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Chapter Text

“you'll never be a real cop.” The fox stated, confident and smug. 

“You’ll make a cute meter maid though! Maybe a supervisor one day! Hang in there!” He added cheerfully as he skulked away, leaving her feeling very much like the wet cement pooling around her knees.

All washed up.

—

It was the middle of one of the coldest winters on record when Zootopia’s weather walls malfunctioned, its desert wall practically imploded, the power grid overloading Tundratown’s glacial waterways.

In the wee hours of the morning, at around 01:03, in the morning City Central found itself already a foot underwater.

It was 01:16 and Officer Judy Hopps, a police veteran with just over one year of meter maid experience, still in her pink bunny print pajamas, her tiny nose twitching at the thick knots of frozen rain smacking loudly against her window. 

On her desk her radio squawked indignantly, voices of dozens of panicked mammals filling the airwaves with 10-codes, color-codes, and a hundred other ways of spelling distress.

The rabbit doe clenched her velvety fist.

Washed Up.

She pawed her badge, feeling its weight on her palm, considering, pondering.

She set her badge down and picked up her radio, steeling herself as a tiny muted note of excitement and a great deal of determination pulled at her ears.

She keyed her radio, “Officer Hopps to dispatch. What can I do to help?”

[You can help by not getting washed up by the current ‘Officer’.] Came the snippy reply. [We don't need to be fishing your tiny corpse from a sewer drain.]

Washed Up.

“Right.”

She set her radio down beside her badge, her ears dropping against her back.

“Right…”

For a moment only the thunderous roar of rain and rush of water several stories below beat against the walls of her small apartment.

For a moment the dejected doe considered just… throwing in the towel and going back to sleep.

Then above the roar of water she heard a cry for help.

[Hopps, stay in place, it's getting worse out there. The national guard and coast guard have been mobilized to help. Gear up and stand by for pick up.]

…

[Hopps?]

The radio chirped inside the empty room.

Chapter Text

“Hey- hey! No one tells me what I can or can’t be. Especially not some jerk who never had the guts to try to be anything more than a popsicle hustler!”

The bunny doe was all fire and spirit, her bowler cap and uniform straight and as well groomed as the rest of her. Her soft gray fur was a stark contrast to the shining amethyst jewels burning at his soul.

Unlike him, she was so bright and wanted to do good, make a difference.

Unlike her he was already washed up.

Unlike her, he stopped caring much about anything. The city took that from him years ago, along with everything else he had once held dear. 

Though much of that was his fault, he knew.

She annoyed him, her brightness felt like an itch behind the ear he can't seem to quite scratch, or a stab of sunlight in his eye.

So, he did what he did best when something irritated him, he annoyed it until it went away.

“Alright, look.”

He let his manufactured smirk slide away and he waved a paw, leaning forward.

“Everyone comes to Zootopia thinking that they can be anything they want.” He told her, faux compassion and softened expression practically dripping with sarcasm.

He watched her dip a few inches, completely unaware of her surroundings.

“Well ya can't.” He stood up straight, his paws behind his back to admire his petty handiwork. She practically did all the work for him.

“You can only be what you are.” 

“Sly Fox-” A russet paw tapped his chest.

“-Dumb bunny.” he gestured to her.

“I am not a dumb bunny.” The dumb bunny replied, so sure of herself as she sank deeper.

“Right, and that's not wet cement.” His smirk came back in full force, splitting with smug vindication at the way her eyes widened in surprise and some measure of panic as she sank further down, finally feeling her toes sucked into liquid rock.

He stepped past her and fired off one last parting shot, more to wound her, make her hurt just as much as the city had hurt him.

“You'll never be a real cop.” He told her, only bothering to glance back at her once he was rounding a car, digging his final verbal punches into her bleeding ego.

He had honestly forgotten the rest of what he had said, only remembering the way her wide violet eyes sparked in confusion and pain as she stood knee deep in wet cement.

He remembered grinning at her as he vanished.

He remembered how it didn't really make him feel any better.

He still hurt and when he saw her next, weeks later in fact, still in her shiny vest and joke-mobile. He found the dejected look of quiet devastation fixated on her cute face only made him feel worse.

Now she was just like him.

All Washed Up.

Chapter Text

It was the best birthday ever!

He turned seven today and he made a promise to his Daddy to be good.

So he was a good boy for Mama all day and took naps and ate all his food when asked, then when Daddy got off work they could go and he could stay up!

The premier for Super Mammal and Friends was at midnight and he managed to stay up all the way through!

Daddy held his paw as they walked back to the bus. He skipped with joy and Daddy smiled, just as happy.

Then he saw Daddy’s ear flick, his smile slipping as he looked behind them.

“Daddy?”

Cold water touched his toes. He looked down, confused. 

Weird. It wasn't raining.

He heard a bunch of noise. Cars honking and something else. 

A growing, rumbling roar.

Chapter Text

Nick Wilde thanked his lucky stars that his winter coat came in before the late November chill set its icy claws into the city proper.

He leaned out into the window and inhaled the night air, reveling in the taste of Savannah Central at her most restful. The crisp air smelled of iron, icy water, and exhaust. A storm rode on the winds that night.

He drank the city in, and for just a single blissful moment forgot himself.

The van sputtered to a halt, the wind whipping by slowed and Nick jerked back to reality. He found a trail of cars lined in front of him, their rear lights flashing like blinking predators restless against the slog of Zootopia’s nocturnal rush hour.

“Ruttin' Hell.” A deep voice growled from the driver’s seat. “This'll take all night.”

Nick glanced from his partner to the digital clock on the dashboard. 

It read a few minutes to one in the morning.

“Not much to be done about it, big guy.” Nick said. Finn scoffed, his lips pulled back into a toothy scowl.

A heavy thud startled the vulpine pair, another icy raindrop splattered against the windshield, then another, until the cloudy drops pulled the tail lights into playful bends and swirls across the van’s worn vinyl.

“Great, just great.” Finn spat, little paws smacking the steering wheel. Car horns blasted so Finn added a few blasts of his own, punching the cracked leather horn venomously.

“I thought the weather report called for clear skies.” Nick hummed, his head resting on his fist, letting his diminutive friend work out his frustrations.

The ragged red fox’s half lidded eyes slid to a bus stop nearby where a small crowd huddled under an awning, an elderly ewe couple, a few giggling college girls, and a sand cat dad with his son holding dutifully to his father’s paw..

The frozen rain began to come down heavier, its staccato drumbeat bleeding into a single endless roar.

“Wow, it's really comin’ down.”

“Shore, shore. Now close the ruttin' window Wilde.” Finn mumbled with no real heat, his exhaustion thickening his booming accent. 

Nick had the window cranked half closed when a shriek made the fox stop and glance out the window. One of the college girls was hopping on one foot, shaking the other to her friends’ giggling amusement. 

Nick tilted his head, curious at what was the cause of the commotion. It was water, a lot of it, a practical creek swelling right there on the sidewalk.

The number of car horns grew.

He cranked the window open.

“Wilde? Whatcha doin’?”

“Lookin’. Something's weird.”

“Yeah, yew’re bein’ weird. Close the damn window.”

“One sec.” Nick unbuckled his seat belt and stuck his head out into the rain looking behind them. The glare of hundreds of headlights met his eyes scornfully. He narrowed his emerald eyes, trying to see past the blinding lights.

The storm’s roar grew louder.

A long blast of a horn signaled a bus rapidly approaching. A thousand cars answered in anger.

Nick looked down and found a river racing between the van’s tires.

A tiny child’s voice, the little sand cat kit, poked through the rain’s roar, a scared tiny thing.

Green eyes widened as the pieces fell into place.

Nick looked up from the rushing water beneath behind his paws in time to see the bus swerve, it's spinning tires lifted off the pavement by a rising wave of water behind it-

The bus that was barreling off the through lane, straight for them.

“FINN!”

Then, impact.

Chapter Text

The bus hit like, well a bus. 

The horn gave one final terrified bellow before the large vehicle plowed into the van’s artfully painted side panel right behind the passenger seat.

The same seat Nick was currently occupying.

The red fox gasped in pain from being thrown against his seatbelt as the seat was rammed forward, barely saving the vulpine conman from becoming an impromptu hood ornament. A cracked headlight tickled against his right ear, a literal hairsbreadth from caving in his skull.

“Yo, what the rut?!” Finn boomed, throwing his weight against the steering wheel. 

The van's tires squealed as his impaled van skid across the lane where it smashed into a station wagon full of a family of screaming brown bears. Freezing water sprayed across the dashboard and over the vulpine pair, gushing in from the wrecked side panels like an open wound.

 Nick yowled in pain, his seat belt digging sharply across his chest as freezing water choked his nose and throat.

“Mah van!” Finn sputtered, “He hit my rutting van!”

More water flooded in, spilling around Nick’s legs and quickly pooling up to his waist. He tried his door’s handle and found it stuck fast. A tremor that had little to do with the cold raced down his tail.

“Out the window!” Nick shouted, pointing to the driver’s side door. “Finn, get out that window!”

“You lost yer damn mind ya pelt?! I ain't leavin’ my own ruttin' van!”

“We stay here and you get turned into a crumpled can of frozen fox sardines with a fancy paint job! Now move mammal, move!”

“Rut you, Wilde!”

Nick wrenched his seat belt loose and stretched around to wrestle his partner’s off as well. The diminutive fennec briefly fought the red fox, his smaller stature betraying his deceptive strength.

The van jerked violently causing the two foxes to freeze in the middle of their bickering and look over the back seat. Another car crunched into the back door, more water flooding in through the twisted metal. 

“Finn.”

“Out the window, yeah.”

The fennec cranked the window down and both vulpines scrambled out the driver side and onto the top of the station wagon. The family of brown bears had already fled from the vehicle, leaving the doors that the van hadn't crushed wide open. 

The cold rain stole Nick’s breath from his lungs, thoroughly soaking through his winter coat and pawaiian shirt in seconds. The sound cut sharply into focus, punching into the culpine’s sensitive ears. The thundering roar of the storm poured down in thick, blinding sheets and thousands of car horns blasting a panicked chorus to the rumbling sneer of the rushing flood growing ever higher over the road.

The red fox stood on the station wagon, an island in the center of destruction, packed cars, drowning and fleeing animals and a crushing claws of the freezing flood ripping and tearing countless victims into the dark storm.

Nick stumbled back as the terrifying gravity of it all sank in, his paws slipping on the slick car roof.

Finn said something, the words torn away by the howling storm. Nick leaned in closer, shouting,”What?”

Nick yelped as the smaller fox snatched him by his shirt’s collar and yanked, turning his head upstream.

“Look!”

An undulating sheet of twinkling lights rose above the glaring headlights. It took a moment but Nick noticed that as the twinkling lights grew closer the number of honking horns were steadily shrinking, and the station wagon beneath them began to tremble.

Nick grabbed his colleague by the shoulder, barely keeping from unsheathing his claws.

It was a wave easily a story tall, dark water hidden by the night sky.

Nick laid down carefully on the car’s roof and gripped the luggage rails. 

“Finn, hold onto something.”

The fennec pressed in close and grabbed hold, watching as the roaring wall of water surged over them, blotting out the street lights.

"Guess we're all washed up, ey Wilde?"

"Go rut yourself, Finn.”

Chapter Text

The flood so easily ripped him from the top of that station wagon it was pathetic, really.

Nick had thought that he could have at least clung to the bars for a short while, resist against the pull, but the moment the wave came down the fox was little more than soggy vulpine flotsam.

In the face of nature’s fury he was so utterly helpless. 

Only later would Nick come to appreciate that the only reason he managed those first moments in that flood was, ironically, related to him nearly NOT surviving getting iced by Mr. Big all those years ago. 

In the meantime, he only felt sheer weightless terror.

The normal Zootopian night became swirling darkness and choking cold with pulsating unending fear the only clinging constant as she dragged her victims down, down into her depths.

Instead of fighting the current flailing uselessly whilethe freezing water leached his body of heat and batter at his throat Nick, instead, did the only thing he could do: he snagged his diminutive partner’s collar with his claws and held on as hard as he could.

A sharp pain lanced up Nick’s shoulder, a glancing blow from a submerged car, its headlights illuminated as it tumbled freely in the dark water. The brief pulse of light swept across the swelling tide outlining a dozen thrashing bodies suspended in ice cold swill, then the light winked out plunging everything back into muffled roaring darkness.

A devastating punch to his chest folded him, completely blindsiding the foxy flotsam. Nick gagged, leaking precious air while wrapped around the debris wedged fast against the shearing current. 

Another cone of light passed through the flood, a submerged lighthouse in tumultuous waters.

A tiny bundle caught the fox’s attention, bouncing off a passing hulk. He saw little arms twist and thrash.

In a jolt of uncommon decency and utter insanity the fox lurched out and snagged the tiny body before it was swept away.

With both paws occupied Nick torqued his body, his legs and tail against the current, his hind paws catching against jagged metal as he fought upward. The water slammed the con-mammal brutally against the debris driving more air from his lungs. 

He looked up and saw dots of light from upper level apartments. He was so close. 

It was too far.

Lack of air made the flagging vulpine reckless and desperate. 

He reached twisted and pushed with all his might, dragging his body and cargo across rented metal and broken glass. It was too much, too heavy, too cold. He somehow got a paw free and reached up towards the flickering pinpricks of light. 

His last dying grasp.

Then something grasped back.

Then it pulled.

The current peeled away from the fox’s face and a thousand, thousand sounds stabbed into the stunned vulpine's head. He sobbed, sucked, and choked on rain and blessed sweet air as he gathered his skewed wits and trembling limbs. 

He felt Finn’s claws digging into his arm like a vice.

He felt a second pair of claws that had sunken into his flank.

Nick poked his snout down and found a tiny, tiny little tan kitten easily half of Finn’s size soaked to the bone, once fluffy fur slicked to his skeleton, clutching his shirt for all he was worth. The stowaway’s head barely breached the water’s flexing surface.

He then looked to his arm and followed it up to the pair of small gray furred paws wrapped around it, up to the cute carrot print pajamas plastered to a lean, feminine frame to the pair of brilliant amethyst eyes staring wide back at him.

It was a rabbit, a distressingly familiar rabbit.

"Carrots?"

Chapter Text

Stupid, stupid, STUPID!

Why was she so stupid?!

Officer Judy Hopps disguised her groan of self-disgust as a very un-bunny-like snarl as she hefted a lady capybara from the thrashing river that had swallowed the entire street in front of her apartment.

The bunny doe mashed her teeth as a violent torrent of freezing rain brutalized her through the thin carrot print shift and pajama pants. Her short gray fur was plastered to her skin only serving to leech more of her precious little body heat.

Why did she think running into a flooding rainstorm was a good idea?! She’s barely three feet tall counting her ears! What did she expect to do when the flood water was already up to her chest?

She was so stupid !

“Help!” Came a cry over the roaring rapids. “I’m stuck! Help me, please!”

