Chapter Text
Damn wet clothes. Room was cold enough as it was. The fox grumbled and curled further into a ball. He didn’t have blankets, so his fur and clothes would have to do. Currently he was just wearing a simple, sopping wet, grey peacoat and his usual slacks. The ZPD were still getting his blanket so that he wouldn’t get hypothermia, but it felt like they were taking their time on purpose. He got it; they were mad at him. Or at least disappointed in him. Even so, this was a tad unfair in his opinion. He wouldn’t freeze, this much he knew. They were letting him have a taste of misery and he figured that was Judy’s doing. When they had pulled him out of the river, he had never seen her that livid. He had been with her for nearly two years, but that was an anger in a realm of its own. He feared having to see it again.
He attempted to fall back asleep once more, but the discomfort of temperature and soggy fur dissuaded him. Not to mention the anxiety of having to face her again, but in actual depth. Though he was a predator, he had never feared a rabbit more. She didn’t yell. She just glared at him, pulled him by the collar so that their noses were touching, and promised to skin him alive the second he was back at the precinct. So, here he was, in a cell, back at Precinct One. He rolled over onto his back, staring up at the ceiling with a blank expression and half wishing it would cave in. What a fall from grace this was. How did he mess up that bad? How did he so easily ruin everything so fast? And Judy...yeah, that was probably the end of that. He wanted to punch himself for his idiocy. The rest he could deal with. The being put on probation, the detainment, but losing Judy? Anything but that.
He wasn’t left to his self-beratement for much longer. His ears perked at the sound of the detention block doors opening. They weren’t the high security ones reserved for the criminals like murderers, but rather for less dramatic offenders. A simple metal door with a bar lock as a precaution. It closed as soon as it opened, which could only mean that a smaller animal entered. He knew who. He swung his legs over the side of the bunk and sat hunched over. He turned his attention to the approaching footsteps of his exceptionally agitated bunny, gazing out of the plexiglass cell door. He was greeted by violet orbs that held the fires of Hell themselves inside them. Before him stood Judy, tapping her foot and crossing her arms and glaring balefully at her stupid fox. This look was amplified by the fact she was still in TUSK gear, sans the helmet. She was dirty, wet like him, and had gone through too much trouble. All for this dumb animal in a cell.
He couldn’t meet that gaze and turned his head downward. The door opened and she stepped inside. He just barely looked up before a blanket smacked him full in the nose with close to the force of a softball. Impressive for it being a fluffy cotton piece of fabric. He grumbled and pulled it off, instantly being greeted by that same infuriated doe. Her chest was heaving and he was surprised that she had the restraint not to be already strangling him. He went to speak, but she held up a single paw, not breaking her demeanor for even a fraction of a second.
“Nicholas Piberius Wilde.”
He said nothing, just felt his fur prickle and ears feel hot. This was not his first chastising affair by Judy, not by far. But of course, he wasn’t in a jail cell those times. Nor was he in as much of a hole as now. He could feel the wave of emotion that was taking all of her self control to contain. He prepared himself for the upcoming ass-chewing.
“Words cannot describe how much I wish I could strangle you. You are the dumbest fucking fox I have ever met.”
He kept staring at the ground. He had no witty retort, or sarcastic quip to offer. Even if he did, he valued his life just enough not to commit suicide by girlfriend.
“Wilde. Look at me when I am talking to you.”
He lifted his head and met those eyes. It was difficult. He wasn’t a coward. He had stared down murderers and psychopaths many times with ease. Yet seeing the disappointment and sadness and rage of the animal you loved the most brought a different type of shame and pain. He had spent many nights studying those hues, times where they were intimately one. Times where tears came down. Times like now, where she was clenching the air in frustration at him for some foolish mistake he made. But after those, they had found a way to make up and go on from there. They grew together from that. He could see no way to do that now.
“How long?”
She was allowing him a chance to speak. Okay. So she wasn’t going to kill him. Yet. “For about two months.”
She snorted and shook her head. “Mhm. Right. So, I have to ask: did you for one fucking second consider what the fuck you were doing? Did I cross your mind at all?”
He knew that was coming. The implication he didn’t consider her or their relationship when doing what he did. Of course he did. He wasn’t that naive. Then again, he guessed that would make it worse. Negligence was a sin that overpowered ignorance. However, that thought didn’t come until after he responded. “I did, Carrots. I--”
She stopped him again, paws going to her hips. “You do not have the right to call me that right now, Wilde. So let me get this straight: you just decided to blow me off. Say fuck me?”
His ears flattened back. That wasn’t his intention at all. His decision was more than outright disobedience. He did love her. He did care. He just made a poor choice. “That’s not what I meant at all, Judy.”
“Your actions say otherwise, fox.”
“It’s not that simple,” he mumbled in response.
“Obviously it isn’t, if I am finding you flying down river in the Rainforest District. After finding you in the mansion of a known drug lord. While getting shot at.”
“Okay, yeah. It looks bad when you say it like that. But, listen. I had a good re-”
He ceased speaking as she reached up to her upper chest, right atop her heart, and plucked a bullet from her vest. She held the crumpled piece of steel, it’s edges still glinting in the fluorescent light. “This, Nick, is the price I paid for you.”
He felt his heart drop and his throat catch. She went on, setting it on his lap. “I believe you owe me an explanation. We can start your amends there. And, Nicholas...I want the entire truth.”
He stared down at the piece of metal that could have made this conversation nonexistent. The vulpine let out a shuddering breath. “Okay, Carrots...You’re right. Sit down. This will take awhile.”
“We have all night,” she replied, hopping on the opposite bunk and crossing her arms once more.
So, without much choice, he began his tale. The night was definitely going to be much longer.