Only a few minutes after leaving Manchas', Judy now stood not a hundred foot away from Cliffside Asylum. The place even more creepy now that it was completely abandoned, it seemed much more comfortable with the hostile wolf security force patrolling it.
She moved towards the front door and started to enter, but then stopped and instead made her way around the right side of the building. She had a hunch that the fox wouldn't have went through it, and that it was more likely that he went through the drain like the first time.
The rabbit came up in the darkened lab. The power had since been turned off so the only light poured in through the dirty, nearly opaque windows, making the majority of the room pitch black to her poor eyes.
She pulled a mini flashlight from her belt and clicked it on, giving her just enough light for her to navigate the room. From her brief glimpses of the room, it seemed not to have changed that much, still rundown and creepy, but with just a little less light.
After having searched the operating room, she moved to the door that lead to the real horrors of the place. Judy walked into the connected room, seeing all the empty cages, and remembering when they weren't empty. Remembering all the savage animals growling, scratching, and biting at the glass; all ready to kill if they were given the chance. Bellwether, the cute and lovable psycho.
Judy walked through the room shining her flashlight in the glass prisons, afraid she might find something. A toilet and a bed… no savage mammal. She observed and moved on, moving from one to one with each one turning up empty. She made it to the end of the hall, with only one room remaining to investigate.
She took a deep breath as she illuminated the cell, her mind racing with the most terrifying of thoughts. She could almost picture a feral Nick ready to eat her, or his corpse in a pool of blood. Luckily neither were the case. She sighed in relief—and mentally scolded herself for being so foolish—at seeing that nothing was present in it.
“Judy.”
The rabbit nearly jumped out of her skin in shock at the mention of her name, taking the new few seconds to quickly scope out her surroundings in search of the person calling for her, only to realize that it was her police radio, Hey Clawhauser. You nearly gave me a heart attack!. What is it?”
“Thought you'd like to know that Nick just arrived,” The machine crackled back. The news was both happy and disappointing. Tailing the fox, and finding the clues to follow his investigation, was one of the most exciting things she had done recently, and now Nick had unknowingly ruined it entirely. Now all there was to do was to return to the ZPD and get back to the daily routine of being an officer, which as of recently meant pulling over speeders.
“Keep him there until I get there. Thanks Clawhauser.”
Bogo. He's going to confront Bogo. Judy suddenly realized, breaking into a run, going through the door at the end of the hallway, in search of the way to the front exit. The door was directly connected to the main hall of the building, making finding the exit a nonexistent task. She ran through it moments later, and across the pavement to her cruiser.
The drive from the Rainforest District to the ZPD was short, only consisting of driving through the maintenance tunnel and a short ways on the highway. Only a few minutes later she was stopped at the front of the ZPD building. She didn't bother parking, only stopping in a no parking zone and killing the engine (she'd ticket herself for it later).
“Clawhauser!” Judy screamed upon running inside, expecting the pudgy tiger to be sitting at his desk scarfing down donuts, or playing with his Gazelle app, but neither were the case. The seat behind the desk was unoccupied and the tiger was nowhere to be seen.
He may have just went out for doughnuts. Judy took no time in thinking about it and walked past his desk and into the heart of the station. Judy walked through the lighten hallways searching for any hint of life, but finding none. She peaked her head into the various rooms and offices of the building and there wasn't a soul to be found.
Having checked most of the other rooms she finally arrived at the debriefing room. She opened the door only to have her eyes greeted with the darkness of an unlighted room. She ran her paw against the walk searching for the light switch. She groaned in frustration, still unable to find it.
Right. Small bunny. She stood on her toes and reached high, her finger finally making contact with the switch. Click. Light flooded the big room that she had assumed to be empty like the rest. She was mistaken. All the missing police officers had been found, and the moment the lights came on a roar of voices erupted from the room, “Congratulations Judy!”
Judy took a moment to look around the room completely overwhelmed by it all. None of the chairs, and only a few of the tables, that were normally in the room still remained, and a large banner hung across the ceiling that read “Surprise Judy”. Judy looked around unable to comprehend anything that was going on. Congratulations for what?
“Congratulations Carrots,” A familiar voice said from behind her, she quickly turned to see the one and only Nick Wilde, and embraced him without hesitation. Judy looked up at him with teary eyes and an angry demeanor that didn't last long in the presence of his smile.
“I came here thinking that Bogo was a criminal, and you were in trouble.” Judy spoke softly, her head nestled closely against his lower chest, “Care to tell me what's going on?”
“It's been a year since you joined the ZPD and everyone wanted to throw you a party,” He responded, his hands petting her ears softly, “I volunteered to keep you busy while they got everything set up.”
“You could have just taken me shopping or something,” Judy suggested, “It would have made me want to kill you a lot less.”
“If I had taken you shopping you wouldn't have to kill me, I'd have already killed myself,” Nick joked before bringing his mouth close to her ear and whispering, “Carrots, I don't mean to alarm you, but everyone seems to be staring at us.”
