy inquired.

            “Yeah, that’s what caused the chandelier to fall, good thing you guys were there to save Gazelle.”

            Nick smiled, “Yeah, or else you haven’t a date with her. When are you going to have it by the way?”

            Clawhauser widely grinned, “She asked for my number so she can text me once you guys find the attacker and we can go our date!” he squealed. “Hey! We should do a double date!”

            The partners exchanged quick glances and Judy responded, “Maybe some other time, Ben, because that would so awesome… But Nick and I want to have our own personal date first.” she held the fox’s paw.

            “Oh, I getcha.” the cheetah winked. “It really is exciting seeing two fellow officers having a romance on the work force, it’s like a fairy-tale! Before you know it, we’ll have our first police force wedding!”

            The rabbit and fox ended up blushing, and Nick thought before he cleared his throat, First Finnick… now Clawhauser… That dream must be conspiring against me… “Well, there isn’t going to be a wedding if Judy and I can’t have dates like we want to.”

            “But you two have been through so much already, why date?”

            Good question… the both of them ended up thinking without realizing it.

            “Take it from me, I have seen many officers working cases that they have been working on for months, even years! But I have never seen anything like you two, you always manage to solve a case within weeks and bring in the bad guy while you’re at it! The Chief may not show it but he adores you two! You bring him fast results! I also think he secretly ships you two.”

            “He does.” Nick stated. “When he caught us kissing, he told us he was happy for us while chewing us out.”

            Ben let out another squeal, “Oh, I got to put this on my furbook page!” he typed fast.

            “When you’re finished,” started Judy, “think you can run a search of Gazelle’s remaining classmates?”

            “Sure can!” he kept on typing, and he came across a very interesting tidbit of information, “Well, you can cross off Harry Timber of your list of suspects.”

            “Why do you say that?” Nick asked.

            “He’s in the penitentiary for bootlegging DVDs and CDs.”

            “How long is his sentence?” Judy questioned.

            “Five years, he’s already served three so he’s still in prison for the next two.” he read off his rap sheet, “He got caught when a friend told the police on him.”

            “Some friend…” Nick muttered.

            “I got his prison record too, seems to be a pretty calm prisoner.”

            “Well when your sentence is only five years of course you won’t be causing any trouble.” pointed Judy.

            Ben cringed, “Ooh… you won’t like who his cell block neighbor is though…”

            Nick groaned, “Oh no, don’t tell me… not the crazy sheep lady…”

            Clawhauser somberly nodded, “Afraid so.”

            “Well, since this Harry guy isn’t possible to be a suspect we don’t have to visit him.”

            “Not so, Officer Wilde, he could have information we need. If he’s not a suspect he might be more willing to talk.”

            “Do we have to?”

            “Yes.”

            “I still think this is a bad idea, Carrots.” he said as they were entering the prison.

            “We won’t be anywhere near Bellwether. We’re going to be questioning Harry Timber.”

            The warden greeted them then led them to a room where the guards had brought in a wolf in an orange jumpsuit. The warden and guards left them alone.

            Judy started them off, “Mr. Timber, I’m Officer Hopps and this is my partner, Officer Wilde, we have some questions to ask you.”

            Harry took a load off and put his feet on the table, “Go ahead, I got all the time in the world.”

            “Cute.” Nick mentioned and said, “The reason we’re here is because an old classmate of yours as been in a series of “accidents” and has almost been kidnapped. She’s the famous Gazelle now but you might have known her as Giselle.”

            Harry frowned and put his feet down, “You mean to tell me that Giselle has been attacked?”

            “That’s right.” said Judy. “We were wondering if you knew any of your old choir classmates that was willing to hurt her? We found the class ring that Gazelle told us that you all wore during choir.”

            “If they did… If I was out right now, I would personally search for everyone and demand answers if they were the ones who hurt her. But it’s hard to imagine anyone of them could do such a thing. Some of my best friends were in the tenor section with me I can’t see them hurting Giselle.”

            “Animals can change.” Nick pointed.

            “I’m sure no one thought you would end up in prison for bootlegging.” gestured Judy.

            “True, but my life was never really the same after high school. I had it all, a nice home, good friends, and an amazing girlfriend, who was Giselle by the way.”

            “WHAT?!” they shouted out.

            “Yup. She and Gina used to tease me when we were younger, but as we grew up, Giselle apologized for her behavior and we were high school sweethearts from that day on. But the moment she was discovered and when we graduated, we lost contact. Then I lost my home after I told my parents I wanted to start a band instead of going to college, they told me I had to make something of myself. So I was on the streets until I came across the bootlegging business and an associate of mine squealed and that’s how yours truly ended up here.”

            Nick could see Judy was on the edge of tears. He addressed the wolf, “Listen, maybe we can reduce your sentence if you tell us about Giselle’s past. She won’t say anything to us, so maybe you can. Seeing how you two were close.”

            “Could you really?”

            Judy nodded.

            “What would you like to know?”

            “Why don’t you start at the beginning, like your guys’ childhood?” Nick suggested.

            “Well, it’s like I told you, she and Gina used to tease me because I was sort-of a lone wolf, mainly because there weren’t that many predators. Giselle was one of the most popular girls in the school, the prey absolutely adored her.” he could see the shock on their faces. “Yes, it’s hard to believe that Gazelle, a big supporter of diversity in Zootopia used to pick on predators.”

            “What made her change her mind?” they both ended up asking.

            “I don’t know. All I know is that one day, she came up to me and apologized. We started talking and found out we weren’t so different and became good friends and eventually lovers. Because Giselle was still popular no one questioned our relationship, in fact that was when we students started to becoming more accepting of each other, predator and prey. That’s why we had matching rings in the choir to prove that we were alike when it came to the music.”

            Judy uttered, “That’s explains so much…”

            Nick agreed, “It does, no wonder Gazelle wants Zootopia to be this loving place for both predators and prey.”

            “Harry, thank you so much. We’re going to make that request to see if we can get you out soon.”

            “Thank you, and make sure you nail the creep that’s attacking Giselle!” he pounded his fist on the table.

            “We will.” said Nick as him and Judy left the room.

            They were walking down the corridor and Nick said, “That was enlightening.”

            “It certainly was… no wonder she didn’t want anyone knowing about her personal life, she was apparently ashamed of the way she acted when she was younger.” she gave a small chuckle, “Reminds me of Gideon…”

            “You know it makes sense now why she’s your favorite singer, you’re a lot like her.”

            “How so?”

            “Well the fact she was dating a predator in high school and she wants the best for the city, it’s no wonder you love her so much.” he took her paw.

            She smiled at him as they kept walking until her smile faltered the moment she saw the sheep responsible for savaging predators with Night Howlers. Bellwether was being escorted by a guard as she went pass the animals responsible for her capture, the sheep glanced at them and saw they were holding paws.

            She huffed, “Disgusting display.” and was gone around the corner.

            Judy’s blood boiled as she wanted to go after her but Nick held her back.

            “There’s nothing she can do to hurt us anymore…”

            “I just feel like an idiot for trusting her when I did…”

            “There’s no way you could have known… she was this crazy criminal mastermind.”

            She sighed.

            When they were driving back to Tundra Town, Nick pointed out, “So, think we should tell Clawhauser about Gazelle’s old flame?”

