Work Text:
The address was in a poorer part of the city, though it looked like it was recently touched up, and the yard was neater than many of its neighbors. The officer stepped out of her vehicle without much concern, though she did glance about as she walked up the neatly swept front walk and rapped smartly on the door. Even as she waited for a response, her ears perked to the sound of boisterous children and a masculine voice telling them firmly but with a certain fondness to ‘Cool it y’ li’ll hooligans!’, and suddenly the door was pulled inward, a broad green face peering down at her suspiciously.
“Yes?”
Taking a deep breath, the officer smiled brightly and held up a paw in greeting.
“Good afternoon sir, Officer Judy Hopps-Wilde, I’m just here to follow up on a complaint of a threatening presence in the neighborhood, have you seen anything troubling or suspicious?”
She was clearly anticipating several responses. Except the one she received. Even though Officer Hopps-Wilde was well seasoned and had faced down many agitated and irate creatures, there was something about reptilian anger that still made her nape prickle and her heart flutter.
“A threatenin’ presence? What’chu think yer down here for little lady? Ain’tchu and th’ rest of that police force gettin’ tired of harassin’ me an’ my family?!”
As the snake reared back, glowering down at her, Hopps-Wilde braced herself and started attempting to calm the great beast down, keeping a neutral expression on her face even though the tension in the coils was telling her base instincts to prepare for a strike. She balanced on the balls of her feet, hands loose at her sides, ears relaxed.
“My apologies sir, I’m just following up, I didn’t mean to offend…”
“Offend?” It was clear the snake was ramping up, “Offend! I’ll tell you what’s offensive, every single neighbor actin’ like I’m gonna eat ‘em, eat their kids! I can’t even play with my own li’ll ones without someone callin’ th’ dern cops an’ gettin’ me in trouble! I got banned from pickin’ my kids up from school because nobody can imagine I’m there just like any other parent! My innocent li’ll kids can’t go no-wheres without people bullying ‘em or making comments! An’ the worst; My li’ll boy, Buster, he’s a Gator like his daddy, an’ every dern time he tries an’ make friends, either the kids or the parents freak out an’ treat him like a violent vicious evil monster! A li’ll baby!”
The snake remained in his tense, coiled pose but his face lowered towards Hopps-Wilde’s level. Previously his voice had been just this side of yelling, but suddenly he went down a few octaves and his tone became hostile;
“You didn’t just offend me, this whole dern city offends me, an’ I don’t wanna hear another PEEP from any ZPD officer unless it’s an apology, so good day, ‘Officer’.”
The door was slammed in the officer’s face hard enough to loosen fillings, and she was standing there in some indecision when the door was suddenly pulled open again, and another green face was peering out, the Alligator only a little smaller than the snake, but much friendlier appearing.
“You’re gonna have to forgive Lutador,” the Gator began, “Though you undoubtedly understand why he’s a might upset by now.”
Hopps-Wilde nodded, managing to pull another smile out and extend her paw.
“I really do sir, and I wish to apologize, I should have chosen my words better, I’m Officer Judy Hopps-Wilde, I’m part of the reason reptiles like yourself and Lutador have been integrated into Zootopia, though I realize it’s going very rough for most of you.”
The Alligator stared for a moment, then shook her small furry paw with his large scaly one before stepping back and waving her inside.
“I’m Beauregard Ripperson, call me Ripley, y’ already met my husband Lutador,” the snake glowered over his scales before turning back to the laundry, “And these are our li’ll ones, Cassie, Douglas, Buster, the twins Fern and Peony, and this is our oldest, Timothy.”
Hopps-Wilde nodded, eyeing the unusual variety of children as they were named, a rabbit like herself, but with a dark coat and white face and paw tips, not much older than the next named, an Echidna, followed by a young Alligator, tiny opossums that she couldn’t tell apart, and a young Coyote that was watching her warily, helping Lutador fold the clothes. She was also fascinated to see the snake handling everything that she counted on paws for with the flexible last few feet of his tail, seeming almost as dexterous with it as any mammal with opposable thumbs.