Judy shoved all other thoughts away and zeroed in through sheets of rain and vehicles being tossed across the street on another citizen in need. “I'm coming! Hold on!”

The rabbit officer had to exercise caution beyond simply being ripped into the current, she lacked foot pads, bunnies like her only had velvety fur on their paws. She had blunt claws like most mammals however they found little purchase on wet metal or concrete.

As the storm roared on, the brave little bunny soon found that the wet cold had sunken into her bones. Every motion felt stiffer, her joints throbbed, even her fingers were becoming uncooperative. 

It was when she was wiping the freezing rain from her eyes for the hundredth time that she realized how deep and ragged her breathing had become, tearing from her mouth in little puffs. But no matter how much she tried to take a moment she couldn't seem to catch her breath.

She shivered, the motion violent enough to rattle her jaw and clench like a punch to her ribs.

So Stupid!

She gasped, and in a moment of weakness, doubled over in pain on the edge of an elevated concrete bank supporting an overpass. Even as elevated as it was, some five or six feet from the pavement, the frothing water licked hungrily at the bank, threatening to wash over it and utterly consume the paltry huddle of mammals cowering under the overpass.

It was then that the bunny, as expended as she was, saw a flash of color from beneath the waves, bouncing off an upturned vehicle and getting lodged in a crushed wolf-sized sedan stuck fast nearly at her feet.

Her weakness forgotten the brave bunny doe steeled herself and clambered to the sedan and to her horror, and relief, her intuition was right. It was a mammal, flattened by the punishing current against the roof of the car.

She heard one of the mammals behind her cry out as she plunged face-first up to the waist, only her toes curled around the shattered door sill keeping her from being ripped away by the flood. 

For a moment she thought she was too late, the mess of fur and cloth battered against the metal like fevered drum. 

Then she saw an arm, a ruddy paw outstretched in resigned desperation.

She took it, her blunt claws digging through sodden fur to sink into skin and bone.

Then she pulled.

The mammal thankful lurched upwards, aiding her until she pulled from the water with a fervent gasp for air. An long narrow snout broke the surface a breath after, coughing and choking.

Then the fox, for it could only be a fox, opened his eyes. His expression turned to surprise, then to a nasty ironic horror.

“Carrots?” He coughed.

“You.” She sputtered in shock herself. She felt something shift in her chest, something ugly slithering an inky trail of hate and resentment for the fox for being right.

The fox saw her pause for a moment. He felt her grip loosen and he yelped when his arm slipped through her grasp to his wrist.

A tiny mewl tore her from her daze, drawing her attention to the rest of the fox. Clinging to his wiry body were not one, but two mammals. The fennec partner of his-

-and a little kitten.

“If you’re gonna drop me,” Rasped the fox, shaking the bunny from her confusion, “Then at least take the kid first.”

She did, then she pulled the fox and his partner up too.

This time when she felt sick, it had nothing to do with the cold.

Chapter Text

There were many facets of police training that Judy felt helped prepare her for dealing with disasters of many shapes and sizes, from a distraught victim to several injured parties to even a simulated mass casualty event near the end of her academy days.

Nothing, not any of those classes, scenarios, or expert lectures could prepare her for dealing with a devastated child.

She had tried to console the kit but was totally ignored by the wailing little kitten. 

Still, she tried her best.

“hey, hey, hey…” she cooed consolingly, her paws hovering awkwardly above the tiny Kit's shivering shoulder, unsure of what to do with them. “I'm- I’m Officer Hopps, I’m going to help you. Do you know where your parents are?”

She cringed, too late to take the stupid question. The kitten began to wail louder.

Then, that fox spoke up.

“Hi Kitto. Seems your Dad got himself lost. How silly of him.”

The bunny blinked a few errant raindrops from her eyes at the thoroughly soaked vulpine, ugly pawaiian shirt glued slick over an underfed and bony frame. The bunny felt a punch in her heart at the clear outline of ribs that would normally be hidden by a thick layer of fur.

Then she felt a tiny, petty stab of jealousy when the kitten stopped crying with a hiccup, succeeding in calming the little boy in seconds where she had failed for the past five minutes.

“W-we was comin' from the movies.” The kitten squeaked, rubbing his big, puffy eyes on his tiny arm. “S’ma birfday.”

“Your Birthday!” The Fox exclaimed, his ears erect and soaked tail swaying in a calm, collected manner. “Well Happy Birthday champ! How old are you today?”

“Seven…” The kitten mumbled.

“Seven! My, you’re practically all grown up!” The fox grinned wide, flashing a playful fang. the kitten gave a watery giggle. “T-That’s what my mama says too.”

Judy stared as the con-fox spun a cheerful string gently tugging the kitten from his devastated mood.

The fox leaned in, a paternal rumble on the edge to his voice. “Well, even grown-ups need help sometimes.” Then he gestured to her. “Help from nice mammals like Officer toot-toot over there.”

“Ociffer toot-toot?” 

Judy felt her drooping ears flick up despite herself, startled by the Fox’s words. Demeaning nickname aside, she hadn’t expected that from him, not after how the last time they had butted heads ended, with her feet in sucking concrete. 

“Well, no- I mean yes, I'm an ociffe- I mean officer -” Her eyes flicked over to the vulpine and felt the strong urge to wipe that amused smarm off his face.

The kitten looked confused, tilting his sand-colored little head, large ears flopping to one side.

The bunny tried to emulate the fox’s demeanor, raising her ears and doing her best to put on a smile. It felt more like a grimace on her short muzzle but she hoped the kitten wouldn't be able to tell.

“Do all bunny ociffers wear carrots?”

Judy scrunched her nose and glanced down. Heat seared down her ears at her carrot print pajamas, soaked to the point of transparency, inadvertently giving those around her quite the show.

She curled her arms around herself and gave the kitten a flushed grin. “A-ah, no. I got woken up, left my badge and uniform in my room.” The kitten gave a little nod.

“Is it ‘cuz the city wet your bed?” the fox drawled.

Judy gave the fox an open mouthed look, absolutely scandalized. However the crude and lame joke sent the kitten into watery tittering giggles.

The doe rolled her eyes, letting the joke go at her expense. “Great, now I have to deal with two kits!”

Chapter Text

“What is the city doing about all this?!” A cigarette charred feminine voice bayed. “Why, my night was ruined because of some idiot cock-up and now I’m stuck here freezing my snout off out here standing in the rain in the middle of the night!” 

Judy squinted through the gloom, the rainy dark illuminated in sputtering neon from the ascended apartment lights looming over the flooded street.  She could barely make out an overweight boar sow, her coarse fur bristled beneath a rather unflattering yellow dress.

“Keep calm ma’am.” Judy piped up with the fox and the sand kitten in tow. “The city is doing all it can to get this situation under control-”

A minivan, turned on its side in the swelling current, crunched into the ledge a few feet away only the glitter of fractured safety glass giving shape to the upturned vehicle against the pitch black water.

“This situation?!” The sow sneered wielding her handbag about angrily at the flooded street, “‘Doing all they can to get this under control?!’ Pah! What would you know, you little burrow rat? What are you even doing here in the city? Ain’t no bucks to plow a farm or you out here!”

Judy was completely blindsided by sow’s sudden tirade of vitriol, so much so it left her stunned, gapping breathless as if she had been gutpunched.

A squall of freezing water splashed from the street-made-river, licking across the bunny’s cheek.

“Whoa, lady! We got kits out here!” The fox hissed. Judy felt an odd jolt. She hadn’t expected the vulpine to add his two cents. She wiped an arm across her cheek, in a vain attempt to wipe away the slick wet.

“Leave the bunny ociffer alone!” Came the kitten’s reedy little voice. His large ears peeked around the fox’s leg. “‘S not nice to call people mean things.”

Judy felt her heart melt just a little at the tiny child’s bravery in speaking out, especially in defense of her!

The surrounding gaggle of mammals and the boar couple were taken aback at the sand kitten’s outburst, then the sow broke down into oinks of laughter.

A trickle of water trickled over the ledge, crawling across the concrete and pooling in a divot at the bunny doe’s feet. The doe shot a scowl at the offending puddle and flicked the water from her toes.

“I always did say the cops were trottin’ useless, but a bunny cop?! That takes the cake!”

“Honey, enough.” Her husband cut in. 

The sow let out a wet snort. “Well, it's not like she can do anything about this clusterfu-!” 

“Do any of you have phone service?” Judy asked. 

“What about you, ‘officer’?” The sow continued digging into the rabbit. 

“I left mine in my room. I didn’t exactly plan on a midnight swim.” The bunny doe gestured to the corny carrot print pajamas glued to her back and hips. 

The sow once again opened her snout but the Fox behind Judy beat her to it, drawling in much the same cutting manner as the sow had, “I doubt anyone of us did.” 

Metal and glass screeched across the elevated concrete barrier, the minivan had been dragged further downstream, the arguing mammals largely ignoring the chaos a few mere steps away.

“Oh great,” The boar sneered with a dismissive roll of her beady eyes. “When did the wet pelt float in with the rest of the trash?”

“Hey, no need for name-calling, porkchop. It's beneath you.” the fox exclaimed. “Not that you could see your feet anyway.”

The rotund sow sputtered, clutching her handbag to her chest in shock. “How- How DARE YOU?!”

Judy felt her blood pressure spike, she could practically feel fury-fueled steam bellow from her ears. Had the exhausted doe the energy to spare her foot would have thumped a hole into the pavement. As it was she was still seriously contemplating pitching the boar sow into the water to test her buoyancy.

“ Enough. ” She kept her tone just this side of a snarl, baring her buck teeth at the boar and fox. “Taking cheap shots at each other isn’t going to get us out of this mess any faster.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.” The sow squawked. 

“I suppose there isn’t much of a reason for you to worry.” The Fox said with a shrug. “Beach balls do float after all.”

A bassy cackle of laughter came from the small crowd behind the boar couple, Judy figured it was the red Fox’s fennec partner.

“Stop it!” Judy hissed at the smarmy vulpine. “You aren’t helping!”

“Yeah! Stop it Mister!” The sand kitten scolded wagging a tiny finger. 

The Fox splayed his ears back contritely in a convincing manner and said to the Kitten, “Right, right. You’re right. I’m sorry.”

Judy kneaded the dull ache growing between her eyebrows and sighed. “Look, those that have signal, try to contact dispatch. If 911 isn’t working try 311.”

A few of the mammals nodded and pulled out their phones. A shiver raced up the bunny cop’s spine as a harsh blast of wind whipped through the underpass. Judy turned away and tucked her paws under her armpits, chasing what little body heat she had left to give. 

“You alright?” 

The bunny gave a little jolt, opened her eyes, and was surprised to find the Fox looking down at her. 

She scrubbed her paws down her face and mumbled, “Mhm’ fine.”

“You don’t look it.”

The bunny shifted her leg, instantly regretting it when pins and static needles shot up the limb. She suppressed a groan at the aching stiffness cowled around her bones.

She didn’t remember sitting down, or closing her eyes.

“Why do you care, anyway?” The doe snapped, looking away from the vulpine standing next to her.

The fox didn’t have an answer.

After a few moments of delicate, tense quiet the fox murmured softly, “...One of those marmots over there got a hold of the police. We won’t be getting any help for a long while. The whole southeast side of the city is flooded, he said.”

“Great.” The bunny grunted, her ears drooping, both from her throbbing pain and the cold, but also her crappy attitude just now. Their shared history of him being a lying Jerk or not, right now, the Fox was only trying to help. “I suppose that means we just have to stay here and keep as warm and dry as possible.”

“That-” The Fox looked over his shoulder, as if checking for any eavesdroppers. He turned back to her. It was then that she noticed the tense way he held his shoulders. It put her on edge.

Something was wrong.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, else I would have let you get some more sleep.” The Fox admitted. He jabbed an auburn claw towards the roaring river.

Judy followed the fox’s finger and saw a sheet of water lapping over the side of the concrete median, growing ever larger with each icy breath. 

“We may not have that option.”

The tide was riding.

Chapter Text

The rabbit wasn’t looking so good.

Sunken eyes, disorientation, falling asleep despite the freezing cold, and her quaking limbs that never seem to just do what she wanted, he remembered the symptoms of hypothermia well from those lonely winter nights under his bridge.

Once he had her talking she seemed to wake up enough, especially once he mentioned the rising waterline, though the way she had clumsily shuffled to her feet like an arthritic newborn lamb didn’t exactly soothe his concern. 

Well, as much concern he could muster for a relative stranger with an occupation antithesis to his.

After a few exchanges he realized that the bunny doe seemed to have forgotten he was there, the problem of the rising tide consuming her entire focus, as fragile as it was.

Nick rejoined Finnick next against the concrete pillar holding up the overpass. They kept themselves out of the main group that were huddled together for warmth. Not that the vulpine pair were very welcome in the first place. 

Neither was the bunny cop, oddly enough, despite how cute and non-threatening she was. Though that might have something to do with her having something of a reputation in city central. 

Much like tax collectors, one would rather suck on rusty nails than be seen with the likes of meter maids. Though she seemed totally unaware of this, based on what he saw and heard.

Thankfully the little kitten didn’t have that kind of petty baggage, and it didn’t hurt that he was cute as a button so a capybara couple had swept up the pathetic little wet scamp. The kit had fallen asleep, cheek squished against the male capybara’s chest.

Nick glanced from the kitten and the other mammals, redirecting his concerns to the bunny in question, her thin frame and long ears regarding the swirled black sloshing over the median with increasing ferocity. He could practically see the wheels turning in that little gray head of hers.

“Yew tell da bunny cop?”

“Yeah Finn, she’s on it.” Nick replied, pushing down the urge to sniffle or risk hacking a loogie. His winter coat was doing a lot to push back the deathly chill, though even that could only do so much. He heard a tiny, and quite frankly adorable, sneeze from the bunny doe followed by a visible shiver racking down her body.

“Girl ain’t havin’ a fun time, is she?” Finn remarked, seeing the same thing Nick was.

“None of us are. Though she’s the only one of us with practically no body fat and dancin’ around in a carrot print slip.”

Finn grunted and gave the rabbit a discreet appreciative once-over. “Grass-muncher or not, the meter maid do be lookin’ fine. Not ‘zactly my type though.”

Nick rolled his eyes, “She looks miserable, is what she looks like. Just a few degrees this side of a frozen carrot TV dinner.”

Finn snorted. “Yew still hung up on what’she was doin’ while we was pawpsicle pushin’.”

The red fox tilted his head as he thought. “No,” He replied carefully. “She may be a badge but it ain’t like her career took off much. More like she got mired on take-off.”

“Like us den?” The fennec rumbled.

“All washed up, yeah.” The red fox hummed, then regarded the miserable and thoroughly soaked lagomorph a little longer and added, “She did pull us outta the water, though.”

“True.” Finn acquiesced. “Though, she ain’t looked all that ‘appy ta see it was yer ugly mug she was pullin’ out o’ da water, though.”