            “I think Gazelle has the right to tell him. Much like you should have told me about your own old flame…”

            “Ouch. For the record, I would have told you eventually.”

            “You came that close to getting engaged, I would think the new girlfriend deserves a heads-up that her fox almost married in a previous relationship.”

            “But it didn’t. So stop worrying, Carrots.”

            But Judy couldn’t help but worry. Before they went to Big’s place, she woke up before Nick and was getting up until she noticed the box underneath his bed. Due to her snoopy detective skills, she couldn’t help but investigate. She did feel guilty for going through her boyfriend’s things but when she saw the picture of him and Vivian and the words she wrote to him…

            They looked so happy… it’s amazing that Vivian left him at all…

            When they were back at snow-covered house, they told Gazelle everything about Harry and what he had told them.

            The gazelle somberly sat in the chair, “Oh Harry… What has become of you…?”

            “We’re going to try to reduce his sentence.” said Judy.

            “I hope you do.”

            Nick motioned, “I know it seems like I’m prying but I am dying of curiosity as to what made you change your mind about teasing him.”

            His partner scolded, “Nick, she doesn’t have to tell us if she doesn’t want to.”

            “It doesn’t matter at this point. Harry revealed enough about my childhood. It was true, I did tease him and others because they weren’t as good as me. I had the prey students’ upmost support, it made me feel special… But then one day… I was playing in the park when I overhead a group of kids in the Ranger Scouts,” Judy could see Nick tensing up and reached for his paw to comfort him, Gazelle continued to speak in a broken voice, “they were saying such awful things about how they managed to muzzle an untrustworthy fox… I realized then I was making the similar mistake of teasing students who were predators but I would never go far as to do a thing like that… That terrible conversation opened my eyes that we needed to treat everyone with respect and not hurt them… I quickly apologized to Harry and we became fast friends. Just picturing Harry in a muzzle made me feel so sad that I wanted to do everything I could to protect him and our fellow classmates that were predators.”

            She could see the bewildered looks on their faces.

            “I know I was an awful person…”

            “It’s not that Gazelle…” Nick said in a low tone and took a breath, “I was the fox that those kids muzzled…”

            She covered her mouth in shock and whispered, “Were you really…?”

            “He was…” Judy sadly said.

            Gazelle shook her head, “I’m so sorry that happen to you…”

            Nick gave an amused scoff, “Judy had it worst, she has scars from a fox that clawed her when she was a kid.”

            “We both had a dark moment in our childhoods…” she nudged him.

            Gazelle gave a small smile, “I noticed this for awhile, at the party, the studio… Fru-Fru was the one that confirmed it to me that you were in a relationship that was much more then professional.”

            Judy replied, “In a word, yes, but as of this moment we have work to do in finding your attacker.”

            “I don’t mind, in fact seeing you two together like this makes me happy that predators and prey can live together with love…”

            Nick inquired, “Why do I get the feeling you’ll want us as a poster couple the next time you promote diversity at one of your concerts?”

            Gazelle couldn’t help but giggle. “It’s a good idea but that’s only if you want that.”

            “What about you and Ben?” Judy asked, “Having you two together might send a stronger message.”

            “We’ll have to see, we to have date for a bit before we can get to your guys’ level.”

            Judy had to point out, “But Gazelle we just started dating ourselves.”

            “Really? But you seem so close.”

            Nick said, “Let’s just say during the Night Howler case, we went through a lot that made us get close to each other. Such as saving each others’ lives.”

            “And we made this connection that cannot be broken.” gestured Judy, but secretly thought, At least, I hope…

Chapter Text

The next day, it felt like they hit a road block. They had questioned everyone in town that used to be in Gazelle’s choir and all of them had shown them their rings. They were sitting in their office as they went over what they had found out in the case.

            “The only ones that didn’t show us their rings was Gina and Vivian. And we’ve yet to question those remaining classmates that live out of Zootopia.”

            “I’ve gotten texts from Finnick telling me that he can’t find any of those animals on his list but he said he’ll keep trying as long as you remember your promise.” he smirked.

            She grabbed his phone and glared, “It doesn’t say that on here.” she gave it back.

            “Just a friendly reminder, he is after all doing a solid for us.”

            She strongly said, “I’m aware of that. But I’m mostly occupied by the fact that none of these old classmates was at the party. They weren’t on the guest list so they couldn’t get it.”

            “They could have hired someone on the inside.”

            “Maybe. All the guests were questioned after the chief and team arrived, the reports tell us they were shocked to see the chandelier almost falling on the guests.”

            “But that doesn’t mean one of them could have snuck away to mess with the chandelier.”

            “Then there’s the attempted kidnapping… We know Vivian didn’t have anything to do with it because she was with us during that time.”

            “So that makes her in the clear.”

            Hm, he sounded a little too relieved there… Judy felt so conflicted, she was glad Vivian wasn’t responsible for the kidnapping but she didn’t make her feel at ease that Nick seemed too happy for her innocence.

            The fox noticed the turmoil on her face, “What’s the matter?”

            “Oh, I’m just… feeling tired and flustered, I never felt this helpless with a case,” or you…

            “Maybe you’ll feel better once you get some sleep. Come to think of it, I could use some too.” he smiled, “We could camp-out at my apartment again.” figuring Judy would go for that, but was taken aback when she responded.

            “No! I mean… I think I’ll sleep at my own place this time.”

            “You sure? You know you’re never going to sleep with those neighbors making so much noise.”

            “I’ll manage. Thanks for the offer though.” she started getting up, “Meet me at Big’s house in (military time) hours?”

            “Uh, sure? But Judy what’s-“ but the bunny was already gone thanks to those fast feet of hers. What in the… Was it something I did? Or said? He started thinking about the last few days. Everything seemed fine expect when they had to visit Vivian and Judy was taken back by him almost proposing. She couldn’t still be worrying about that is she? Then he remembered what Finnick said. She’s afraid of losing me… There’s got to be some way of proving to her that won’t happen…

            Judy was back in her own apartment but she found sleep eluding her for two reasons, the neighbors having blaring music on and her conscience was keeping her up. Guilt for snooping in something she shouldn’t have seen and has regretted looking. Her love for Nick was great, but she couldn’t bring it to herself to tell him of the awful thing she did of invading his privacy like that. She needed advice.

            She found the contact in her phone and pushed on it. It rang until Fru-Fru picked up, “Hey, girl!”

            Judy gave a tiny grin, “Hi, Fru…”

            “What’s wrong?”

            The bunny sighed, “Fru… I need your help.”

            “Of course, I’ll help in any way I can.” she gasped, “Did something happen between you and Nicky?!”

            “Sort-of… I… I may have found something in his apartment without him knowing, it was a box of old memos he kept from past relationships he had and one of those memos held a picture of him and the vixen he wanted to marry before she left him.”

            “Oh my…”

            Tears started falling, “That’s other thing, is it wrong for me to admit that I’m glad she left him? I don’t like how she treated him but if she hadn’t left when she did, I never would have met him and my life would have taken a very different direction without him.”