“Quite the brood,” she said, bending at the waist to boop the little Alligator’s snout as he wandered close, “Hello little fella.”
She ignored the snort from the snake, and the accompanying glare from Timothy, instead looking up at Ripley as the Alligator spoke again.
“Y’know ma’am, Lute may not have helped our case with how he spoke to you jus’ now, but you have no idea what we’ve been through, especially him, as he’s the stay-home parent.”
Hopps-Wilde glanced back towards the laundry, but the snake had disappeared, surprising her at how silent he moved. She looked down as the baby Echidna tugged at her pants leg, and bent and scooped him up after looking at his father for approval. She tickled his little claws as Ripley continued, voice turning into a mixture of sorrow and anger that she was shocked to connect with so strongly.
“He don’t even feel like he can play with our kids anymore, not after he was chasin’ them around th’ front yard pretendin’ to be tryin’ to eat ‘em. Neighbors called and we almost got th’ kids taken away right then and there. Then there was the incident where, a few times after pickin’ up th’ kids at school, there were complaints and apparently a bunch of critters couldn’t believe a cold blood would have warm blood kids, Superintendent wouldn’t let Lute collect th’ kids, an when he raised a ruckus, he got removed and arrested for threatening grievous bodily harm,” Ripley turned to look at her, and Hopps-Wilde felt her ears droop even though she hadn’t been involved, “He weren’t threatenin’ nobody, he was jus upset our kids were bein’ kept from him. Now he can’t even pick ‘em up ‘cause he ain’t welcome at th’ school, so I have to take off work early, and my boss is threatenin’ to let me go. If I lose that job, we’re gonna be kicked off the Program that brought us here in the first place, an’ weren’t none of this our fault.”
There was silence for a long moment, and Hopps-Wilde was struggling to find the right words, when the alligator added, very softly.
“I caught Lute cryin’ so many times recently, I ain’t never seen him cry before, we’re threatened with losin’ our kids, who we’ve had since BEFORE we moved here, losin’ our income, hell we already lost our lifestyle, on account of things are more expensive here, look at this trash heap we’re livin’ in! Me an’ Lute had a nice li’ll home on the waterfront before, comfortable enough for us biguns, with th’ kids rooms all set up for their personal needs. Here we ain’t even got heat lamps for sleepin’ at night. I understand what this reptile inclusion program is supposed t’ do, but it ain’t helpin’ this family none.”
There was a long silence after that information, and it was only slowly that Hopps-Wilde broke it, choosing her words with care, bouncing the little echidna gently.
“You know, I understand what you two are going through, at least a little,” she took a deep breath, “My husband gave up being a police officer to stay home and take care of our children, and we get a lot of hate and prejudice even though the world has come so far. See, my husband is a fox…”
Hopps-Wilde elaborated a little, how she and Nick had adopted a fox cub and two rabbit kits, how the kids often were bullied and teased, how many times she and Nick would be out with their family and find themselves receiving disapproving stares and whispered comments.
“So I personally don’t know how it feels to be viewed as a threat just for existing, but I know what it’s like to live with a steady flow of hate and misinformed opinions coming at you.”
She put the echidna down, then placed a friendly paw on Ripley’s arm, holding out a pamphlet she pulled from her pocket.
“Here, this is a little group that gets together once a week, the kids can play without being bullied, the parents can relax and visit with like-minded animals. It’s a group for mixed families, like ours,” she chuckled softly as the alligator slowly took the paper, raising a leathery eyebrow as he glanced from it to her curiously, “We even have an Elephant and a Weasel and their kids. You two would be more than welcome, and maybe we can get you two moved to a better neighborhood and a home more suited for your needs, this isn’t how the program is supposed to work, I guess we have a ways to go yet.”