“True.” Nick agreed, his wrist pulsing at the memory of her velvet paws deliberately loosening. Her unconscious hesitance to pull him from the water still haunted him.

A naked, raw cough  shook Nick from the memory. The rabbit spat whatever taste lingered in her mouth and turned away from the water. Nick saw her approach the group and huffed, flicking water from his toe, and clambering to his feet once again, groaning at the stone-heavy way his bones protested the movement.

“We can’t stay here.” She said bluntly, addressing the group. “Collect your things.”

A few of the mammals began to mumble amongst themselves, yet naturally not everyone was amicable. 

“Where are we suppuse ta go?!” The boar sow wailed. “How?! Swim to shore?!” She thrust a trotter across the roaring street-turned-river. 

“The cars.” The doe droned. When no one else seemed to follow she sighed.

Nick saw the way her posture wavered, she was visibly struggling through the fatigue and freezing cold to string two thoughts together. She gave her head a shake and blinked her drooping eyes wider. “Uhm, sorry. I mean the cars, look-” She gestured to a section of the street partially dammed up by upturned vehicles. “We can make our way across using those.”

“Why would we do that?” The sow scoffed. “We can stay here until help arrives. No way am I stepping on any car wrecks in the middle of a river just ‘cuz you say so!”

“Honey.” Her husband admonished weakly.

“Shut it!” The sow snapped, taking a swipe at the cowering boar, beady little eyes rolling behind frothing lips. “WE are not going anywhere! YOU are not going anywhere!”

“Ma’am-” Judy tried to interject.

“SHUT UP YOU BURROW RAT! SHUT UP!” The sow screeched, causing the rest of the animals to lean back from the unhinged boar.

“Then stay.” 

The Judy and the seething sow rounded at the cool remark. Seeing that all eyes were on him, both pretty amethyst and ugly, angry black, Nick gave a smug smirk and swaggered forward drawling, “Then stay. Don’t listen to the bunny cop who's trying to keep everyone from killing themselves.” 

He swept a claw at the river lapping hungrily over the median’s edge. “Stay and when the water inevitably rises, then go for a swim.”

The sow’s nose flared but in that moment Nick knew he had won.

Though he missed it, the bunny doe looked back at him in disbelief, and something that resembled skeptical wonder.

Chapter Text

“This is crazy.” That Fox’s fennec partner rumbled as the group sized up the broken trail of wrecks that led across the wide street-turned-river.

 The diminutive vulpine shook out the stress standing his fur on end and fixed her with a deadpan look. “You are crazy.”

The rabbit gave him a shrug, her icy muscles protesting the motion. “I'm a bunny cop.” She tried to grin back. “Guilty as charged.”

A sharp bark of laughter from behind startled her.

“Ya know Carrots, under normal circumstances I’d say a crazy bunny cop in a rainstorm was a recipe for disaster.” The Red Fox sauntered over with a toothy grin effectively erasing the one on her own muzzle.

“Well, what do you say now?” She challenged, little paws clenched into fists on her hips. 

That Fox grinned wider, completely unfazed at her scowl. He shrugged then gave an odd pause and replied in a careful, considering tone. “I say… it's the kind of crazy we need right now.”

She fixed him with an uncertain stare and a slow nod. “Right…”

The fox rolled his eyes, green eyes she noted suddenly, the kind that glowed strangely, even in the dark, and drawled. “Don’t make it weird Carrots, I’m trying to say I’m willing to trust you not to get us killed before the flood does.”

Judy swallowed, the familiar weight of responsibility settled on her shoulders, The weight leveled by those emerald eyes however, she couldn’t place.

“That’s all nice ‘n all,” The fennec rumbled. “But we’re still stuck on dis blasted median. So, who’s gonna cross ‘fore de others?”

Judy, despite her confidence, hesitated in the face of the roaring frothing rapids lapping at her feet.

“Well, as they say, ladies first.” The Red Fox gestured to the river and took a deliberate step back, tail brushing deftly over her hip in what she guessed as an encouraging manner.

She would have appreciated the surprising gesture even… if he hadn’t been pushing her to jump onto overturned vehicles mired in the center of roaring floodwaters. 

“Okay, okay.” She breathed deeply and shook her stiff limbs to get her blood flowing. “Okay,” She sized up the first jump and whispered hoarsely to herself “You can do this.”

Then she took a standing hop from the median. 

Despite the cold and her flagging endurance she cleared the short gap easily. However sticking the landing on the upturned minivan was a bit trickier. She gasped, her padless feet sliding across the slick metal. Her arms pinwheeled as her feet threatened to come out from under her but miraculously she managed to more or less keep her balance, coming to an unsteady stop.

Carefully she turned and with as ironclad a confident smile as she could muster said, “See? Not too hard.”

“Don’t strain something trying to convince us.” The Fox drawled with an eyebrow arched skeptically. 

Judy let her expression drop. “Are you gonna jump or not?”

“Who, me?!” The Red Fox had the audacity to look around himself as if she were talking to someone else other than him. 

Judy gave him her best deadpan stare, thankfully the Fox made it easy. “Yes you.”

“Now when did I agree to go next? “The fox took another deliberate step back, notably behind his diminutive fennec partner as he plead his case. “I mean, after all, shouldn’t - oh I don’t know - another lighter individual go too, you know, for everyone’s safety.”

“Rut you pred!” the lighter individual in question interjected.

To the Fox’s growing concern he saw a grin cross the bunny’s face. “Why? Don’t you trust me?”

The Fox rose a claw to retort then slowly lowered it, jaw snapping shut with a click. His fennec partner snickered, prompting the red Fox to huff and roll his eyes. “Alright, you hustled me. Still…” 

He looked down at the smaller vulpine in front of him, who was now scowling up at him. “I dunna like that look yer given’ me ya pelt.”

“What look? I’m simply taking into consideration your safety my friend.”

“Consideration of my safety my tail you-!”

The rest of the fennec’s protest was lost to the rumbling thunderstorm overhead as the red Fox snatched up his partner and with deceptive strength leapt across the short, nerve wracking expanse.

Judy wasn’t sure but while the fox duo were airborne, whatever the fennec had shouted sure sounded like a hate crime, much to the Red Fox’s amusement, judging by the manic grin on his face covering a great deal of terror.

To perhaps their collective surprise the Red Fox fared the landing a little cleaner than the bunny cop, even burdened by a now thrashing fennec under one arm.

The Red Fox straightened up and with a shaky smirk bragged, “See? Not too shabby if I do say so myself.”

“I’ll turn ya shabby i’ffn ya don't drop me in the next two seconds!”

The unruly trio settled themselves and the rabbit took stock of the citizens watching them with concern etched into their faces from the median.

Judy felt a furious blush heating her cheeks realizing, perhaps a little late, that nagging on the Foxes in such a childish way probably wasn't the most appropriate thing to be doing at that moment.

The bunny stamped down the reflexive urge to hide her face behind her ears like she had as a kit and instead smoothed them down her back and addressed the rest of the mammals. “I need the next ready to jump to line up.” She looked to the Capybara couple and the husband still cradling the little sandkit. “Mr. Savanna, are you comfortable carrying him with you?”

“Grmm, won’t be a problem.” The Capybara male replied. “Was raised in the water. A few skips ‘cross a wee creek ain’t gonna bother me ‘n mine.” He nudged his wife who looked a bit more nervous but nonetheless undaunted. 

“Good.” Judy tried for a smile that vanished when the car beneath their paws lurched, the massive current threatening to dislodge the upturned vehicle. 

“We need to get going.” The Fox urged, grimacing as water sloshed across his calves. Judy nodded back and with a mumbled, “here I go.” she leapt to the next relatively stable piece of protruding debris.

For the next five heart pounding minutes the bunny managed to test each vehicle before risking a hop to the next, only having to backtrack once when what she thought was a tractor trailer turned out to be a huge soggy cardboard box for an elephant sized kitchen appliance.

 Despite his initial hesitance the red Fox had proved, once push came to shove, to be adept at following in her footsteps across the treacherous waters, proving to be more sure footed than even her on the slick protruding metal. Perhaps owing him actually having foot pads than anything else.

The Boar sow, however, was anything but graceful or helpful.

“Get your filthy paws off me you pelt!” The rotund swine batted at the Fox trying to keep her from tipping into the water. 

“Look,” Judy could see Fox fighting to keep a snarl from his soaked face. “I’m not happy about this either, but unless you’d rather go for a swim at least try to not hate my guts.”

The sow made a sound one part grunt and two parts sneering oink but still somehow waddled across the water without more than a few seering glances at her guide and the Bunny cop.

Nearly the entirety of the mammals has crossed, the thought of it buoyed the bunny cop as she helped an older and very nervous pudu, a tiny deer species that she hadn't seen before.

Still, optimistic or not she was terribly exhausted, freezing-

-and not paying attention like she should when she took a bad step and slipped.

The bunny cop only managed to sharply inhale before she was dragged into the thrashing waters below.

—-------

“RUT!” Nick barked as the little gray bunny vanished, the little deer she had managed to push to safety bayed in distress.

“RUT!” He shouted again, stunned at the suddenness of it all. The Fox then shook himself and rushed to the water’s edge.

“What are y'all doin’?!” Finn exclaimed. “She’s done ya pelt! Nuthin’ yew kin’ do fer her!”

“She ain't dead yet!” Nick snapped, whipping a claw at his partner. “Get to high ground, Antlerson and 3rd has that raised pavilion. Go there!”

“Not wit’out you!”

“I ain't giving you a choice!” Then the foolish russet vulpine took a deep breath and dove into the roaring river after the foolish bunny.

Chapter Text

The worst part of drowning was that no matter how much you struggle it only hurt more.

There was no introspective moment while she was dying nor some powerpoint presentation of her life flashing before her eyes, only the pressure inside her chest and the pounding in her head made worse by the weightless, uncontrolled thrashing of her heart against her ribcage.

Then it all came to an abrupt stop, or more specifically she made an abrupt stop, against a brick wall.

—----------

Nick wasn’t the strongest swimmer, but the fear of death is a fantastic motivator.

The flooded streets have become a blender, metal wrecks shearing against violent tides rending flesh and snapping bone. The fox had little agency on how his body crashed through the frothing currents. Seeing anything beyond the end of his snout was a pipe dream yet alone a little gray bunny, yet he knew - or perhaps hoped - that he wouldn’t have to.

Everything discarded and forgotten was pulled to the same storm drain just the same.

He grunted when he crashed against a curb, driving precious air from his lungs. He clawed for purchase against the wet stone, his chest burning and eyes swimming. He was dragged tail first by the current, his shoulders crashing against a lip of concrete.

For a brief moment, through the blinding pain, he saw a tiny gray form cast against a thick iron grate. 

Just as she had only hours before, he grasped, claws snagging against soft fur and thin fabric, and then, as he was sucked beneath the street-

-He pulled.

—-----------

“Oh, no. no, no, no, no, no!” 

Though he was in near darkness in the drainage tunnels he could just make out the little gray form sprawled motionless. Horribly, terribly motionless.

He knew she was shorter than him, he had even successfully fought the urge to point this out to her all this time, waiting for that perfect moment to strike. 

“No!”

Now it looks like that perfect moment will never come.

She looked even tinier like this, sodden and skinny.

His hands hovered over the tiny bunny trembling terribly, at a loss of what to do now, lost and alone in the dark.

Chapter Text

“Okay, okay, okayokayokay.” Nick scrubbed his claws between his ears in distress as he lowered himself next to the tiny, still shape next to him. “Okay, CPR right? Never done it but heard about it so shouldn’t too hard right? I had all this time so why didn’t I at least yewtube a damn video on it in the past thirty three damn years?!”

His strained voice echoed meekly off the near pitch black tunnel walls, competing with the dull roar of millions of gallons of water crashing through the drain system.

The fox felt the body, his paws large enough to almost encompass her entire waist.

Another punch in the gut. She was so small .

He forced down the frigid lump in his throat. Her stomach was distended from all the water she had swallowed. 

Carefully he pulled the limb rabbit doe against his battered body, eliciting shocks of protest from his bruised and cold limbs as he folded his paws together over her bloated middle and sent up a little plea.

“I hope I’m doing this right.” 

Then he pulled his paws against the tiny bunny’s body.

A gush of slimy water erupted from the limp rabbit’s mouth and nose, running down her front. Nick screwed his nose up against the smell of day old carrot and a variety salad of other half-digested greens. Still, slimy paws or not he pulled a couple more times hoping to expel as much water from the bunny’s tiny body as possible. 

A few giblets came back up so not wanting to waste too much more time the red fox unrolled her as gently as he could flat on her back, psyching himself up for what he would have to do next.

“M’kay, If I remember right I do this…” He tilted her head back and nudged her chin down. Her little mouth opened bonelessly, the utter lifeless way she sagged against his touch punched another hole in his chest. 

Nick closed his eyes and gave himself a shake, his fur plastered against his skin fought to stand on end. Then, while holding her chin open he sealed his mouth over her blunt muzzle, minding his teeth as he covered both her mouth and nose, then his blew.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as her chest expanded when he forced as much air as he could into her defunct lungs. Because of the air he was pushing into her little body the liquid inside her lungs had been disturbed and now had only one way to go-

-Right back into the fox’s open mouth.

Nick gagged and whipped his head back when slime and whatever else splashed into the back of his throat, unsealing the little rabbit’s mouth, causing her chest to deflate.

“Awh Gawd, It stinks! It burns! Dammit Carrots!” Nick rasped, spitting a glob of nasty into the rushing water nearby then knelt back down over her head and  threw a scandalized look down at the boneless bunny doe, then gently felt about for any sign of life, a pulse, twitch, anything, not that he really knew exactly what he was doing. 

Failing to find anything he sighed, tilted her head back and resealed his lips over hers, silently praying for the first time in, well he doesn’t really remember, he just hoped that it’ll be answered, for the bunny’s sake rather than his.

—-----------

Sometime later Nick was yanked from his stupor when he felt the lithe bunny doe sprawled across his lap suddenly jerk, her leg kicking uselessly in an unconscious attempt to get away from the agony racking through her abused body.

 He stifled a yelp as little blunt bunny claws hooked into the meat of his thigh, the bunny cop arching her spine in a weak, gurgling cry.

He pressed a paw that spanned across her chest, anchoring the weakly thrashing doe against him and away from the hard concrete walkway or the ravenous drainway mere inches away.

Then all at once, the bunny doe collapsed as if her strings had been cut, only this time he heard labored breathing tearing in and out of the female tangled in his legs.

Nick lifted his paw from her chest and settled it over her middle, in case she fought him again. He squinted through the gloom at her face, head resting on his right thigh and locked into place by her arm looped around his leg. He couldn’t see her expression from this angle but by the way her chest rose and fell without his help gave him hope.

Hesitantly he spoke, keeping his voice as soft as he could. “You with me this time?”

Her only reply was harsh rasping. For a moment he thought she was gone again when he heard a tiny gurgle. “This time?”