            “I understand. That’s a normal thing to feel toward your sweetheart. You feel threaten toward this female he had in his life before you came along. How close they were… I’ve been there, I’ve dated many a shrew to feel the jealousy from the things they did with their ex-girlfriends. My own honey dated shrews and other rodents and I was upset when hearing how they dated. But it just showed how much I loved him because I wanted to been his and for him to be mine.”

            “Yes! That’s excalty how I feel! You remember that talk we had after I came back from Gazelle’s party?”

            “Of course.”

            “I know it may seem I’m jumping the gun but I really want Nick for my husband…”

            “Because you believe he’s the one for you, not that I don’t disagree. But there’s one thing you should know about marriage is that you have to be honest with each other. But that’s not going to happen for you if you can’t come clean with Nick, he’s already had one dishonest relationship, does he really need another one?”

            Judy blink in bewilderment. “You’re right… I should have just come out with it in the first place!”

            One of the voices suddenly spoke, “That’s good, because your boyfriend’s been listening in at your door.”

            “What?!” she rushed to the door only to see the end of a fox’s tail disappearing around the corner of the hallway, she looked down to find a single rose. She picked it up. He must have come over to bring it… That sweet fox… Only now, he’s overheard everything…

            Fru-Fru was still on the phone, “What happened?”

            “Nick was here, he overheard.”

            “Oh dear…”

            Judy turned to the wall, “How did know you he was there?”

            The other voice said, “We were fighting over whose turn it was to take out the garbage and when we finally settled on it with an arm wrestling match, I lost. I took the bag out and saw the fox listening on his girlfriend.”

            She put her paws to her face.

            Judy was in little Judy’s nursery as she watched Fru-Fru feeding the baby her bottle. Fru encouraged her best friend to come early at the house so she could comfort her in person. Judy watched the clock as she dreaded for Nick’s arrival, but she was also afraid he wouldn’t show up. The shrew read her mind.

            “This is the greatest test in any relationship, seeing if you have the ability to make up.”

            “We have the ability, I just wonder if we’ll still be a couple after this…”

            “You’ll soon find out.”

            Judy gave a small smile and left the room to quickly check on Gazelle who was sleeping in the next room. It was a good feeling to have seeing the gazelle she had to protect was sleeping peacefully. She envied for that kind of sleep but she won’t rest until everything with Nick was straightened out. She could remember the sleepless nights she had after the falling out they had after her talking to the press. She couldn’t sleep knowing she drove a wedge between Zootopia and her friendship with Nick…

She lost sleep over the fox but she had no idea why as her attraction to him wasn’t obvious until Bellwether cornered them in the museum, how they looked out for each other… Then when they staged the savage fox act, she realized just much he meant to her even if it was just the blueberry they replaced with the Night Howler serum, seeing him getting hit like that… she made a solemn vow she wouldn’t let anything happen to him because she loved him.

Clever fox… He figured it out… she remember those exact words to her on their first day of patrol together.

“You know you love me…”

Now the question was, did he love her as much?

Her thoughts were interrupted when a polar bear escorted a fox carrying a box. The same box that all his memos in it. They ended staring at each other. Neither of them said anything until the polar bear went ahead and Nick approached her.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

They overlapped.

“About the door-“

“About the box-“

They stopped and gave out light laughter.

“I didn’t mean to listen in.” said Nick, “I was just trying to tell you how much you mean to me when I overhear you. I realized it was going to take more than a flower to show you the love that I have for you.”

“But… I invaded your privacy… how can you still care for me after that?”

“Sure I was upset, but you wouldn’t be the bunny cop you are if you weren’t snoopy. That’s something I’ll always admire about you, Carrots. But next time, ask.”

She touched her heart in awe and nodded until she frowned at the box, “So… why do you have that with you?”

“It’s an explanation.” he set it down and opened it to reveal the keepsakes, “I kept these things as a way to remind myself that they can’t get to me no matter the hurt. But it ended up hurting you instead. You been so worried in losing me that it should I have been worried in losing you… I pushed you away once, I am not doing that again.” he held her paws, “I’m always there for you Judy, my support, my love, my trust…”

Still holding on, she used his paws to wipe away her tears of joy from his proclamation of love. “And you have my support, my love, and my trust…”

They moved in for a sweet tender kiss. Once they let go he picked up the box and headed for Mr. Big’s office.

Judy was confused, “What are you doing?”

“With Big’s help, I’m going to dispose of this box.”

“Why?”

“So I can let go of the past and focus on you.”

“You don’t have-“

He cut her off, “I want to. It’s good for me and it’s good for us.”

Once the crime boss gave the signal, the ice pool was revealed.

Nick was at the edge of the water and looked back at Judy with a smile. He could remember them about to be iced, ironically, that was what broke the ice between their resentment toward the other and started cooperating together. He tossed the box in, with the picture of Vivian and him hovering to him. He saw Judy’s concern and right away he tore the photo and threw the scraps in the cold water. The waterlogged box and bits of paper sunk down as the polar bear closed it up and Nick’s mementos were gone.

He said, “Ice for the memories.” turning to Judy, “Get it? Ice?”

“I get it.” she dully said but was smiling.

The sat together on a couch in a private room, drinking hot chocolate after Fru-Fru insisted they be left alone.

“So… I heard something about husband…?” he smirked.

She felt her cheeks redden, “It was just something I said in the heat of the moment.”

“But do you really feel that?”

“Well… yes… Fru-Fru asked after the party of when I might hear my wedding bells, I had to say it would be awhile, but I hope that maybe… we would…”

He held her closer, “You want to know something crazy?”

“What?”

“I had a dream about our wedding.”

“What?! Really?!” her eyes gleamed.

“Yeah, then Finnick and Clawhauser jokes about weddings and I’m starting to wonder if fate was conspiring against me.”

“I think fate has been conspiring against us from the start. What were the odds I would need you as a lead to Mr. Otterton?”

“Hey, I’ll take those odds any day. The day we met in that ice cream parlor, our destinies were sealed.” he rubbed her finger, a nice ring would look beautiful on this finger…

Judy was relaxing on his chest and shut her eyes looking comfortable.

Nick smirked as he whispered, “Jude the dude… that does have a nice ring to it.”

Her eyes went wide open and faced him with horror, “How… how did you…?

“After I discovered you found my box I decided to find some juicy secrets about a younger Judy Hopps. So I called your parents and your dad told me he used to call you Jude the dude and your mother had lots of stories about what you did as a baby. It was just too adorable!” he laughed.

She moaned in embarrassment, Serves me right… Guess that’s the lesson here, never snoop in your boyfriend’s past or he’ll find some way to get back at you.

Nick calmed down and wrapped his arms around her and gently set her down on the couch, moving his tail on her acting like a blanket. They laid together as he said, “As much as I like Jude the dude, I prefer Carrots, anytime…”

They smiled at each other.

“I love you, sly fox…”

“I love you, dumb bunny…”

“NOTHING?!” Chief Bogo’s voice boomed causing the two to jump in their seats at his office.

“There just isn’t that much to go on, Chief!” Judy insisted.

Nick mentioned, “We’ve questioned the classmates that were still in Zootopia but no one has shown signs of them being the suspect we’re looking for. All we have is a ring and so far all of them have shown their rings except for Gina Grazer and Vivian Foxworth.”

“Then you better go back to them and demand to see their rings!”

Judy pointed, “Sir, with due respect that would be bordering on police harassment.”