Relief washed hot down his back, a small smile pulling at his lips. “You fooled me a couple times before already.”

“ ‘m I dead?” Silence, then, “Are we in hell?”

Nick didn’t answer immediately, in a moment totally unlike him he neglected his first instinct to give some kind of smartass quip. Instead he told her the truth. “No. We’re in a drainway underground headed toward the rainforest district, if I remember correctly.”

In an effort to lighten the mood he added, “At least we’re not on that median with Ms. Baconator trying to shove a tusk up our tailhole anymore, right?”

He expected some kind of comeback to that, or even a scoff or something, not the tiny sniffle she tried and failed to stifle, and especially not when she began to quietly weep, her feverish tears hot against his torn pant leg. He froze in panic at the female crying into his thigh, her blunt claws still digging into his leg as she curled into a loose comma.

“Why?” Came her tiny gurgle.

Nick blinked. “What? Why what? I don’t understand.”

“W- why did it have to be you?”

He let her lay on his lap, giving her some space to cry it out. He was surprised when, a few minutes later, she stated, in a hoarse, confident whisper, “You hate me, right?”

Nick sucked in a breath when he felt her claws knead into the meat of his leg as she pressed her face harder against his thigh. He could feel her ragged voice run through his limb as she spoke, “You hate me, so why… why have you been…. Been NICE to me?!”

The fox felt his heart stutter at the raw confusion in the rabbit’s voice. The bunny sniffled then continued with a growl that petered off into a hoarse delirium. “Why did it have to be you that got dragged down here with me?! Why, why, why?!” 

She cried for a few moments, her breaths heaving and difficult to listen to. “Why?...”

“I…” Nick was at a loss for words. For some reason telling her that he had jumped in after her didn’t exactly sound like the best idea. She wouldn’t believe him anyway, so instead he whispered, “I don’t hate you-”

“Liar!” She snarled, arching herself against him, the effort tearing a squeak of agony out of her as she sneered and finally turned her bloodshot amethyst eyes to him, tears running dark tracks down her filthy gray furred cheeks. “You hate me, you’ve always hated me! You- You tore my whole world down that day we met! You spat on me! You spat on my dream!”

The broken little doe struggled to suck in a stuttering heartbreaking breath. 

“You were a part of the Worst Day of my Life!”

The bunny doe stared into his own eyes, righteous rage and utter helplessness glowing hot as she looked into his very soul, then her face screwed up and she began to weep anew, her little paws wiping uselessly at the track of tears spilling from her cheeks.

Nick felt a piece of himself crack. He had done this to her, a virtual stranger, someone who had wanted to only make a difference, as imperfect as she was, and what had he done? He broke her heart for living.

He did this.

So, then the jaded older fox, con-man and professional liar and cheat, decided to be honest.

“I don’t hate you.” He answered back, holding her gaze and letting his mask loosen, ever so slightly. He closed his eyes in a long, thoughtful blink then added. “I hate myself.”

The bunny didn’t react, not so much as a twitch, her wrathful, reddened eyes bored into the fox as he continued.

“I hate myself, and when I saw you that day so… so hopeful and idealistic with a can of rutting fox-away on your belt… It set me off.”

He took a deep breath and told her, “I hated myself and I took it all out on you.”

He broke her gaze and looked down. “I’m sorry I hurt you. You didn’t deserve it, any of it.”

The silence between the tod and the doe were palpable and electric. There was no sense of forgiveness, no moment of levity, no bright spark that lit something between the mammals very much at odds with each other.

Yet still, there was something there, something tangible between the bunny and fox, but what it was is still for them to decide.

The bunny studied the fox’s face, angular and alien to her own, this time without the red tint of anger at the edge of her vision. She didn’t know what remorse looked like on a face like this, a the kind of face belonging to a race she had been raised to hate, and this one she had come to detest specifically.

She didn’t believe him, she didn’t trust him, but as her body slid back from her rage-fueled adrenaline high and sheer agony crept back up her limbs she decided that she didn’t have a choice.

She went to move when a lance of searing hot pain shot up her side and she went down with a gasp. The fox caught her and guided her head back against his thigh.

The growing pain set a ringing in between her ears and her vision crossed. She curled in on herself and nearly passed out at the grinding heat overtaking her lower body. Fresh tears pooled in her eyes and she shut them, praying that whatever this was wouldn’t kill her.

“What’s wrong?” She heard him ask, his voice now sounding a thousand miles away through the screeching drone in her ears.

“Hurts…” He heard her whisper, her voice tiny, strained, and totally hopeless. “ M’ leg hurts… It hurts so bad…”

The fox whipped his head to look down at her legs, they were sticking out as if she couldn’t pull them in to bring them from the flooding drain’s cold spray. 

He hadn’t checked her legs, being more concerned with getting the rest of her… working… again. Now he carefully drew his free paw down her muscular thigh, feeling for anything out of place.

 Almost immediately he brushed over a growing lump in the meat of her left leg, just above her hamstrings.

Even to his untrained hand it felt wrong. Very wrong.

Scat.

“Carrots.” He breathed. “I think your leg is broken.”

Chapter Text

The Fox was a nervous talker, she realized. The soggy vulpine had yet to stop a running commentary of anything and everything ever since she had woken up and he had untangled himself from her. 

Surprisingly she didn’t mind it. 

It also gave her time, between moments of static mind numbing agony, to mull on the conversation they had just shared. His admittance and her reaction to it all. She felt mostly all cried out at this point and collected herself as much as she could, given their dire circumstances.

Circumstances the Fox seemed intent on making light of, seemingly for his benefit as much as hers. His snappy wit and clever tenor was a cooling balm as he worked around her, trying to figure out the rickety beginnings of a splint. She was glad for his ramblings, his smooth voice was the only way she could keep track of the todd down in this near complete darkness and provided a scant distraction from the burning fire licking up her snapped leg.

The freezing, slimy concrete under her only mixed with the pulsing agony pumping through her ruined flesh, making her nauseous and at times she had slipped away, others delirious as she faded in and out of consciousness.

“There.”

Judy gave a jerk, startled back into the darkened, roaring drainway and the cocktail of agony. It took her a few pained breaths to recognize the large, warm paw on her shoulder. She turned her eyes towards the fox’s voice but all she saw was black.

She felt the Fox draw closer to her, his breath ghosted over her whiskers. “You still with me Hop-along?”

Judy couldn’t help the scowl that scrawled across her muzzle. “My name is Hopps.”

The Fox chuckled, the sound rumbled through her rickety chest. “I know that ‘Ociffer Toot-Toot’. But I’d put money on you referring to me as ‘the Fox’ in your head this entire time.”

Judy pulled her head from the concrete wall, offended. “Wh- I, no I have not!” Judy snapped at the-

-She cringed.

The Fox chuckled.

“Okay, yeah. Very funny you jerk. I bet you don’t really know my name.”

“Judith L. Hopps.” The Fox recited easily. She goggled at him as he continued, pondering aloud, “I wonder what the L. stands for?”

“H-How?”

“Billboards.” The Bunny doe thought she heard his wet clothes and fur shift like he had shrugged. “His highness Mayor Lionheart has not been shy about that mammal inclusion initiative of his, with you as his poster girl. Though that didn’t seem to do you much good. I’d look into getting royalties if I were you, sweetheart.”

“Figures.” Judy rolled her crusty eyes, then snapped a glare in what she thought was his general direction. “And I’m not your sweetheart.”

“Whatever you say, Carrot Cop.”

The doe gnashed her teeth. “Just-” She huffed, “What’s your name?”

The fox went quiet for a moment, then replied with a sincere, “Nick.”

“Nick… What?”

“Wilde.”

She nodded. “Nick Wilde.”

“Oh, are you not going to comment on how articulate I am this time?”

The rabbit doe cringed a second time then asked softly, “Did-did I really say that?”

“At your earliest opportunity.”

The doe let out a mortified groan.

The fox- Nick, chuckled. “Yeah, not your best moment there… Though now that I think of it, I can’t recall a good moment with you yet. It’s all been fox-away spray, parking tickets, and the threat of drowning between us lately.”

Judy groaned louder, mashing her face into the heel of her paws. “Oh sweet cheese and crackers.”

Nick chortled. “Tell you what, if we live through this, we’ll call it even. Ya know, for the whole pulling me from the river thing.”

“Thats… Yeah. Sounds good.” The doe was struck by another dizzy spell and scrubbed her face to ward away the feeling, then she took a deep breath and said, “I’ll hold you to that, Mr. Wilde.”

“Please, Mr. Wilde was my father. Call me Nick.”

“Short for Nicholas?” She sniffed, testing her stiff paws, aching from the cold.

“Whoa, pump the brakes Carrot Cop. That’s post- third date stuff.”

“Well you called me Judith, so I’d say we’re even.” She allowed a watery smirk then cheekily added, “Nicholas.”

She heard Nick grouse, “Next time, just leave me in the river.”

Over the roaring floodwaters Judy heard something metal scrape across the concrete beside her. She frowned, fighting a pulse of angry bone-deep pain punching through her. “What’s that?”

“Your splint.” Nick replied, sounding a little unconfident. “I found a couple of straight-ish garden stakes and pleather straps stuck on the side of the drainway.” 

She heard the Fox chuff. “The things Mammals throw on the street.”

Judy hissed, the clawing pain in her leg protesting her slight shift in her sitting position. “Well, in this case I’m grateful for their littering.”

“Already compromising on your morals, I see.”

“Oh, hush you.” She flinched and let out a pained gasp at the wretched jolt of fire lancing up her swollen thigh. “C- can you hurry up and strap that thing on? It's starting to hurt really bad again.”

She felt Nick let out a shaky breath against her cheek fur. “Okay. You’ll have to walk me through it a little though. I’m not exactly a bunny leg mechanic.”

“I… I don’t think I’ll be able to.” She inhaled, her voice wobbly.

“...” She felt the Fox- Nick’s - eyes weigh down on her, considering, measuring. He was proving to be shockingly steady in the face of crisis. 

“Okay.” He replied simply. She gave a little jump when she felt him take her paw and drag it over to rest on the meat of his leg. The same one she had unintentionally scored divots in the fabric before.

“Feel free to use it as a kinda stress ball, I’m a big fox.” He went on to explain, sheepishly adding. “I need both paws or else I’d let you hold one of them.”

Judy sniffed, her head starting to spin a little from the mounting pain and fearful anticipation of what she was about to go through. “M’kay.”

“Can you tell me what I have to do before we get started?”

The bunny sniffed again and swallowed. “Y-you're gonna have to try to set my b-bone back in place.”

“What?!” She felt the Fox’s paws pull away. “Can’t I put the splint on and call it good?”

“I-If you had a medical splint, sure. But all we have are garden stakes and string.”

The fox took an unsteady breath. Judy was afraid that he was about to refuse so she pleaded in a tiny voice, “Please?”

He hesitated then she heard him quietly curse, “ Dammit Carrots. Fine. Just… Don’t maim my leg too badly, please? I’m rather attached to it.”

She let out a little, surprised giggle and replied in a watery whisper. “I’ll try my best.”

“This is crazy.” The todd mumbled then took another steadying breath. “Okay, Okay.” She felt his large paws gently feel around her leg. She hissed as he tenderly tested her swollen thigh. 

When he hesitated for a moment too long she lost her patience and snapped, “Just do it!”

Then the fox let out a grunt of exertion, followed by a muted snap and then all she saw was blinding white.

Chapter Text

“This sucks.”

Nick fought to tame the odd prickle marching down his spine from the feminine huff ghosting across the nape of his neck.

The rabbit seemed intent on overloading his tactile senses, gluing her tiny body across his back and curling her little claws into the thick of his pectoral fur. The devious prey female had buried her blunt muzzle in the crook of his neck, inadvertently giving him a nose full bunny doe.

Not that it did much for him, considering that he could smell her previous meal on her breath, one that he had the displeasure of tasting mind you, but still.

“You suck.” The rabbit groaned into his fur again.

“Hey, you asked me to do it, sweetheart.” Nick reminded her, subtly dragging his tongue against his teeth to rid of the lingering taste of bunny bile. “Is this the thanks I get for giving waylaid bunnies the best foxy-back rides in the city?”

The bunny cop grunted, thunking her head against his collarbone in reply.

“Hey, careful there Hopps,” He chided, masking a flinch. “I’m not exactly in top condition myself.”

“...gmph, s’rry.”

Nick pulled a half-hearted smirk then carefully readjusted the arm supporting her good leg as he carried her down the drainway’s maintenance thoroughfare, mindful of his passenger’s stabilized leg swaying beside his tail. He hadn’t been exaggerating, his poor back and ribs had been battered, perhaps more badly then he had thought, a particularly deep spike of pain made itself known under his armpit.

The Fox grunted and slowed his pace as he came upon an intersection with rusted metal gangplanks laid across the thrashing drainway throwing licks of frigid water across the ragged pair.

Mumbling to his passenger to hold on he tested the sheet metal, frowning at the screech it made when he put a foot on its edge. He did this a few more times but despite the unnerving noise the gangplanks seemed solid enough, so the fox tip-toed onto the metal, fast walking as much as the swinging weight on his back would allow.

Nick thanked the stars when his foot touched solid, if slimy, ground. He slowly let out a breath he hadn’t noticed he had been holding and reseated his arms he had looped under the bunny’s butt. He felt her dewdrop tail flutter inadvertently against his paw, nearly causing the fox to grunt in surprise.

It was soooo fluffy.

It was then that Nick realized exactly how his paws were cupping the poor female ‘ass’ets. A flash of heat rolled through his lower stomach, startling the older vulpine badly.

The doe was being an absolute trooper about the whole thing, Nick mused. He couldn't imagine the pain she was in right now to be totally fine with wrapping herself like a limpet on the back of a fox that had hurt her so badly.

Those horrifying long moments of utter silence when he had pulled her drowned body from the drainway struck him like a bus careening into the back of a painted van. He suddenly needed to hear her voice, to know she was still alive.

“You still doin’ alright back there cottontail?” He asked, attempting to keep the stress from his intentionally causal drawl. She let out a miserable little mewl in reply and he felt the tension in his shoulders untwist just a tad.

She spoke up again a few moment later, grousing, “River is drivin’ me nuts.”

Nick shifted his head over in a vain attempt to glance at his passenger limpet, instead his chin bumped her cheek and both mammals flinched back. “Sorry.”

She made a sound that seemed like a dismissive groan so he asked, “The sound’s getting to you?”

“Echoes, too loud… hurts.” He felt the tips of one of her ears settle across his back while the doe buried her face into his collar to get as far away from the noise as she could. He curled his fingers at the weird sensation, fighting to keep from accidentally unsheathing his claws.

He didn’t remember the last time he was physically this close to a female, much less getting literally skin to skin with one intent on burrowing through his fur. He gave himself a little shake, playing it off as a shiver from the cold as he continued his journey through the dark passageway. His other senses strained in search of some distraction other than tactile.

It didn’t help.

The few glimpses of dim light giving little away beyond roaring shapes and thrashing liquid black, yet despite the millions of tons of rock and flood water over their heads the dark around them felt far too large, leaving Nick feeling lost in a gaping abyss.

If sight was out of the question that left smell… the fox inhaled, tasting the air and cringed, instantly regretting that decision. Thankfully though, this particular drainway didn’t handle gray water, or sewage, it still was street run-off, and none of what was baking on asphalt smells pleasant, especially once it gets scrapped up and flushed down the drains.

It was when he chuffed, trying to get the stench from his nose when he paused.

“What’s wrong?” Hopps asked when the fox had stopped so suddenly.

Nick didn’t respond immediately, tentatively taking another sniff through a nose scrunched in revulsion. He blinked, willing his eyes to take in what little light was left to peer into the roaring drainway.

His night vision was good but not good enough to identify the debris stuck fast in the water as more than vague shapes and blobs. His wide green eyes glinted through the gloom, and slowly mild details came through the static black.

“Wilde?” The doe asked.

He sniffed, frowning as he approached an odd shape a little further down the tunnel, halfway on the platform, dread spiking down his spine and driving into his bruised bones.

He came to the shape, this time damning his nose and good night sight.

“I smell… is that copper?” He heard the doe say.

“I… I’m gonna need to put you down, Carrot Cop.”

“What is it?” Hopps asked, mounting stress and confusion at the fox’s uncharacteristic silence yanking her voice as she clambered from his back. “Well?! What is that Wilde?”

The fox swallowed. “Stay back Ca– Hopps. Just- stay back.”

The vulpine felt the mass, what he knew to be thick, dark blue fabric and a semi-malleable weight resisted his attempts to turn it over.

A static squawk scratched an ear splitting echo through the tunnel, then a garbled voice followed, unintelligible words scrawled from a waterlogged plastic receiver.

A tiny strangled gasp was Nick’s only warning. More on instinct then thought the Fox lurched around and caught the furry missile attempting to plow through him.

“Wilde! I heard it! That’s a radio!” The rabbit thrashed, a guttural shriek fueled by pain and horror. “What are you trying to hide, Wilde?!”

“Gah! Hopps! Hopps! Get back, back for a second!” All he got in response was an incoherent screech inches from his muzzle.

The fox fought the rabbit tangled against his chest, despite the questions she didn’t seem intent on waiting for him to actually give her an answer, instead the injured lapin doe was attempting to fold him in half to get to the mass next to him.

“Move Wilde! I’m warning you!”

A tiny fist crashed into the fox’s muzzle, snapping Nick’s head back from the blow, cutting off his yelp. The bunny went still, the shock of her actually striking him put a frigid pause to her thrashing, only their ragged labored breathing punctured the unbidden truce.

The pregnant silence allowed the fox to collect himself and spit out a glob of blood into the water. A tiny paw, the one he just got thwacked by, pressed against his chest and a choked sob from the bunny in his arms broke the fragile armistice.

“I-I-I’m sorry.” She managed to rasp.

Nick counted to three, setting the boxing rabbit on the ground, he was as shocked as her at the sudden violence to put together a coherent response.

Another static pop yet again drew both mammal’s attention. Nick tested his loosened jaw and reached down into the fluctuating waterline and yanked free the first item he could reach.

He clicked the button and a bright light flickered.

He heard a mournful wail tear from Hopps chest.

He felt sick.

The slumped form of a large lion in police blues rested against the edge of the drainway, seeming all the world to be fast asleep, had it not been for the severed section of railing driven through the lion’s kevlar, bright crimson dripping from a tarnished gold badge and the name tape reading-

“Delgato.”

Chapter Text

Nick had seen a dead body before, twice actually, should he dare to root around in the filthy, dark corners of his lowest moments. He hadn’t known either of the mammals-turned-cadavers. They were objects, macabre perhaps, but he had never actually seen them die, only stumbling across them after the fact so it was easy to pretend. 

He distanced himself- compartmentalized, rationalized -just like how the city had taught him to.

It wasn’t his business. It wasn’t his problem, and if it wasn't his problem then whatever business it was couldn't get him killed.

The rabbit however, struggled to compartmentalize, separate herself from the mammal that once was with the corpse thumping against the walkway, eyes closed and toothy maw limp and open.

Probably because she still had a heart, unlike the hard lump of coal taking up residence in his chest.

Well, shriveled heart several sizes too small or not, the rabbit's mournful wail wrenched what thready heartstrings were left. Nick felt through the gloom outside the harsh beam of light and gently tugged the doe from the water’s edge, his other paw clenching around the lion sized flashlight nearly as tall as he was, reflexively twitching towards his throbbing jaw. 

A bone chilling crash shook the claustrophobic air, echoing strangely off the labyrinthine drain tunnel walls.

He set the cumbersome flashlight aside, its beam aimed over the lion’s water-slicked mane. Nick was thankful that the cat’s eyes were closed- made it easier to think he was just sleeping.

“W-what are you doing?”

He glanced over his shoulder, the rabbit was half shrouded in wet dark, only a splash of gray from the fur on her cheek and twin pricks of cold miserable light from her eyes stared back at him, accusing him. 

Normally he had no problem issuing some snide or disarming remark to defuse the situation, now he could only state with all the delicacy of a hammerblow. “the radio; we need his radio.”

“You can’t!” She hissed, still off-balance, hysterical. “That's stealing from a police officer!”

Nick clenched his teeth so hard it made his loose jaw ache. “Sweetheart, I'm afraid he doesn't have a need for it anymore.”

Through the dark she looked so incredibly distressed, dragging her sodden paws down her slicked gaunt face.

He stared back at her, waiting to see if she would attempt to take his head off his shoulders again if he touched the body.

“I dunno if I can do this.” She whispered finally, hiding her face in the crook of her arm and a limp ear across one eye, the flashlight’s harsh glow casting her face gaunt, like a skeleton half hidden in the dark.

“What are you talking about?” He narrowed his eyes at her, then they widened. “You- You’re trying to give up.” He said it like a question, but it came out as a statement.

She lifted her head from her arm, her ears pulling back to show him her face screwed up in pain and anguish, harsh amethysts flint-sharp in the black, after a ragged breath she looked away. “What would it matter? If I got swept away would anyone care?”

He scrunched his brows, strangely feeling affronted on her own behalf. “Wait, hold on, after all your talk when we first met, all the crap you went through to get here and stay a cop, and everything you’ve done just tonight alone, now you are thinking of giving up? After you’ve come so far?!”

Another crash shook the wet stone beneath them, the lion’s head rocked from the violent vibration. The water ebbed for a moment before surging again.

The doe ignored the terrible racket and from her awkward seat atop the slimy concrete astride her splinted leg she puffed up her chest and deepened her voice, miming a large muscular male. Her boss perhaps? 

“Okay, settle down, settle down! Assignments! Oh, the rabbit? That one? Didn’t even notice she went missing after the flood and I don’t care!” She deflated, her battered little body sagging ears falling limp to shield her face.

“My coworkers think I’m a joke, my parents don’t understand, the citizens I work hard for everyday hate me. Every single one of them asks me when I’ll quit, give up.” She sniffed and wiped her nose morosely. “Right now seems like as good a time as any to th-throw in the towel.”

“Maybe just saying it out loud will make dying down here easier, at least then I can pretend that I had a choice in the matter before this place fills with water and we both drown.”

Nick blinked then pinched the bridge of his snout. “Wow, okay, I need a- a moment. Just wow. ”

Normally he would pace around, walking always helps collect his thoughts, now though, he is hardly going to pull his poor bruised tail up when he could barely lift his ears. The only thing pacing at the moment is the sharp migraine taking laps behind his eyeballs.

This rabbit was in a worse place than he had thought- and he was responsible for delivering her the first kick into her downward spiral. The migraine punched deeper behind his eyes.

Great.

“Sorry.” He heard her mumble, pain an ugly jagged edge to her hoarse voice.

“No, none of that Officer Doom-n-Fluff.” He chided firmly, a deep exhale following after, nostrils flaring. “I’ll get us out of here, even if I have to drag you out by that stick up that firm butt of yours.”

He heard an insulted sputter and allowed himself a tiny smirk before turning to his grim task.

The fox screwed his eyes closed for one count, then two before opening them. All traces of emotion erased aside from his signature snide nonchalance, a mask as expertly worn as the rabbit’s uniform, fitted and flawless, with just a hint of oder de` sewage.

That 12 year old pickpocket in him came back as naturally as breathing. Deft claws made swift work feeling across stiff fabric beneath cold, dead flesh. He quickly found his quarry, the radio clipped to the lion’s hip, the plastic box dipping beneath the angry thrashing current, sputtering static cutting in and out every time it is pulled beneath the water.

To reach the radio he had to get creative. 

The lion's body armor was too stiff to sink his claws into, so he had to anchor himself by wedging his legs under the lion’s bulk and performing an ab-shaking extension all the way down to the water. His back throbbed, his brittle bones and swollen joints crackled in protest as Nick wrestled the bulky device that weighs nearly as much as he does free from its former owner and back to relatively dry land.

He collapsed into a twitching heap around the radio, its pawset still clipped to the lion’s chest rig, the cord trapped underneath the feline’s massive heavy arm. He heard the rabbit drag herself over, eyeing the radio and him through veined red eyes. She tried to speak but a harsh cough and hiccup came first. 

She sniffled and swallowed, wetting her fevered throat. “He has a wife and kits.”

Nick raised his head, his breath still ragged. “Wah?”

“Delgado.” She rasped. She seemed calmer now, detached. Shock probably, he didn’t know enough to tell the difference, or even if there was one. She sniffled and dragged a paw across her snout. “He.. doesn't- didn't, didn't like me that much.”

“I’m… Sorry to hear that.” He replied, not knowing how else to respond. “I… well, I don't know what to say.”

She propped herself on top of the radio, which was larger than she was. For a moment it reminded him of a scene from a children’s book, if it were drawn in a nightmare. 

It made her seem smaller than normal, the slimy rabbit in soaked fur and filthy pajamas resting her head on her arms, her splinted leg stuck out beneath her, an awkward kickstand for an immobile rabbit, ears dropping over one shoulder dirty gray face colored brown by the radio's dill orange glow and looking so, so tired .

It made him question for just a moment. Could they get out alive? Could they do this? In his thirty-three years of life he had hustled himself out of a lot, but he had yet to talk himself out of a flooded tunnel.

The radio gave a static squawk startling him.

“At least the water hadn't ruined the radio.” The bunny doe mumbled.

“Know how to work it?” Nick asked.

The doe rolled her reddened eyes. “Do I know how to use-” she coughed and wiped her sleeve across her nose. “-use a police issued radio? Yes. Yes I do.”

“Hey,” He raised one paw up in defense. “This radio weighs more than you do, I gotta ask.”

The city above gave another shiver and a shower of brick chips fell between them. He watched as the lost, tiny look in her eyes shifted into something like cold iron, more focused.

“Unplug that pawset, will you?” He did as she asked, wrestling with the plug for a moment while she had to use her entire body weight to depress the rubber buttons. 

“Shouldn't the radio already be on the right channel or whatever?”

“Not when you're on patrol.” She answered, grunting as she mashed down a button and hissed in pain from her jolted leg. “We have some local channels and other precincts we have to talk to, not just precinct one dispatch.”

The more he got the bunny to talk about how her profession works the calmer she seemed to get. He could see her mind slotting back into her neat stack of training and knowledge; something she could have some semblance of control over in this situation.

“Hope this'll work.” He breathed, his face and ribs aching something fierce. “All the water and concrete around us won't kill the transmission or whatever?”

“There. Done.” She rasped, pushing down on a final button. “Well, only one way to find out.”

She muscled the push-to-talk (PTT) button and a blessed beep sizzled from the wet speakers. “This is Officer Judy Hopps, Dispatch, do you read?” She released the PTT and waited. The odd pair waited with bated breath as the violent frothing water roared in the dark, just beyond the edge of the flashlight’s beam. 

Nothing. Nick felt a brief temptation to scream. Before he did anything crazy he looked to the rabbit, who only wore a stony look on her face. She seemed unfazed by the lack of response. She simply keyed the radio again and repeated her message, releasing the button and waiting again. 

This time there was a burst of static with a warbling hiss. Once the static quieted she seemed to perk up and keyed the radio. “This is Officer Judy Hopps, Any on this channel, I have a bad read on last. Say again.”

The radio hissed back in reply but this time a faint voice came through the static, “-pps? Hopps? Is that you?!”

For the first time since this whole night started Nick saw a large genuine smile cross the doe's lips. “Clawhauser!”

The voice fizzled into a tiny squeal. “Oh my God! Judy you're alive! You're alive! We tried to get a hold of you hours ago! What happened? Where are you?”

“...”

“...Judy?”

“I-I… I don't know where we are- I mean…” she stammered, her voice growing thick. “It's… we found Delgado.”

“You did? That's great!” Nick felt sick at this Clawhauser's elation, knowing what they know. “Last we heard he was on foot patrol down at Central station when the flood hit. Put him on!”

Nick saw the bunny’s mind gum up so he piped in, ”I'm afraid that's not possible.”

“Hopps, who is that?”

The doe looked at him in question and he gave a sheepish shake of his head. She gave a tiny nod and said, “One- um, one of the civilians caught in the storm. He and I were dragged down a drain pipe.”

“A drainpipe? Wait, why can’t you put Delgado on?”

“Because he’s dead.” The bunny officer managed to bite out.

The silence that followed over the radio was deafening. When the dispatcher’s voice came back through again the dispatcher’s bubbly air was replaced by sharp, serious clips. “Do you have a location for Officer Delgado? Where are you both now? Is there anyone else down there with you?”

The bunny officer looked lost so Nick once again chimed in with, “We’re in one of the Savannah Central Drain aggregates, most likely one of the Northwest-bound that empty from a rainforest district water-wall.”

The look the bunny officer gave Nick revolved through surprise, suspicion, and finally landing on cautious acceptance and added, “We don’t know how long we’ve been down here, Ben. We haven’t seen anyone else down here. Just us.”

“Hm, Hopps, Swap to channel 1135.157.”

She swapped to the channel and Clawhauser said, “Hopps, can you hear me? This is a private channel so we can talk without hogging the main bandwidth.”

“I’m here Clawhauser, thanks.”

“I’ll be blunt Judy, We’ve been getting reports of collapses and flooding all across the undercity. I don’t have the drainway layouts and we don’t have the resources to try and find your location so I don’t know how much time you have, or where to direct you to go. What about your friend down there? He seems to know the area well.”

“Yeah,” She narrows her reddened eyes at his shameless smirk. “He sure does.” 

“A bit.” Nick has the contritness to shrug. “You don’t get to be a successful small business entrepreneur such as myself without an extensive portfolio and deep knowledge of the landscape.”