“You definitely don’t want to have to deal with a lawsuit.”

“Well I’m losing patience! What do you think is going happen if word gets out we can’t find the most famous singer of Zootopia’s attacker?! Citizens will question the force’s ability to protect. They’ll want new animals serving in the ranks; we could all lose our jobs! Now do you understand why I’m demanding that the attacker be found and brought in?”

“Crystal clear.” said Nick.

“We won’t fail, Chief; we will find who’s responsible.”

They got up and left.

“Sure you’re alright coming back here?” Nick asked as they headed up the steps of Vivian’s house.

“Nick, after you toss in that box and tore your picture I have complete faith in you.”

He smiled as he knocked the door.

Vivian answered, “Nick! Judy! Did you find whoever was attacking Giselle?”

“Not yet.” said Judy.

“We really need to see your ring, Viv. The chief is practically demanding we find the culprit soon.”

“Uh… I… I would gladly show you, but…” she sighed, “I can’t.”

“What do you mean?” Judy inquired.

“I sold it. I needed the extra cash.”

The cops exchanged concern glances.

“Oh, Viv, this is really bad, if you can’t prove you have your own ring…”

“Now wait-a-minute, Nick, we were with her when the kidnapping happening, surely she can’t be a suspect.”

“Yes, but remember no one could get into that party without being on the list, that they could have hire someone to mess with the chandelier, they could have also hired someone to do the kidnapping…”

Vivian gasped, “Nicky! You can’t be suggesting…”

“I’m not suggesting anything. I’m just trying to put all the pieces together in this puzzle.”

Judy turned to the vixen, “Vivian… do you swear that you sold that ring?”

“Yes.”

“Then who did you sell it to?”

“A Mr. Craver, he owns a pawn shop. Near the beaches of Savanna Central.”

“We’ll check it out.” Nick said as they headed back to their car.

Judy was about to get in when she heard someone running. She looked around the area but there was no one in sight. She got in and drove.

They found the pawn shop, once they got inside. Judy called out, “Hello! Mr. Craver?”

There was rustling in the back before a platypus appeared to the front. Assuming they were just ordinary customers since Nick and Judy didn’t have their uniforms on, he greeted them in a cheery tone.

“Welcome! Welcome! How can I be of service to you?”

Nick started, “We’re looking for a ring.”

“Rings! Oh, that is so beautiful, you’re such a lovely couple heading down the path of happiness and marriage, of course you need an engagement ring!” he started getting a large jewelry case full of rings.

Judy tried to say, “Oh, but you don’t understand, we…”

“Want it to be perfect! Of course! Don’t worry, I have only the finest selection!”

She could see Nick’s tired expression that was saying, ‘This is getting ridiculous.’

She nodded in agreement. And quickly yelled out, “Stop!” she showed her badge, “We’re only trying to find a class ring that was sold to you!”

Mr. Craver blinked and gapped, “Oh! Oh, I am so sorry! When you said you wanted a ring, I just thought…”

Nick said, “Well, you weren’t too far off, we are a couple but we’re not engaged. Right now, we’re officers trying to find a class ring that Vivian Foxworth sold to you.”

Judy took out the evidence ring, “It looked like this.”

“Let me see that.” he put on a () and started inspecting it, “Hmm… interesting… very interesting…”

“What’s interesting?” both of them asked.

“That is indeed the very ring I received from Ms. Foxworth.”

“WHAT?!” they gasped.

“It’s true, I keep records of all the items I get and I recognize the markings from when it was here.”

The cops were stunned.

Nick slowly said, “But how…?”

Judy motioned, “The culprit must have found the ring and bought it, no doubt as a way to keep us off their trail…” she turned to the pawn shop owner, “Do you remember who bought this?”

“Alas, I don’t. I have many customers, so I don’t remember faces or the purchases they made.”

“You don’t keep a list of things sold?!” Nick practically yelled.

“Why should I? The idea of a pawn shop is receiving and selling things. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.”

“We understand, it’s just I’m afraid we’ve hit another dead end, that’s why my partner’s feeling frustrated.”

“Don’t blame him, I would be too.”

“Thank you for your help.” the bunny smiled as they set off.

He called back, “You’re welcome! And if you do change your mind about the rings, let me know!”

Nick mumbled under his breath, “For the record, I wouldn’t get you a ring from a pawn shop.”

“Did you say something?” she questioned while she kept her eyes on the road.

“I’m surprise you didn’t catch it. I thought you were supposed to have really good hearing.”

“One, I’m busy driving, and two, I’m concerned for Vivian, we’re back to square one and it turns out it was her ring in the first place. The chief had the right to yell this morning, if we can’t prove Vivian had nothing to do with those “accidents”, then she’ll likely end up in jail!”

The fox frowned, “And Joel would be without his mother… we can’t let that happen!”

“The only thing left to go on is the missing bolts from the chandelier. If we find them we find the attacker.”

“Carrots, what makes you so sure they would keep incriminating evidence against themselves? Those bolts are long gone.”

“It’s the only thing that can prove Vivian’s innocence.”

“Not necessarily… I know you’re not going to like this but it’s time we step up our game and catch this guy in the act!”

She gasped, “No! Our job is to protect Gazelle, not have her as bait!”

“What else can we do, Judy? We’ve been hitting road block after road block. The only way we’re going to catch this attacker is that Gazelle makes an appearance. They haven’t attacked since we’ve put her into hiding, giving us no further clues to finding them. This is a risk we have to take.”

Her ears drooped, she didn’t want to admit it but he was right, what choice did they have at this point? She sighed, “We’ll do it only if Gazelle wants to.”

He nodded.

They entered the house when they heard Gazelle talking.

“A concert in the park?”

Carlos’ voice could be heard, “Yes! This is your chance to show Zootopia how fine and strong you are from these awful occurrences! How you can rise from tragedy!”

“Hm… I do want to show my fans that I’m alright but I don’t think Officer Hopps and Officer Wilde are going to like it.”

“Let me talk to them. I can explain to them that animals are demanding to see you again. And the numbers just keep growing.”

While still being unseen, Nick gave Judy a smirk.

She rolled her eyes, Yes, I know, this works well with what we were talking about…

Nick winked as he walked in the room, pretending he didn’t hear the conversation, “What keeps growing?”

Carlos faced the cop, “Officer Wilde! We were just talking about you and Officer Hopps!”

“Oh? Is that so? Hope it was good stuff about us.”

“While it’s true you two are capable officers, but we were hoping to discuss of Gazelle making an appearance at the park.”

“Really? Well, it’s certainly something I must talk over with my partner.”

“Surely, with the two of you there, Gazelle will be safe.”

“Very true. So I see no reason why not for Gazelle to have a concert.”

“Good! Very good! I shall make all the arrangements then. Good day.” he went out.

Nick couldn’t help but laugh.

Gazelle had to ask, “What’s so funny?”

Judy sighed as she explained, “I’m afraid Nick was leading him on like the ex-con artist he is. It shames me to admit it, but we’re getting desperate to catch your attacker, you wanting a concert helps us proceed with it. We were going to ask you until we overheard.”

The singer gave a small smile, “Frankly, I was getting desperate myself. I can’t sit around waiting anymore. I need to get back to what I do best.”