He noted how incredibly considerate the bunny was by letting off the PTT to deadpan back, “And an in depth knowledge of the sewers comes up where exactly in a business entrepreneur’s portfolio? Is it before or after the smuggling across district lines?”

Nick felt his lips twitch in a shadow of a smirk. “After the bullet point marked ‘how to run from an angry fow-away spray wielding mob.’”

The bunny flushed and let out a rough cough. “Touche.” 

He flashed her an exhausted smirk that died when the tunnel let out an aching groan as untold tons of brick and rock ground together under the weight of the unrelenting floodwater.

He met her gaze through the cloud of dust that spilled across the radio screen’s orange glow. Her jewel-lit eyes shining pale though the swirling gloom.

“We don’t have much time.” He told her. “And I can’t carry you and the radio.” 

“Where are we going to go?” She asked. “We’re lost in these tunnels and there’s no telling if the way ahead is cut off or not.”

“That's a chance we’ll have to take. We head to the water wall that empties into the rainforest district’s basin.” Nick answered. “There’s exposed railing on the wall itself for the workers. It should still be there.”

She nodded and considered him for a long moment, the piercing look in her eye made him uncomfortable. Then she waved her paw, offering the radio. “Do you have anyone you want to leave a message for?”

“No.” He admitted. “I have no one left to mourn me, I’m afraid.”

He shied away at the heart wrenching look she gave him but she readily accepted it and toggled the radio. “Clawhauser, We… The drainway is crumbling and we can’t take the radio with us. We’re going to try to make it to the rainforest district water wall. There’s exposed railing there so we should be able to escape that way.”

The radio buzzed for a couple breaths before Clawhauser’s voice fizzled through. “That sounds like as good a plan as any. Is there any way you can mark Officer Delgado? For recovery?”

The bunny swallowed and gave a little nod. “We can do that. Before we go.”

“Do you want to give your family a message?” The dispatcher asked, gently, carefully after a moment.

The doe clicked the radio and opened her mouth when Nick interrupted her. “No she does not.”

“I don’t?” She asked, halfway between outraged and confused.

“That’s right.” He said firmly, with a nod, grimly climbing to his feet on shaking legs. 

“Because you’re going to tell them yourself.”

The tunnel walls groaned and more debris and dust rained down between them, all the while her eyes shown back at him, transfixed on his through the rumbling dark.

Chapter Text

“I always hated my mother’s rhubarb pie.” The bunny whispered. 

Neither remembered how it started, but they began to share parts of their lives.

She chuckled weakly, adding, “I was always too chicken to ever tell her.”

“I’ve never been out of the city, but…” The fox whispered back, a quiet confession. “I had always wanted to see the ocean. Go to a real beach.” 

He can’t recall ever being this open with another person before.

The bunny hummed in response.“And here I was thinking that those horrible pawaiian shirts were a subtle cry for help.”

“They always were, sweetheart.”

“I never wanted a family.” The rabbit admitted. She felt the unbelieving scoff through where her cheek was resting on his shoulder. “It’s true. No buck would want a doe like me, all hard edges and- and no motherly instinct to speak of.”

“Are you telling me that Zootopia’s first fluffy bunny cop is bad with kids?”

“Shut up.” a rattling breath later she let out a huff and asked, “So what if I am?”

“Dunno, didn’t expect it, is all. It’s cute.”

“That’s rude.”

“Ha, perhaps.”

“... When I was a kid I wanted to be a Junior Ranger Scout.”

The fox felt the sodden weight on his back stir. “Oh.”

It was less a statement than an unsure question.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Honesty, integrity, all that mushy, virtue crap. I even had a little ascot and everything…”

When he neglected to continue the doe let out a tiny feminine breath, “So? What happened next?”

“Well, I showed up and… and turns out they didn’t want a-. Me. They didn’t want me.”

“I’m. I’m sorry.”

The fox turned his snout away, hiding his face from her, “Me too.”

She paused, hesitant then, “...For what it's worth, “She rasped. “I think you would have made for a great ranger scout.”

For once the silver tongued vulpine found himself without a word in response.

A groaning crack thundered from the wet dark, forcing the vulpine burdened by his bunny accomplice to stutter to a stop.

“It's getting louder.” She breathed. Even to her own ears the words were more felt than heard over the thunderous roar hammering their lungs against their bones.

“I know.” He croaked, shifting her weight across his back, letting the sharp aches and pains settle back into his bones for what was still to come.

She wiggled against him, uncomfortable as glass shards of pain raced up her snapped leg as his paws worked to hold her aloft. 

“We're running out of time.” She hissed again, their light conversation overtaken by the weight of the drowning city around them.

“I know.”

Another crackling boom split the wet, suffocating air. A surge of black water rushed over the walkway and the fox let out a sharp gasp as he fought the tide attempting to drag him off his feet.

After jamming his heart back down his throat with a painful swallow the fox wordlessly returned to his heavy march through the dark. 

Further and further The fox wandered down the dark canal, they traded a few sentences here and there until their fevered throats protested, the minutes bleeding into endless nothing. 

Just how long would they have to endure this long night?

The odd pair found themselves both beyond needed words, only trading their thoughts to make sure the other was still alive, so that they knew they weren’t left to die alone in the dark.

Judy didn’t know how the fox - Nick - she thought through the choking mind-fog. His name was Nick.

She wasn’t convinced he knew where he was going anymore. A large part of her, the rational cop part of her, suspected he didn’t, but the rest of her, the battered and bruised parts, didn’t care.

Nick had stopped thinking altogether, some time ago. Those that claim to know the wisecracking street hustler were all too well aware of his habit of being the first to whine and jab on about his woes, hurts, and pains. An aching back, a lingering headache, and endless ‘ouch-my-fractured-motivation’ excuses flowed between his teeth like honey.

Buried beneath that whining exterior was the conniving survivor and the foolish gambler. The only street scum to have ever hustled himself out of Mr. Big’s icy grave.

The odds were against them, but if there was little else the Todd liked better than long odds.

Icy black lapped hungrily around his paw pads. No longer was it the occasional wash or wake. The tunnel was flooding, the water level now reaching over the concrete walkway. The cold bit into his toes and seeped into his ankles making them stiff and numb, turning every step into a treacherous guessing game.

“What’s that?” The doe’s warm breath set the hairs on his cheek on end, causing his brain to lag behind her words. With more effort then he would admit he craned his head from the frothing floor to the dark ahead. 

For a moment he thought to retort, there was no light down here, the emergency lights having failed some hours ago, but then he saw it. 

A smudge of gray in a world of black.

“Do you- Whoa!” The rabbit yelped, her paws scrambling for purchase as the fox beneath her suddenly surged forward, water splashing and feet pounding toward the weak light.

His body protested his mad dash, and on more than one occasion his feet painfully discovered rubble and debris beneath the rising water. He was wheezing, favoring one side when the gray light towered over them.

“NO!”

A wall of collapsed stone greeted them.

“No,no,no,no,no!”

The fox clawed onto the broken concrete, finally lifting himself from the water that had risen past his calves in the short time since the last collapse. He frantically searched for more pawholds, his back and shoulders screaming in beaten agony as he climbed ever upward.

For all his efforts, It only brought them a scant few feet short of the crack in the debris, the source of the gray light, Just out of reach.

“-ick! Nick! Stop!” The doe’s watery voice snapped into focus, intermittent by hitching breaths. “Stop, stop, just stop, please.” She let out a sob. “Please stop. It’s-it’s over.”

The todd ground his head against the stone, his knees giving out as he slid to the ground his voice cracking

“Rut me.” He swallowed. “Rut me.”

The distant crack-thump of another collapse rolled through the dark behind them and the unmistakable howl of untold millions of gallons of water pounding against the flooded canal walls.

Frothing black crashed against the wall of debris splashing the duo huddled against the rocks. 

Nick only had a single breathless moment to feel the sudden, violent shift of the rubble beneath his feet to give. 

Then entire pile of debris- with both bunny and fox- was broken by the flood surge and into an open, howling stormy sky, broken by the hazy forms of towering rainforest below.

—

The fox, in a nightmare of tragedy and long odds, managed another miracle, his claws snagged a rusted beam while velvet paws clamped down around his middle.

The wild spin and the impact that followed were far less miraculous. 

He had been going too fast, and the concrete and steel catwalk totally unyielding to the flesh and bone creatures that hammered onto their surface.

Nick came to, drawing reluctantly from unconsciousness a few painful stuttering attempts at breathing later, sprawled on the catwalk grating, dazed and confused. 

Alone.

“O-officer Carrots? Hopps?” He wheezed, struggling to move. 

She couldn’t be gone, not after all this, not at the end.

“Judy-?”

A weak, sputtered cough squeezed from broken ribs can behind him, and for the first time in an eternity he saw her, more slime than rabbit, slumped against the dull gray concrete water wall.

He struggled to drag his battered hide to sit beside her, but one of his arms, the one that caught the beam that saved both their lives, wasn't cooperating, so he only managed to claw his way beside her legs. 

He looked up, her grimy gray-furred face was a strange sort of relaxed and anguished, ears draped on the shoulder closest to him, her eyes closed and her little pink nose wiggling in time with her labored breaths. He saw her eyes flutter, darkened violet peeking briefly, then his pale lips worked, heavy from exhaustion.

“Nick?” She managed.

“M’here.” He heaved.

“N’ dead?”

“Not. yet.” He bit out.

“My Leg hurts. Hurts really bad.”

He rested his head on the cold rusted grating, looking out into the harsh, storming morning. A neverending gout of floodwater spurting from the drainway high above them and to the right. The weathervane that had protruded from the wall, the one that saved them both.

Then he looked down to where the catwalk ended abruptly, the platform shorn off from fallen debris.

“End of the line.” He mumbled. The bunny doe sniffled in response, a trembling paw resting on his cheek, feeling so tiny against his matted fur.

“M’scared.” She whispered, thready voice barely audible over the dull roar of rain and water. She sniffled, “I don’t want to go.”

“I wish I…” He stumbled, his heart still in freefall as he felt her fading. “I wish we had more time.”

“M’ cold.”

The fox lay there, completely hollow, but he struggled into her lap, curling his body around hers to share what little heat he had to offer.

He stayed cautious of her injured leg, her splint having snapped into kindling on their impact. He felt her seize him in a desperate hug, mumbling and crying, “I don’t want to go yet, I don’t want to go yet. I’m not ready, I’m not ready.”

He wasn’t either.

She had faded soon after, though her fists still clung to his shirt, when he heard it.

With the last of dreg of his energy the fox rolled his head skyward, to the bright white and red helicopter and raised his good arm, trying in vain to shout, 

“You’re not going anywhere, not yet, not yet.”

Chapter Text

“Hey, Hey, Girl! Did’ja hear the rumors about that Bun Doe that got flown inna couple nights ago?”

Paige Hopps scrubbed the rain sticking to her dark gray ears as she walked through the Bunny Burrow ER. It has been raining for days and she was more than ready for it to be over.

“No Darcy, I haven't.” She said sharply. A rather plump lapine nurse in light blue scrubs sitting behind the ER reception desk. “Move your tail, I need to clock in real quick.”

Darcy's sharp, gossip hungry expression turned to concern when she noticed the dark circles around the younger doe’s blue eyes while she bent over to log into the desk computer. “Had a long weekend, Hun?”

Paige let out a heavy sigh and nodded. “That flood in the big city has my parents freaked.” She finished clocking in and pulled a clipboard from the wall. “What needs doin’? You mentioned a Bun Doe? Is it just the one?”

“Just the one.” Darcy confirmed. “But we’re past full capacity. Ain’t y’all housing a few from the city?”

Paige snorted. “More than just a few. All the guest bedrooms are full of folks running from the floods. It got so bad that Dad had the older litters open the barn lofts.”

Darcy whistled, a measure of sympathy on her muzzle. “Well bless their hearts. Poor dears.”

Paige hummed, still scanning the clipboard, studiously absorbed by the checklist she had seen a thousand times before. 

Paige felt a weight on her arm and she startled. “Darcy! I nearly jumped out of my ears!” 

The older doe took her paw back, unbemused and asked, “There's sum'thin' else botherin' you?”

“Yeah, this headache and thousand and one patients to check in on to start my shift.” The doe scowled. “Who’s the worst at the moment? I want to check on them first.”

“The Bun Doe, but don’tcha change the subject.” Darcy rolled her eyes. “Ya don’t gotta be snarky with me, young lady. I know it's been tough, but you've been there afore. So you gonna tell me what’s gotcha ears inna twist?”

The younger Hopps screwed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose with a long suffering sigh. “Yeah, yeah. You remember my sister Judy?”

The nurses turned down the hallway into the wards.

Darcy guffawed. “Ya mean de wannabe big city cop? Shore do! Whatta ‘bout her?”

“Well she was in the city when scat hit the fan, and she hasn’t been returning any calls.”

Darcy gasped, “Oh honey.”

Paige gave a sad little nod. “My parents have been beside themselves. Dad’s the worst at this point. He can’t sleep and can’t stop working. The moment he does the waterworks start.” She sighed again and waved pointedly at her eyes. “It’s exhausting.”

“I’m sorry Hun.” Darcy said, coming up to the first room and opening the door. “I do hope you’ll find your sister soon.”

That was when Paige looked up from her clipboard to the unidentified rabbit doe inside and screamed.

—-

When Bonnie got off the phone with Paige she was shaking so badly that she had to get one of her sons to drive her and her husband to the hospital. The entire way there was a blur and it wasn’t until she found herself standing over her most wayward daughter’s mangled body. 

Stu’s stunned sobs were pushed aside as background noise as the Hopps matron sat down on the hard sterilized plastic chair and curled her trembling fingers around her daughters’ limp hand.

Why couldn’t she just listen? Why did she just stay safe at home?

Why did she want to be a cop? 

Why???

—-

A week they had told her.

Swelling in her brain had forced the doctors to put her in a medical coma while they did their best to put her broken flesh back together, while triaging those that were still being shipped out to the hospitals, clinics, everywhere and anywhere that could stitch a wound or hold a bed.

The Zootopian hospitals were either destroyed or too damaged to operate, so smaller animals went to places like Bunny Burrow.

A whole week. 

“...mom?” Judy looked away from the nurse speaking to her and quick as a flash Bonnie took her place next to her daughter’s bed.

“Yes sweetie? What is it?” 

“I…”

“It’s okay sweetheart. You can tell me anything.”

Judy sniffed, her aching eyes beginning to water. “I never liked your rhubarb pie.” 

Then she burst into ugly tears and held her mother’s paws with all her might. 

Bonnie didn’t understand but she began to cry too, relief spilling out from her anxious heart.

—-

“Hey, Hey, Girl! How we feelin’ this morning?”

Judy managed to crack a small smile, her paws fiddling with the white bed sheet. “Mornin, Darcy. My leg hurts.” She took a deliberately careful breath. “My ribs too.”

The older nurse nodded as she went about swapping her bag and doing her checks. “Well, they’ll do that when ya try ‘n wrestle a flood.”

She knew she should be more contrite, the most she could muster was a tired tilt of her head.

“Well, in any case, you should know that you’re gonna be havin’ a visitor. He’s up at the front desk. Some grumpy buffalo from the city. Gogo I think his name was?”

“Bogo. My boss.” Oh Pellets. 

Darcy nodded, “Yeah, that. He’ll be over in a bit. He sounded all angry ‘n stuff.”

“He always. Does.”

Darcy flashed her patient a saucy smirk. “Well half a ton or no, iff’n he causes ya any trouble I’ll turn him on his tail!”

Judy managed a larger smile and rasped, “You’re the best. Darcy.”

The nurse giggled, “Dontcha forget it!” She waved as she finished up and left the room, “Buh-bye!”

True to her word heavy hoof-falls heralded the chief of police’s approach and the massive frame of a water buffalo filled the doorway. 

Judy didn’t bother to make any appearances, she could only keep herself from shrinking away from her Boss’s unimpressed presence.

“Hopps.” Chief Bogo appeared the same as he was before the flood, only the wrinkles and faint stain on his uniform’s lapel clued the studious rabbit in on the steadfast chief’s condition.

“Chief. Bogo.” She had to keep her sentences short, her ribs wouldn’t allow more than a tiny breath.

Then she saw something she had never thought the bull capable of, his massive shoulders sagged and a genuine look of relief scored his stony face. “Glad to see that the reports were correct.”

“Reports, sir?” She was still trying to digest that the chief actually seemed to be grateful she wasn’t dead.

The buffalo had to hunch his broad frame and squeeze in beside her bed, almost literally filling half the room. “Your communication with Clawhauser was the last we heard from you. We had thought you lost until we got a call from this clinic a couple days ago, saying that you had been found alive and evac’d to Bunny Burrow.”

The doe nodded, turning her thoughts over in her head. She had more important things on her mind than what had happened to her, now that she wasn’t so overwhelmed.

“Can I. Ask you. A question?” 

The chief seemed unsurprised and grunted an affirmative, so she took as deep a breath as she could manage and asked, “Where was the other. Mammal that was evac’d with me?”

“Other one?” The water buffalo seemed confused.

Judy gave her own look of confusion. “The other mammal. That was. With me? A male fox?”

The bull hummed and threaded his hooven fingers together. 

“Hopps, you were the only one on that helicopter.”

Chapter Text

The Hopps family van rumbled to a stop in the Police Academy small mammal parking space, almost the same one her father had parked in to attend her own graduation ceremony a little over a year and a half ago..

Judy looked down at her dress blues, the cast, and the hated crutches set across her lap. 

They were symbols of her weakness, her tragedy.

Her failure.

That phone call from the Chief still rang in her ears, a deafening caterwaul.

[The Memorial Service is in a week. The Mayor would like to have you there to say a few words.]

She remembered feeling a numb cold spilling down her spine.

“Do I have to, Chief?”

There had been a best of hesitation then came a rumbling, [Delgado's family will be there too, Hopps.]

In the end, that was all it took. Who knew that she was such a pushover?

Her father turned in the driver's seat, stress lines around his face deeper than she'd remembered. She felt some guilt knowing she was the cause, but it changed little for her now.

“Do you have to, Jude?”

Her lips quirked up for a moment at her own words being echoed back to her. Her expression sobered quickly.

“I do, Dad.”

The elder Hopps Buck sighed heavily and kicked his door open without another word.

“Don't pay your father too much mind, Hun.” Her mother chimed in as she climbed out of the passenger seat. “This just feels like before, you know?”

“I know. Thanks Mom.”

Behind her Bonnie and Stu shared a worried look. Since she had woken up from the hospital their daughter had the look of someone burdened with the weight of the entire world on her small shoulders. Though she took her recovery seriously her parents could see her slowly buckling under the guilt. It broke their hearts to see her like this.

“It’s been months, bon.” Stu whispered to his wife in front of the van. “I don’t know how much more I can take seeing her like this.”

Bonnie found her husband’s paw and gave it a squeeze. “We have to, Stu. Remember when we heard her asking for the helicopter pilot that saved her?”

“Sure, why?”

“Turns out there was someone else with her, but when it landed at Bunnyburrow she was alone.”

Stu dragged his free paw down his muzzle, already fighting tears. “Oh Jude…”

Inside the van, Judy grunted as she shuffled across her seat. The cast and her crutches made maneuvering out of the vehicle tricky, but thankfully this time it was only her and her parents coming to the ceremony, so no fighting her siblings for the door.

When her foot sent down on the gravel parking lot the rush of nostalgic scents of early morning dew dressed grass undercut by the academy’s signature cleaning mix of bleach and pinesol. 

The familiar smells felt a little like a homecoming and nearly brought a tear to her eye.

The academy was a large H-shaped facility set in several hundred acres of training grounds, rolling hills, the Zootopian Servicemember Memorial Park, and its newest additions swathed with unusually sedate reporters, solemn families and stoic uniforms. A steepled black marble stone jutted from the concrete dais held together by shined bronze rings leading to its base.

The Hopps family melded into the quietly murmuring crowd, Judy taking lead at a tap-thump pace doing her best to keep her discomfort off of her face.

A podium sized for a larger mammal stood before the monument draped in deep red ringed by white and cut with thick black seams, the colors of sacrifice, remembrance, and mourning. 

Chief Bogo was the central fixture of the event, a muscular mountain clad in heavily decorated regalia that made her own bars and stars feel inconsequential.

The bull stood amongst other officers, instructors, firefighters, local politicians, and families. His granite face and unimpressed glare softened to somewhere between frosted mercury and molten bronze as he spoke in his softest rumbling bass. 

Despite barely reaching to his ankles the bull looked out through the throng of mammals surrounding him and made eye contact with the tiny hobbling rabbit approaching.

Politely excusing himself from the mayor’s aid that had been all but hanging off his ear, the chief broke through the crowd and knelt down to address them. “Hopps,” He turned to her parents. “Thank you for coming, Sir, Ma’am.”

“Thank you, Chief.” Judy grimaced as she shuffled her crutches under her. “Where should I be?”

Still knelt down the water buffalo gestured to the small line of chairs to the right of the marble monument. “You’ll find your seat there.”

Judy hobble-turned to her parents, “I’ll see y'all in a bit.”

She felt her throat constrict at the fragile way they were looking at her, her father with his lips already wobbling and her mother, for all her usual emotional strength, was leaning against her husband and clutching his paw as if it were the only thing keeping her from slipping to the grass.

In a sudden frantic burst of anxiety Judy scampered into her parents arms. Despite their differences in opinion they had always loved her, she had been so stupid before to take a gift like this so lightly.

“Thank you so, so much for being here for me.” She sniffed into their fur.

“Of course, Sweetheart. Always.”

Judy pulled away from her parents with a sniffle and wiped at her watery eyes. “Gotta go now. Love you both!”

Her parents bid her a stronger goodbye this time and found a seat to share near the front as Judy settled herself in her own chair. Next to the podium she had a commanding view of the memorial grounds and the large crowd milling about. She caught a glimpse of the color guard checking their uniforms and equipment off to the side, along with what appeared to be a formation of police members in their dress blues.

“Well as I live and breathe. If it ain’t our bunny cop, back from the dead.”

Judy looked at the large female polar bear and her muzzle broke into a bright smile. “Major Friedkin!”

The polar bear queen cracked a toothy grin. “Hiya Officer. Heard what happened to ya. Glad to see you still up and bouncin’. Whatcha doin’ here?”

“Well Chief Bogo asked… and I do owe someone a debt.”

A strange expression contorted the Major’s muzzle then vanished, “ Oh? Then I look forward to hearing what you have to say.”

Judy chuckled politely then gestured to the formation of police fidgeting and sweating in their brand new dress blues. “I didn’t think y’all’d be having any more classes with the flood and all.”

The polar bear tipped her head in acknowledgement. “Don’t fault ya for thinkin’ that. Those shinies’ graduation just wrapped up! Most of ‘em volunteered to stay for the ceremony.” 

A sudden scratch of audio burst from the speakers at the foot of the dais startled the crowd into finding their seats. Major Friedkin settled into a seat a couple chairs down from her.

Judy found her parents at the front, the row reserved for special guests. She saw a somber family of lions sitting there as well and she felt her heartstrings yank in her chest at how the oldest cub closely resembled Delgado. There were a number of others sharing the front row as well, a few badgers, an elderly elk couple, a lovely red vixen with a shock of green eyes, and a family of otters taking up the end of the row. 

The speakers squalled then belted out the preamble, prompting everyone to rise from their seats and the color guard to march lockstep and freeze into sharp salute as the National Anthem began to play. A number of military veterans in the crowd stood at rigid attention while uniformed police snapped a salute, the rest placed their hats or paws over their hearts.

Once the anthem came to a close and the color guard retreated a sedate Mayor Lionheart came to the podium.

“My fellow Zootopians, veterans, volunteers, police, and their families. Thank you for coming.”

The lion raised a huge paw to the monolith behind him. “Before you is a memorial of those dark hours, black marble etched with the names of those that had been lost, all 1,430,257 lives hold a solemn place laden upon this stone.”

Judy shared the ugly spike of poisoned horror at the total death count. The Mayor let his statement settle before continuing.

“We have all lost someone, life long friends, close family, neighbors, acquaintances, we will continue to mourn them and the loss of a future with them in it for the rest of our lives.” He took a deep breath, the ever jovial cat shaken by his speech as he went on. 

“We had spoken enough of the tragedy that was the catalyst of our pain and suffering… Today is not about that. Today is about the stories of valor, incredible courage, and the costs of those acts.”

“Look to the names embronzed across the shined surface, names of those who had given their lives to save others.” He pointed out the constellation of bronzed inlays scattered across the steepled stone’s surface like stars against a daylit night sky. 

“They sacrificed everything for their fellow mammal. They will never be forgotten. However, let us not forget those that were just as willing to give them everything.”

The lion solemnly swept a paw from the dais below his feet to the formation of mammals at attention. “These names rest heavy on the shoulders of all, none more so than the recruits before you, the first to volunteer in the wake of the flood, the first to walk from these academy gates as servants of our great city.” 

“And here today I have invited here is one such servant, and she had graciously agreed to speak.” He looked over to her and asked, “Officer Hopps, would you mind saying a few words?”

Judy felt jittery as the mayor beckoned to her and she shyly juggled herself onto his crutches and hobbled beside the podium, the crowd politely applauding.

The Mayor pulled a small microphone stand from the podium. She thanked the lion as he placed it in front of her and gave her an encouraging, toothy smile before making his way back to his seat.

The applause petered out and she pulled from her college public speaking class and swept her gaze back and forth over the heads of the crowd while keeping a steady inflection in her voice.

“Good Morning-“ She swallowed, throat suddenly thick. She coughed and started again. “Apologies. Good Morning, thank you for coming today.” She stalled again. 

She knew the words, she had written and re-read this speech on repeat for the past two weeks, it frustrated her to no end that, of all times, did she stumble over herself now???

The bunny cleared her throat. “Originally I wasn’t going to come, however, at the invitation of the Mayor and encouragement from Chief Bogo I was convinced otherwise.”

Judy took a breath.

“I should be dead.”

The bunny doe let her statement sink in. Startled looks swept through the crowd like a visible wave. The pained expressions of her parents were the worst to witness, it drove the air from her lungs. She pushed through, her voice raw.

“That night, when the flood first hit, I-I tried to take all the burden on myself. I tried to save the wh-whole city without regard to myself, my family,” She looked to her parents, their paws threaded together. “the people who loved me most.”

“I’m able to be here today due to one mammal in particular, and I never got the chance to say thank you.” Her face curled in anguish and she had to hide her face, the crowd’s stares becoming unbearable. “I-I’m sorry-”

The bunny doe wrestled with the tangled pain in her chest, internally mortified at having a breakdown on stage in front of her boss and all these mammals. 

She took a shuddering breath, at least pretending to wrest control over herself. Her grip around the microphone stand turned white-knuckled. She searched for something to ground her. 

She looked to the older red vixen a few seats over from her parents, her own glistening green eyes so familiar. 

A jagged shock raced down the bunny’s spine. 

No. Could it?

She looked to the graduates, then to the front row clad in a sharp blue behind a shining gold shield Nick Wilde stared back at her, looking as gobsmacked as she was.

He’s alive! 

Her hurt unraveled, the agony in her chest eased as a sort of disbelief blanketed her, pulling her from her downward spiral. 

Judy tried for a small smile at the fox, one that seemed to snap him out of his own fugue state and she fought the incredible urge to start grinning like a loon. 

All of this hurt was for nothing! 

“Are you okay to keep going?” Judy looked up to Chief Bogo kneeling down, asking in a low voice

The doe rubbed at her eyes and straightened up, her voice still rough. “I-I’m good, I can keep going. Thank you, sir.”

She turned back to the crowd, always keeping the todd at the corner of her eye as she continued. “The mayor spoke of those on the monument that gave their lives saving others, My name should have been on that black marble. I had thought the mammal responsible for pulling me through that flood was lost… However-” 

“It would seem God is quite the comedian.” She risked a glance at the fox staring into her soul. 

A mass muttering rose from the audience, confusion buzzing, and she could feel the puzzled looks from her parents burning into her fur. 

She didn’t mind anymore as she looked to the graduates and the red fox once again rendered speechless.

This is crazy!

Giddy joy rippled through her as she decided she really was going to do this and said, “Thank you for saving my life, Nicholas Wilde.”

As one, every single eye swept from the bunny to the red fox, who once he found his tongue, snarked back, “What can I say? It’s a hustle sweetheart!”

Chapter Text

ONE YEAR LATER 

“Are you sure this is the place?” Clawhauser leaned over until his seatbelt groaned and narrowed his eyes through the thick sheets of nighttime rain splattering against the zuber car’s window. “It looks awfully, um, unconventional?”

“Like a trash dump, you mean?” Officer Fangmeyer deadpanned and double checked her phone. 

“A-yup, ‘The Last Cliffhanger’ Lower Canopy, Rainforest District.” The massive tigress cocked an eyebrow at the dingy open air bar hanging just this side of a one step express elevator to the bottom of the water reservoir.  “Huh, It’s almost like the author is trying to tell us something.” Clawhauser mused.

“So I guess we’re in the right place?”

“Hm, I dunno… I’m gonna give Hopps a call.”

“Yew two gonna take all night gittin’ outta de car?” Said the drow zebra driver.

“Keep your stripes on, the sprinklers’ll turn off in a few seconds.” The tigress sneered while The pudgy cheetah pressed his phone to his ear.

“Hey Judy! Me and Nattie are parked out by a misplaced trashdump on a cliffside-? Oh? It is the right place? Okay, we’ll be right over! See ya soon!” The chubby cheetah hung up and unbuckled his seatbelt. “M’kay! She said she’ll be here soon, she got stuck ‘cuz of the sprinklers on the bus ride over.”