“But our objective is still your safety, and I just know the chief is going to blow a fuse when I have to tell him, we need you to catch the animal responsible. If we had a double, we would still keep you safe.”

Nick suddenly said, “Wait-a-sec, why didn’t we think of this before?! Gina! She’s Gazelle’s impersonator!”

Judy gasped, “You’re right! She would be the perfect body double!”

“Gina? I haven’t seen her since… But wait, she’s impersonating me?”

Judy clarified, “That’s what she does, she performs in a nightclub acting like you to give animals a chance to experience a Gazelle-like concert.”

“Oh. That’s… good, I guess?” she gave an uncertain look.

“Something wrong?” Nick questioned.

“Well… Gina is my oldest friend, it was a tie between her and Harry as my best friend, but Gina and I were practically sisters. Sadly, though, she was the one that started the bullying and I followed. But once I made the first move to stop it, she started following me. We still did everything together until Carlos saw the concert and heard my solo. He came straight to me and offered my chance to stardom. I never saw my friends again after graduation. I wondered what happen to them but between learning Harry is in prison and Gina impersonating me, I wonder what I could have done to help them…”

The partners exchanged looks as Judy gestured, “Sometimes… you can’t, some things just happen for a reason. Take me and Nick for example.”

The fox took over, “I never thought a bunny, much less a cop bunny, would blackmail me to helping her solve a case and end up loving her.” he glance lovingly.

“And I never would have thought I would fall for a fox.” she smirked.

“So… it’s just the way it is?”

They nodded.

Gazelle sighed, “Well, at least I’ll be able to see her again.”

Judy said, “I’m sure she can’t wait to see you again too.”

Nick pointed, “Come on, Carrots, we better get back to the station and tell the chief of our latest plan.”

“Do we have to?”

“Oh, yeah.”

When they got to the station, they noticed that things seemed dark. The mood was gloomy as they got inside. They got to the front desk where they saw Clawhauser was blowing his nose.

“Ben?” Nick said.

“What’s going on?” Judy asked in concern, “Why is the station so dreary?”

“Oh, guys… it’s Francine and Roy… they… they were trying to stop an armed robbery and… they got shot!”

They gasped.

“They’re alive thank goodness, but they’re in critical condition. Chief’s with them at the hospital right now, if you have something to tell him, you better go there.”

Judy motioned, “While we’re at it we can see Francine and Roy.”

 “You want to WHAT?!”

The nurses around them shushed the large police chief.

Judy started, “Sir, we won’t be putting her direct danger, we’ll be using a double to fool the attacker.”

“Admit it, Chief, it’s a good plan.”

“Stuff it, Wilde. I’ll say whether or not it’s a good plan.” there was a pause before he stated, “It’s a good plan but you better be warned, now that two of our larger officers are badly wounded there wouldn’t be much back-up. So you better keep on your guard.”

“Thanks Chief.” said Judy.

“Yeah, thanks Chief.”

“We’re going to pay a quick visit to Roy and Francine and then we’ll go get some sleep for tomorrow.”

“Good. I’ll expect to see that attacker in jail tomorrow.” and he took his leave.

They went into the room where their fellow officers were and had a nice chat with them. As Francine told them what happened with the robbery, it made Nick think of what Finnick told him.

“Dating is fine, but you better not wait too long…”

Suddenly those words made sense when he saw Francine and Roy lying in those hospital beds. That could be me… or… Judy… He glanced down at the rabbit who was focusing on the elephant’s tale. We risk a lot being on this job… if something happens to her… I… I don’t know what I do without her… But how would I be able to live with myself if I never took the chance to propose… We been through so much already, we know how much we care for each other. What’s stopping us? My dream, our friends wanting us to marry, and Judy’s confession, and just today that pawn shop owner offered us rings, the signs have never been clearer… I’m going to ask Judy Hopps to be my wife.

Chapter Text

The next day, they were driving to pick up Gazelle to take to the theatre that was outside in the park. Judy noticed her partner was giving her strange looks.

“You okay? You had that same look last night after we left the hospital.”

“Really?” he glanced at the mirror.

“What’s wrong?”

He sighed, “I guess I was kind-of shocked to see Roy and Francine in the hospital. Chief’s right, they are the larger officers on the force like we’re the smallest, but I never figured they could get hurt like that.”

“It is pretty surprising… The job doesn’t seem real until an officer gets hurt or worse…”

“It’s a huge sacrifice,” he released a small chuckle, “your parents had a right to be happy when you were first assigned to parking duty. Even though they have over two hundred offspring they still worry about the daughter that’s a cop.”

“Can’t say I blame them. As much as I am able to take care of myself, a lot of things can go wrong. They know the risks I’m taking but they love me and support my decision.”

He just smiled.

Once they had arrived at the park, Gazelle was excited.

“After all this time, we’ll finally see each other again.”

Judy said, “She’ll be coming soon. We told her this morning and she was looking forward to seeing you as well.”

“I can’t wait.”

Nick told her, “We asked Clawhauser if he wanted to help provide extra security, needless to say, he was more than thrilled to do it.”

Gazelle giggled.

“Speaking of Ben…” gestured Judy, “Here he comes now.”

The cheetah rushed over to them but he was panting hard, obviously he wasn’t used to the exercise. He faced them and gave a wary salute, “Officer… Benjamin Clawhauser at… your… service…” he fell over.

Judy was about to grab a bottle water from the refreshment table when Gazelle beat her to it and kneeled down to Ben and lifted his head up. He opened his eyes to his surprise of his favorite celebrity giving him water! He almost sputtered out the liquid but kept it in as he was too stunned to move.

She spoke, “I want to thank you for coming, we need all the help we can get to catch this animal, and I hope you’ll stay hydrated for me.”

“Oh… Oh, I would do anything for you Gazelle.”

“Actually, my real name is Giselle.”

“Giselle? That’s… a pretty name.” he smiled.

“Do you prefer Ben or Benjamin?”

“Oh, I’m fine either one but when I was a cub my friends used to call me, Benny.”

“Benny?” she did a tiny giggle, “That’s very cute. Do you mind if I call you that too?”

“No!” he blushed, “No… I’m okay with that. It’s just been a long time.”

“I understand. I haven’t used the name Giselle in a long time too…”

They ended staring at each other lovingly and Judy and Nick who had been watching the entire scene gave a knowing glance. Eventually, they decided to give the lovebirds some space to keep talking.

When Gazelle went to go rehearse, Ben found them and was swooning all over the place.

Nick smirked, “I take it you had a nice talk with Giselle?”

“She’s so amazing! I mean, I knew she was amazing before but now it seems she’s even more amazing! I’m seeing this whole other side of her I never knew existed! She’s like a normal animal like us! She admits she makes mistakes and wants to make things better! I’ve always supported her cause toward unity in Zootopia but I never understood her reasons until now!”

“That’s great, Ben!” Judy grinned, “I really hope it works out for you two.”

“Same here.” Nick kept smirking.

Judy questioned, “Think you can check the perimeter while we watch over Gazelle?”

“Certainly!” and he went off.

Nick look at his partner questionably, “Remind me again why we aren’t telling Ben about the double?”

“The less anybody knows, the better, we can’t give anything away that will allow the attacker to hurt Gazelle instead. Only us, Gazelle, and Gina know about the plan. I don’t like keeping it a secret from him, but its better this way.”