“Well,” The tigress glanced out the window and pushed her door open, “The downpour’s stopped now, let's grab a seat, preferably as far away from that ‘balcony’ as possible.”

The pair crossed the night-clothed street and stepped into a kaleidoscope of nautical flotsam, first shipwrecked then cobbled together to approximate an old air bar and grill facing the city center weather wall’s sheer concrete face. A battered sign in fresh blue against old white read “Last Cliffhanger” hung above the double doors illuminated by a nearby streetlight.

A clatter of silverware and constant chorus of voices sang through the patter of rain dripping from the fronds and branches above. The dull burnt light of naked bulbs cast swimming beams of dying sunlight like a lighthouse lost in the jungle still intent on calling her sailors home.

This wasn’t a tourist spot nor an establishment for the fair or fainthearted.

They stepped into a mudroom stoppered on both sides by weathered red and blue doors pilfered from an ancient fishing vessel. After shaking off the dregs of run-off that clung to their fur they pushed their way into the building proper.

They found the bar, front and center with a wrap-around countertop standing guard for a single huge grill posted in the middle of it all with four mammals dressed in weathered boots and jackets fit for the high seas not a kitchen.

Clawhauser and Fangmeyer had to take a moment to stop to take it all in.

“Oi! Whatchu two coppers want?” A fennec fox in a horrifically colorful pawaiian shirt and a scowl that could curdle milk at ten paces stopped along the bar top to swipe a paw at them.

“Uuh, we’re meeting someone here?” Clawhauser asked, hoping he was wrong.

Unfortunately for him the fennec grunted, “Y’all’re here for the party, yeah? Now find a seat ‘n quit blockin’ the door!”

The cats both jumped and suddenly found themselves somehow already seated at the rounded corner of the bar facing the doors. Clawhauser blinked and shared a bewildered look with Fangmeyer. “How did he do that?”

“Small fox, big set of lungs.” The tigress gave a sheepish cough, her tiny ears swept against her head in embarrassment, “He’d give Major Friedkin a run for her money.”

“Geez,” The receptionist wiggled in his chair and took a sip of his drink, then flinched, staring at the fruity blue concoction and its little pink umbrella in confusion, “Wait, where did this come from?!”

Fangmeyer startled, finding a dark lager frothing against a frosted mug cooling under her fingers. “Huh.”

“It’s Marco,” The fennec fox boomed, deftly vaulting over an otter with a countenance of a mad scientist spinning about a hanging net of bottles dangling from the ceiling. “He’s gotta scent for dis kinda thing.” 

The little otter behind him began to giggle gleefully as he spilled another measure of liquor into a cup and it actually puffed with colored smoke.

“Yeah, I’d pass on whatever that is, he’s a genius but only inna pursuit of expanding yer liver damage.” Said the diminutive vulpine as he swiped a nearby mug, flipped it upside down and took a seat between the felines. “So, Yew here work wit’ da bunny cop?”

“Are we that obvious?” Clawhauser tittered, thumbing his drink. It was good and fruity, whatever it was.

“Yes.” 

“But we’re in plain clothes.” Fangmeyer said, gesturing to her jeans, blue shirt, and pleather jacket.

“He means you both carry yourselves like cops, Hun.” A gracefully aged red vixen in a woolen green cardigan giggled as she walked by, “Surely you two saw how Finn here nearly dove for the balcony when you walked in?”

“I ain’t flinched from nothin’!”

The vixen stopped to wag a claw in the fox’s direction. “You sure about that, Mister Finnagen Harold Lister?”

The fennec flung his paws up in surrender, “Nah ma’am, Mrs. W. You won.”

The vixen giggled behind her paw, “Good man,” She turned to the two cops. “I assume you two are here for the party?”

“Yes ma’am!” Clawhauser trilled. “Oh, I’m so excited! Judy hardly ever went out with us!”

The front doors were kicked open and a dripping wet bunny doe in a pink plaid top and jeans trudged very unhappily through, desperately scrubbing the water from her ears.

“Well speak of the devil.” Fangmeyer noted and raised a paw. “Hopps! Over here!”

The doe lifted one ear in their direction and padded over grumbling, “Hey guys, Sorry I just can’t get the rain out of my fur!”

“Oh hun, I think there’s a few towels in the restrooms.” The vixen told her, pointing to the back of the building.

“Thank you, Marian!” The doe scampered into the female toilet with an unnerved intensity.

The vixen looked after the bunny with sympathy. “Oh, the poor dear.”

“What’s the matter with her?” Fangmeyer asked, puzzled. “I mean she got a little rain on her. She asked us to come to the rainforest district! What did she expect?”

“Hydrophobia.” The vixen sighed. “The flood last year messed her up.”

“Oh? You know each other?” Clawhauser asked, brows raised. “I hadn’t realized!”

The vixen hummed a proud little smile on her face, “Yeah, we met at my son’s graduation last year!” The older vixen preened at being able to tell others about her son, a novelty still, even after a year.

“Really?” Fangmeyer grunted, “I had heard we had a fox on the force a while back. What precinct?”

“Precinct 7!” Marian chirped, bouncing on her toes and clutching her purse. “The rainforest district. I thought it was a weird choice but turns out my son had been asked by the captain to transfer there for his knowledge of the waterways and such.”

Clawhauser nodded enthusiastically, “Oh boy, I know from experience trying to work dispatch when you have folks with no idea on where they are is horrible! Is your son here tonight?”

“Sure is! He’s over there,” The vixen rolled her eyes fondly. “Really trying to put down the fox stereotype.”

“What do you mean by that?” Judy Hopps butted in, bouncing from the female restroom looking much more composed. Then she looked at the tight crowd of rowdy mammals on the back balcony and groaned. “Really? Three card monty?”

“You got it in your shirt!” An anteater declared from the audience. 

The todd laughed and shook his loose green pawaiian shirt, “Nice guess, but no!”

“It’s up his sleeve!” Another roared.

“Am I gonna have to go shirtless for you heathens just to get a little faith around here?”

“Yes!” cried a tipsy possum jill.

“Woman, my mother’s here! Get a hold of yourself!” The fox declared, sparking a rowdy roar of laughter from the crowd.

“It’s a card shark classic, he says.” Marian sighed with a shrug. “At least he’s advertising that fact instead of trying to scam them for money.”

“But still!” The bunny huffed, her arms crossed and ears askew as the fox cracked another joke that sent an old ferret into hysterics. She threw her paws up in exasperation, “Ah, whatever, I’ll let him have his fun.” 

She hopped onto the counter and sat down, letting her feet dangle over the side. A few seconds and a giggling otter later a small drink appeared in her paws and she took a sip and hummed appreciatively. “Hmm, Nick was right about this place!”

Clawhauser grinned. “Well I’m so happy you invited us out here tonight! I can’t wait to finally meet your boyfriend!”

The bunny went rigid and both foxes paused and stared at the doe. 

“Uh?!” Judy squeaked.

“Oh knock it off Hopps.” Fangmeyer rumbled. “If it ain’t about work then all you talk about is Nick, Nick, Nick. What you did with Nick last week, what Nick said about this, What Nick is going to show you this weekend-”

“It's like, to you, he’s the only buck in the world!” Clawhauser added.

The bunny, trying to play off her blush visibly glowing bright behind her cheek fur, tilted her head, “b-buck?”

“Yeah, buck. you know. Nick? Your boyfriend?” Fangmeyer asked, puzzled.

Finn and Marian were eating this up and shared wide eyed grins. Finn mouthed, No way. A sly smirk all to like her son’s spread across Marian’s auburn muzzle.

The bunny doe looked one twitch away from bolting, her eyes darting to the card shooting fox working the crowd over and the vixen shooting her a horrifyingly gleeful grin. “Judy, hun? Is there something you’d like to tell me?”

The doe buried her head in her paws and groaned.

Clawhauser glanced at an equally confused Fangmeyer. “Somehow… I feel like we’re missing something.”

“Hey mom!” The todd from earlier chirped, swaggering over with a bright smile that quickly faded when he saw Judy’s hanging head. “Hey fluff, glad you finally made it… everything okay?”

The mortified rabbit whimpered, “Don’t- Don’t look at me right now.”

“Honey, come over here.” Marian was bouncing on her toes practically vibrating, barely containing herself. The todd, now thoroughly puzzled, said, “Sure?” and leaned over as she whispered into his ear.

The todd’s face transformed in slow motion, visibly cycling through a range of emotions until it finally decided on astonished glee, one the matched eerily well by his mother. He leaned back and glanced at the cats looking down at them, “you’re joking. ”

The vixen shook her head so hard her pointed ears flapped. “Nope!”

“Well now, we can’t have them be left in the dark forever!” The todd declared, turning to the cats and the horrified bunny between them.

He gave a jaunty wave. “Hey folks!”

“Oh noooo…” Moaned the bunny.

“Not now Carrots, wallow in mortification later.” Chided the Fox as he turned to the cats again, “Well it’s so nice to meet you both!”

“Natalie.” Rumbled Fangmeyer. “Now, care to enlighten us on what’s so funny?”

“Nice to meet you too!” Clawhauser chirped. “I’m Benjamin! Benji to my friends!”

“Well, I’m Nicholas Wilde.” The fox grinned in delight as twin sets of slowly widening eyes and open mouths swept down the cat’s faces. The fox added, “But you can call me Nick.”

Finn’s deep booming laughter broke stunned silence that followed, with a mortified bunny in the middle, groaning, “Staahhhppp…”

—-

Much later, long after her friends had left for the night and last call came and went, Judy found herself comfortably buzzed and feeling strangely warm and fuzzy standing out on the cold and wet sidewalk. 

She turned to her troublesome friend as he stepped from the double doors shaking free a black umbrella.

“So Carrots, tell me. You knew you were taking a bus into the middle of the rainforest district, so how did you forget an umbrella?”

In response she grumbled, fumbling to cross her arms and making a show of sassy attitude.

Nick laughed, flicking his feet from a puddle and falling into step beside her, his vibrant red fur bleeding into rusty brown as they faded from the bar’s lights into the night-burdened street.

“Well, lucky for you, I am ever-prepared.” He hooked the umbrella over his arm and bumped his hip against hers. 

“My gallant knight in khaki shorts, always to the rescue.” Judy drawled with a flick of her ears and fond roll of her eyes. He barked a laugh again and this time she flashed him a toothy smirk. 

In response he gave a half bow and swept his arm to a suspended pathway that branched from the sidewalk. “If your ladyship feels as such, then perhaps she would allow herself an escort?”

“But the bus stop is that way.” She said, dropping the act.

“I have something to show you.” He stated. 

Judy paused, something seemed different about him, now. Whatever it was, she felt that she needed to take it seriously.

“Sure.”

Nick offered his free arm to her and she took it, and it was as if she had touched lightning, the short fur on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end.

He was quiet as he led her down the shadow laden path, passing through darkened groves of massive trees with the gentle churrip of insects and shared breaths, their only companions.

The trees soon thinned out and Judy figured they were somewhere out under the bar’s balcony, closer to the water reservoir’s edge when she noticed the dull rumble of rushing water, its constant roar blended in with the night sounds so seamlessly that she had missed it altogether.

Her stomach began to do somersaults when Nick took a sudden turn from the pathway to a wooden lookout that faced the massive eastern weatherwall. Mutely she unfolded her arm from his and looked up, up, up the brutish gray monolith to the black sky above, her stars hidden by the city’s lights. Her paws shook and she gripped the wooden railing.

For a long breath they both stood in silence, the bug’s night song and the rush of water arrested their hearts as a mess of emotions both old and fresh tumbled against their chests. 

“I thought I’d never see you again.” Nick whispered first, her sensitive ears picking up on the words through the loud night. She dared to look at him, his former composure peeled back to the broken todd she knew, conflict open and wretched on his trembling muzzle. A flash of pain twisted her against her throat. 

“When we had landed and they-they took your body from the helicopter I wasn’t sure you were even alive. You were so cold.” He rasped, his lips curled in agony and he turned his head away.

Judy realized that her friend was holding back tears and she felt hot wet from her own eyes pooling.

“I… I hadn’t realized that you were awake for… for all that.” She sniffled. He nodded mutely, still facing away from her, though one triangular ear was swiveled to her. She continued, “When I woke up in Bunnyburrow they said I was the only one…” She let out a watery laugh. “I hadn’t realized that you were simply on a different helicopter.” She wiped her eyes and growled, “So stupid.”

The fox grunted and after composing himself he cleared his throat and turned back around, facing out towards the weather wall, again falling silent.

“What did you take me out here for Nick?”

The fox didn’t answer at first, then asked, “Do you know why Finn chose to open the Last Cliffhanger?”

“Despite it’s ‘rustic’ appearance, you mean?” She shook her head. “Why?”

“Because I suggested it.” She looked at him in surprise.

“Why did you do that?” She asked.

In response the fox pointed. “That.”

The bunny looked and halfway up the weather wall was a circular drain spilling water into the reservoir below. Comprehension dawned on her and she covered her mouth in shock.

Nick continued, “Right there, hanging on to that catwalk we had made a wish for more time. For a while after I realized I wasn’t dead I knew I couldn’t waste that wish.”

“So… you joined the police.”

He gave her a small shrug, “Took a ton of convincing the recruiter, then the investigator, and the review board after… I just.”

He suddenly turned to fully face her his emerald eyes glowing in the dark. “I thought of- I thought of you and I wanted just a little of that too.”

“A little of what?” She whispered, her veins abuzz with nervous adrenaline.

Delicately, carefully, he pulled her paws from the rail and took them in his own. She found her lips inches from his, The smell of fruit and a cut of alcohol rolled from his breath, leaving her feeling heady.

“A little of this.” He breathed, leaning in. Unheeded her eyes slid closed-

Just in time for a torrent of sprinkler water to soak the them of both, leaving the fox and bunny sputtering, spitting water in each other's faces. Judy was breathing heavy and found the fox across from her soaked to the bone, water dripping down his sodden whiskers looking completely put out and thoroughly annoyed.

A surprised giggle escaped her, earning her a stink eye from the wet fox. Giggles multiplying, she breathlessly pointed to the folded umbrella hanging uselessly from his arm. He looked down and a bark sputtered from his throat too until both mammals were full belly laughing. 

The giggling bunny caught her balance, leaning against the wooden rail gasping for air watching the todd. Whatever it was that was happening between them sizzling like a livewire.

A memory, the first time they had met rolled through her mind and now here she was, two years later standing in the middle of a sprinkler shower. How strange and wonderful her life had become.

“Looks like we both are a little washed up, eh Wilde?” She drawled playfully.

Nick looked down at her, that strange soul piercing glow in his eyes that pulled her in. He gently retrieved her paw, his rough pads warm and strong around hers. 

He smiled. “You know Judy, I think that we’re going to be just fine.”

In that moment, she knew that he was right.

The End