A car drove up then and Nick checked his cell phone clock, “Right on time.”

Gina stepped out of the car and went to the cops.

“By the way, I found my ring, thought you’d need it.”

Judy motioned, “That’s great but we don’t need it anymore seeing how the ring was Vivian’s all along.”

“Oh my! Really?”

Nick pointed out, “But we have reason to believe she’s innocent since she didn’t have the ring with her the time of the “accidents” and she was with us during the kidnapping.”

“Kidnapping? There was a kidnapping?!”

“Near kidnapping.” corrected Judy. “Gazelle’s captor lost their grip on her and ran.”

“That’s a relief. So… where is she?”

“Backstage.” Nick pointed toward the stage.

Gina went on ahead.

It was almost showtime, and Judy and Nick were prepared for the attacker to strike as they waited in the wings.

“Once Gina is ready we wait for whoever’s doing this and get them!” Judy exclaimed.

“So you keep telling me, over and over, Carrots.”

“That’s because it’s a perfect plan.”

“Bellwether’s plan was perfect too till we foiled it.”

“Well, this plan is way better; nothing is going to mess it up!”

A voice spoke, “Oh, really? Nothing?”

They turned to see Gina looking like Gazelle like when they first saw her in the nightclub.

The partners were confused by her words as she kept speaking.

“There is no way you can catch them because there’s nothing to catch!”

Judy asked suspiciously, “What do you mean by that?”

“You wait for an attacker to attack me when really the attacker was me all along!”

“Say what?!” Nick shouted out.

“That’s right. It was me this entire time! Well… not the kidnapping… but the chandelier, planting the ring, all those minor “accidents”, it was all me!”

Judy bellowed, “So why tell us this?! You practically just made a full confession to two officers of the law! You’re under arrest!”

“I don’t think so.” she smirked evilly and managed to throw a lever down that caused Judy and Nick to fall into a trapdoor.

They looked up at her in anger as she explained, “Why tell you? Because you would have gotten suspicious that no one was attacking me, if it was just Gazelle on that stage I would have found some way to attack her but since you needed me in your pathetic plan that I have but no choice to get rid of you as well!”

Nick gestured, “And just how are you going to do that?”

“As soon as the concert is over with, I’ll make it look like a spotlight was faulty to cause a stage fire and by the time you’re found… it’ll be too late…” she smirked at the genius of her plan.

Nick snarled, “Have we’ve mentioned you’re under arrest?”

“Please, you can’t stop me now. There’s a new Gazelle in town, and her debut starts now!” she laughed as she closed the door leaving them in darkness.

Nick grabbed Judy’s paw as he said, “Stay close to me while I find a light switch or something…” thanks to his extraordinary night vision, he was able to locate a switch.

When the lights came on, Judy gasped when she noticed Gazelle was laying a few feet from them and was out cold. She rushed to her and started crying.

“This is all my fault!”

“Judy…”

“It is, Nick! It’s Bellwether all over again! Right when I think I can trust someone, it backfires on me! I almost lost you to the Night Howlers, now we’re going to lose Zootopia’s means of unity! Gazelle keeps animals’ hopes alive, now she’s going to die because I thought Gina was a good enough friend to help out! I have got to be the dumbest bunny in the world!”

“Okay, you may be dumb, but you’re not that dumb. You’re the smartest rabbit I know. You manage to solve where the missing mammals went in less than two days! And if you think you’re dumb for coming up with this plan then I must be just as dumb for going along with it! You know that saying, it takes a fool to follow a fool. You didn’t know! We didn’t know who the heck it was until Gina made her foolish confession. So stop being so hard on yourself! You knew there would be risks with this job; look at what happen to Francine and Roy! Do you think they’ll stop fighting crime even after getting shot at?! Somehow, I don’t think so… And the Judy Hopps I know doesn’t let anyone stop her even after making a mistake…” he gave a tiny smile.

She stared at him in bewilderment. She was about to reply when Gazelle started waking up.

“Gazelle! Are you okay?” the bunny had to ask.

“Well… I do have a headache… from when Gina knocked me out…” Her eyes widen, “Judy, you have to stop her! She’s the one that has been attacking this whole time!”

“We know… but I’m afraid we knew too late…”

Nick mentioned, “She’s trapped us down here.”

Judy questioned, “I just don’t understand how she could have gotten into that party to mess with the chandelier, she couldn’t have gotten in on her own…”

Nick started looking around for a way out, “We’ll have to ask her that once we can get of here.”

Gazelle inquired, “But isn’t Benny still out there? Surely he could find us and free us?”

Nick and Judy exchanged unsure glances.

Chapter Text

Benjamin was endlessly searching for Judy and Nick in the gathering crowds of Gazelle fans, but he couldn’t find them anywhere.

“That’s odd…” he said to himself, “Those two would never leave their post, unless it was for…” the thought made him chuckle but then frowned, “Then again, they know how important this is. So in love or not, those two are an elite crime fighting team and they always see a mission through. Something must be up.”

By then a thousand fans started screaming Gazelle’s name. He smiled toward the stage as the gazelle he started falling for greeted the mass. He could see her as the star she is but there’s something more as well. He started focusing on the animal that was behind the glitz and fame and he totally believe she was someone he could love without the music. He had to remember thank Nick and Judy for teaching him that you don’t have to be the same species to love someone.

The singer started singing and immediately he noticed something was very different with the singing. And how she moved…

That’s weird… why does Giselle sound different tonight? He listened to every song, watched every music video, and went to every concert that he could. Gazelle had never ever sounded like this before.

Something is not right…

When the concert was half-way done there were cheers and Gazelle went backstage. Ben had to know why Giselle changed things in her act. He found her and called out, “Giselle!”

The gazelle turned to him in confusion with perhaps some fear.

She slowly said, “Yes? Officer…?”

“Officer? I thought we agreed we wouldn’t be formal around each other?”

“What? Um… I must be disoriented from the excitement…” she gave a nervous chuckle, “Perhaps you better refresh my mind…?” she gave a flirtatious smile.

Okay, clearly something is up…

This wasn’t Giselle. It was crazy to think that but there was no other explanation for Giselle’s lapse of memory, there was no way she could forget him so quickly. Whoever this was he had to be careful if he was ever to find the real Giselle and possibly Nick and Judy.

That must be why they’re not here… They came across this imposter and she did something to them!

Thinking quickly, he put on a goofy smile, “It’s Benjamin, and you’re right, it must be the excitement getting to you.”

“Yes! Absolutely!” she grinned, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I must get ready.”

“Of course.” he pleasantly smiled but once she left, he put on a serious face and quickly looked around, whispering out, “Judy! Nick! Giselle! Where are you?!”

Judy kept leaping in the air as she tried reaching for the trapdoor high above them. She could barely reach for it and with each bounce she was getting tired.

“Carrots, as amazing as you are in long distance hopping, it’s not going to work.”

But she kept on jumping even if she was getting weak with each bounce. “Have… to… keep… trying!”

“You’re wearing yourself out.” her partner stated.

“He’s right.” Gazelle sadly agreed.

She stopped and landed on the floor panting, “I just need to rest then I’ll try it again.”

“I wish there was another way but we’re pretty much stuck in this deathtrap.” he went next to her and wrapped his arms around her.

“But it can’t end like this!” she was on the verge of tears. All our dreams… All our hopes… The life we could’ve had… “After my dream to be a cop was realized, my new dream was you and only you…”

He looked like he was going to cry too, “After I was muzzled and Vivian, I didn’t think I would have anymore dreams, until I met you…” Proposing to her then would have been ideal but seemed pointless and cruel given they don’t have much time left.

Giselle gave a sympathetic look toward the lovers, “I was so happy when Gina came to me… But then just as I was about to leave she told me with hatred that she was tired of having to live in my shadow and knocked me out… I am so sorry you had to be in the crossfire of my past coming back to haunt me…”

“If you ask me, Gina has some major issues to work out.” pointed Nick.

Judy mentioned, “This really isn’t your fault, you were the victim in all this.”

“And yet I can’t help but feel responsible for her actions, her choices in life… We did everything together as children even as teens. She was like the sister I never had. Then I go and start singing apart from the rest and I get instant stardom. I left her alone and I never once tried to contact her. What kind-of friend was I to never try to reach my old friends? Gina and Harry both lost their way and I wasn’t there for them…”

The partners weren’t sure what to say. Until suddenly they heard a creaking noise above and saw the trapdoor was opening! They braced themselves for Gina’s appearance but instead to their surprise, Clawhauser showed up!

“Guys!” he called out and waved.

“Ben?” they both said.

“Benny?” Gazelle’s eyes gleamed.

“How did you find us?” Nick asked.

The cheetah blushed, “Truthfully, I didn’t… it was by accident since I bumped onto that level, but I’m so glad I found you! And I was right, that was a fake Giselle!”

Judy smirked, “How did you know?” feeling proud she was right that Clawhauser could tell a fake from the real singer.

“She just sounded so different to the real Gazelle and when I tried talking to her, she acted like she didn’t even know me!”

Gazelle smiled, “I could never forget you, Benny.”

“Exactly, that’s how I know you’re the real Giselle, you’re using my nickname.”

“Say Ben, think maybe you can get us a ladder or rope?” Nick inquired, “We’re pretty stuck down here with no other way out.”

“Oh! Right!” he quickly found a stage ladder and put it down the hole.

They saw in the wings of Gina getting ready to sing the next song on stage. Judy handed Giselle a microphone while Ben smiled, “Go show them who the real Gazelle is…”

She kissed his cheek, “I certainly will.”

Gina sang out, “Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh… I-“

She was cut off as Giselle abruptly came on stage singing, much to the fans’ surprise, “I messed up tonight, I lost another fight… I still mess up but I'll just start again… I keep falling down, I keep on hitting the ground… I always get up now to see what's next… Birds don't just fly, they fall down and get up… Nobody learns without getting it wrong…”

With fury in her eyes, Gina sang back, “I won't give up, no, I won't give in… 'Til I reach the end and then I'll start again… No, I won't leave, I wanna try everything… I wanna try even though I could fail… I won't give up, no, I won't give in… 'Til I reach the end and then I'll start again… No, I won't leave, I wanna try everything… I wanna try even though I could fail! Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh… Try everything… Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh… Try everything… Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh… Try everything…”

With pleading eyes, Giselle sings, “Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh… Look how far you've come, you filled your heart with love… Baby you've done enough, take a deep breath… Don't beat yourself up, don't need to run so fast… Sometimes we come last, but we did our best… I won't give up, no, I won't give in… 'Til I reach the end and then I'll start again… No, I won't leave, I wanna try everything… I wanna try even though I could fail… I won't give up, no, I won't give in… 'Til I reach the end and then I'll start again… No, I won't leave, I wanna try everything… I wanna try even though I could fail!” Gina tried to cut in but Giselle kept on singing to the crowd, “I'll keep on making those new mistakes… I'll keep on making them every day… Those new mistakes… Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh… Try everything… Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh… Try everything… Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh… Try everything… Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh… Try everything!”

A great shout went over the masses. Knowing the fans recognized their idol, Gina admitted defeat.

This was the happiest that Nick and Judy had ever since from the Chief. They had apprehended the culprit at last and Chief Bogo was grinning! They escorted Gina to the squad car just as Chief was reading her rights. Once they placed her inside and they turned to the cape buffalo.

“There’s still one thing we don’t understand Chief, how did she get into the party and tamper with the chandelier?” Judy inquired.

“Then you better get over to the station and start interrogation.”

Gina said in annoyance, “Or she could just tell you…”

Nick joked, “Not going to use your right to remain silent?”

“Hey, if I’m caught might as well make sure he was caught too.”

The police trio looks at her with intrigue.

Nick, Judy, and Ben escorted Gazelle back to her penthouse where Carlos was waiting.

“I have the most exciting news! The record company just called saying they got you a spot on the Nocturnal Show! Not only that but…” he stopped when he saw the solemn glances from his star and the cops. “Why the long faces? This is great news!”

“Carlos… Are you not aware that I could have been killed tonight?!”

His eyes widen, “Wait… Does that mean… you’re not...?”

“Gina? I’m still the same gazelle you met at that high school concert all those years ago.”

Nick stated, “Pretty sneaky, trying to have Gina replace Giselle, the question is… why?” he raised his brow.

“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Judy said, “You see, we caught Gina trying to knock out Gazelle and she confessed she was behind the “accidents” but it was a matter of figuring how she did it. It was clear she needed to have inside help in order to do them. Like at the party, the only way anyone could have got in was through the guest list and the only animal to have access to it was you…”

Fear was etched in Carlos’ eyes but he kept a straight face, “That’s ridiculous! She could have easily sneaked in without the guards’ notice!”

Nick countered, “But could she have been able to sneak in the dark and try to kidnap Gazelle?”

Judy added, “Gazelles don’t have exceptional night vision like most predators… And the fact Gina has an alibi tells us that someone else staged the kidnapping.”

“And you think that I…? That’s absurd! Why would I want to kidnap my own superstar?!”

Judy pointed, “At the record company, we found out that Gazelle was slowly losing popularity and that you were trying your hardest to raise publicity for her sake.”

Nick mentioned, “What better way to do that is by having your star in near accidents? The social media just eats up any type of gossip or drama happening to a celebrity…” he smirked.

Carlos ended up sputtering, “I… I… Alright! I was trying to immortalize Gazelle in the music industry! For the last past few years, I told Giselle to take her music up a notch to keep the fans engrossed but when she refused I started worrying of her becoming a has-been.”

Ben suddenly shouted out with anger in his eyes, “Has-been?! Has-been?! Let me tell you something, bud!” he went up to the agent’s face.

Nick and Judy gave each other surprised glances, never had they seen Ben act this way before.

“Gazelle is more than just a famous singer! She promotes unity and diversity in Zootopia! She will never be forgotten as long as there are those who support and carry on her cause!” he felt a gentle touch on his shoulder easing him back and he saw Giselle giving him a reassuring smile, silently thanking him for defending her honor. He smiled back.

Judy told the leopard, “You were saying?”

“I…” he sighed, “So when I found Gina impersonating Gazelle, we thought of a plan that would allow her to be the new Gazelle without anyone noticing the difference. It was never our intention to kill Giselle, when I went to go kidnap her, I just wanted send her somewhere far away from Zootopia. But when she pulled out of my grip I had think of new plan after you had sent her to Tundra Town. I was hoping to convince her to come out of the shadows and with your blessings it worked, and so I told Gina it would have been an opportunity to switch places with her and I would have come later to take Giselle away. Of course, that didn’t work… Given you managed to catch her…”

Nick started, “Actually… We didn’t know until she told us outright. We had our own plan to capture the culprit by having her be a double.”

Judy took over, “But she had to make like she was acting on her own since she needed you to get to the top. She managed to trap us with Giselle and was going to set the stage on fire to make it look like an “accident”. Ben found us and we arrested Gina where she made a full confession.”

“WHAT?! All this time you were pretending?!”

Nick gave his usual smirk, “That’s right, we figured you wouldn’t confess so easily if we told you that Gina confessed of who her boss was, but since we didn’t have solid proof…”

Judy smiled, “We had to make our own.”

He protested, “That won’t be enough for court!”

Nick motioned, “Oh really? Given there are four witnesses, including three of them being cops, a full confession by your associate, and a carrot pen that was recording the whole thing for good measure.” he held the pen up.

Judy grinned, “I think that’s all the proof we need…” she turned to the door, “You can come in now, Chief!”

The buffalo walked in with a couple more officers and arrested the agent.

When the agent was being driven away, that just left Judy, Nick, Ben, Gazelle, and the Chief to talk about the recent events.

Bogo told the singer, “Well, Miss Gazelle, I’m pleased to report that you are now officially safe from harm.”

“I know, and I have these three brave officers to thank.”

Ben smiled, “Please, it’s like I told you, I would do anything for you.”

“Does that mean you would like to come to a restaurant tomorrow night with me for our date?”

“Of course!” they held hands.

Bogo was looking shock while Nick and Judy noticed and were smirking. The large chief bent down to them.

“Am I missing something here?”

Judy giggled, “It’s long story, Chief, one I would be happy to tell you on the way back to the station.” she went to go get their car that was park down a block.

As Nick watched her go, he smiled and whispered to the buffalo, “Chief, I’m going to need a favor.”

Bogo eyed at him suspiciously, “Depends, is it good or bad?”

“Good. It’s very good.”

“I’m listening.”

Chapter Text

The next day, they were in the conference room as the Chief had commended Nick and Judy for saving Gazelle and then gave the list of duties to the other officers and Judy was starting to wonder if her and Nick would be handed a patrol when he said.

“Wilde, I want you to patrol the rainforest district and Hopps, I need you to fill out the paperwork from your recent case.”

“What?! Chief, that’s not fair! Nick needs to fill out the paperwork too, we worked on the case together!”

“But I can’t read Wilde’s handwriting, at least you have excellent penmanship and fill out the case details. Trust me, it’s better this way.”

She grumbled as they made their way out.

Nick smirked, “Tough luck, Carrots.”

“If I didn’t know for a fact that you have such poor writing skills, I would have fought harder with the Chief…”

“And the fact that you love me so much…”

“Yes. Yes, I do. Now go on and patrol before Chief thinks you’re slacking off.”

“Aye-aye.” he mockingly saluted as he saw her heading toward their office. He quickly went to the front desk to see Clawhauser giggling over his phone while texting. “Gazelle?”

“She said she’ll pick me up at seven tonight and that she can’t wait. I just told her I couldn’t wait either. What about you guys? Any big plans tonight?”

“Oh, we do, we’re finally going to have that date.”

“Awesome!”

“But I’m bringing an extra special surprise…”

“What is it?!” he could barely keep in his excitement.

Nick lowered his voice, “I’m going to propose to Judy…”

Ben let out a large gasp and almost shouted, “YOU’RE GOING TO-“ but Nick managed to muffle his loud mouth.

The fox had to shush him, “Judy’s stuck here doing paperwork because I asked the Chief to help me out while I go buy a ring… Then later tonight, I’m going to ask the question… but you can’t say anything! No matter what… Got it?”

The secretary quickly nodded his head and said, “I promise. Oh, this is going to be so amazing!” he did a tiny squeal.

There she was sitting across from him and he was feeling nervous. He didn’t understand it. It’s like I’m getting cold feet before the engagement! It’s the perfect chance to propose and I can’t work up the nerve to do it!

Judy could see the turmoil in his face, “You okay?”

“Uh… yes! I was just thinking about… something.”

“You seem troubled by this something… You know you can always tell me anything.”

“Even if it’s just a question?”

“That too. You can ask me anything. I’m always there for you…” she touched his paw.

Suddenly that one touch made him feel at ease and he started pulling the ring box out of his pocket and hid it behind his back. “So you are… so you always will be… Judy, my life had no meaning until I met you. I was just this lowly pawsicle hustler with a label I thought I couldn’t get rid of, until you showed me I could take a different path… I never felt happiness like this in a very long time. I don’t want that happiness to end…” he slowly revealed the ring, “That’s why, Judy Hopps, I want to ask you: will you be my wife?” he braced himself for the answer.

Judy was speechless as she stared at the diamond ring. She was in a total daze.

Nick waved his paw in front of her, “Carrots? Earth to Carrots!”

She shook out of it and gave a loud… “YES!” she leaned in and grabbed for his face and kissed him passionately.

*Some time later*

They had a hard time choosing where to have the wedding, but they finally decided on the police academy as it was important for the both of them and it had wide open spaces for Judy’s very large family.

Everything was set. The cake, the flowers, the music… Gazelle offered her services once she had received the invitation, then later Judy asked her if she would like to be a bridesmaid as well. She was more than thrilled by the honor.

Judy had Fru-Fru the matron of honor and a couple of sisters from the same litter she was born in as bridesmaids. Her youngest sister was the flower girl while her youngest brother was the ringer bearer since Nick didn’t have brothers or nephews to do it. Nick’s best animal was Finnick and his ushers were Flash, Ben, and the Chief.

The wedding went on as Judy had imagined it would be and Nick’s dream came true when he saw her walking down. Once the rings were exchanged and they kissed the crowd gave out a great cheer and threw rice in the air.

That night at the reception, Gazelle was singing the songs as everyone danced and when it came for the bride and groom’s first dance as newlyweds, she sang her song, ‘Try Everything’.  Ben was watching her and she noticed. She smiled as she gestured for him to join her. He got excited and did a little skip as he joined her and sang with her.

The couple on the dance floor saw this and just gave amused smiles. They could care less about Clawhauser’s singing. They stared at each other and didn’t say anything. They didn’t have to, they knew how far they had come since that first meeting. From con-artist and police officer to rivals, frienemies, friends, partners, lovers, and finally, husband and wife.

When it was time to go on the honeymoon, Judy quickly threw her bouquet and to their amazement, Gazelle caught it as she was standing next to Ben who was blushing furiously. They went into their squad car that had a large sign on the back, saying, ‘Just Got Married’. As Nick drove them away their friends and family waved them off and shouted out random goodbyes of good luck and congratulations.

Judy couldn’t help but ask, “Think Gazelle and Ben will get married?”

Nick smirked, “If they’re anything like us, then I say there’s a fair chance…”

“I love you, Mr. Wilde…”

“I love you, Mrs. Wilde…”