Judy turned to see the entire crowd staring at her, all of their faces, aside from Chief Bogo, displaying a prominent smile; all of them probably mentally defined them as a couple. The worst part of the situation, by far, was Clawhauser with his phone held in front of his face, tapping the screen like a madman. Great photos. Judy quickly pulled away from Nick, trying her best to hide her embarrassment.
The fox nudged her, “Why don't you go mingle, and I'll get us drinks.”
She nodded in agreement, taking one more look at Nick, before walking over to appease the mob. Everyone flocked her, words coming from all directions (and varying altitudes):
“Judy you rock!”
“Congrats Judy, glad you joined the ZPD!”
“You're the best damn cop I’ve ever met, bunny girl!”
“I made you a carrot cake! You have to try it!”
She responded to all of them more or less the same, with a pleasant thanks and a hug or a hand shake; and of course a promise to try the carrot cake to Francine. Judy didn't exactly want to be here; not that she didn't appreciate the sentiment, but more than anything she wanted to talk to Nick.
As time passed a lot of the people who were grouped around her had cleared away, most of them now congregating across the room around the tables with with plates fighting to get something to eat. It was around then that she noticed the chief standing off to himself and walked over to him.
“Hey Hopps,” He said, noticing her en-route to him, “I'm glad you've been with us this long.”
“Thanks Bogo,” Judy responded. The bull held out his hand, expecting a handshake, but instead the bunny used her strong legs to propel her up and wrapped her arms around his neck. The bull sighed, and reciprocated the gesture, “I just want to say that I didn't really believe you were involved in anything criminal.”
“I'm glad you have such trust in me, Judy.” Bogo said earnestly, his usually stoic expression now holding a slight smile
She then proceeded to continue, “There wasn't any evidence to actually incriminate you. Had the case been real, and had I caught up with him, Nick would have had something.”
The smile left his face, he knelt down practically dropping the bunny, before going to the other side of the room. With everyone no longer focused on her she walked over and found the fox standing off to the side of everyone else, holding a cup in each hand. Nick handed her a cup and she took a sip of it, her tongue being graced with the ever so familiar taste of carrot juice, something the ZPD would never have under any other circumstance.
Throw a party for a rabbit, and make everything out of carrots. Judy thought, glancing over at the food that had been brought in; the presence of 3 different carrot cakes solidifying her thought.
“How's the party, Carrots?” Nick asked, and then proceeded to take a drink in anticipation of her answer.
“It's great. It's nice to know people care,” She replied, “the amount of carrots is a bit excessive, but that's whatever.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I was just the decoy, not the culinary expert behind store bought carrot cakes.”
Judy laughed, before adding, “I bet a fox of many talents, like yourself, could make a wonderful store bought carrot cake.”
“I doubt it. I may be great, but such things still elude me.”
“Well I think I'm going to try a piece of said cake,” Judy responded, starting to walk away, only to momentarily turn and ask, “Do you want a piece?”
Nick shook his head, “I don't really like carrots.”
“I'm wounded Nick,” Judy said, frowning and putting her hands over her heart, “I thought we were the best of friends.”
“You know what I meant,” He responded, sighing deeply, “Just go get your damn cake.”
Even with Judy away, his focus still remained on her, watching the rabbit make her way over to the tables. The tops of them towered above her, making it impossible for her to get anything herself, or so he thought. Nick watched, rather amused, as she hoisted herself atop of them, picking up a paper plate and a fork, and carefully traversing across them. She moved gracefully, dodging the various platters of food, and arriving at the desserts, and grabbed the rather large plastic knife—for a rabbit—and cut herself a piece. The rabbit then sat the plate down, only to jump down and pick it up again, and walked towards him again; all the while chipping away at the carrot cake with her fork. Perfect as always, Carrots.
“Only you could turn getting a piece of cake into traversing an obstacle course,” Nick teased, “You know you could have just asked for help.”
Judy chewed the fragment of cake in her mouth, it was sweet and she definitely enjoyed it, but it was far from the best carrot cake she ever had. Judy swallowed, clearing her mouth of the remnants, and then responded, “I didn't need help. I can get my own cake Nick.”
“Yeah I know. You are Judy Hopps after all. So how is it?”
“It's alright. Any rabbit ever could do it better though,” Judy answered, then lifted another piece of cake onto her fork. Instead of eating it she held it out in front of her in the direction of the fox, “Try it.”
“I'm not eating that,” Nick responded, crossing his arms and turning his muzzle of to the side.
“Come on Nick, just try it,” Judy plead, continuing inching the fork closer to him, “You can't even taste the carrots.”
The fox shook his head in response, not risking opening his mouth.
“If you try the carrot cake, then I will try anything you want me to,” She negotiated, instantly regretting the proposition; her mind running wild with thoughts of the disgusting things that he may make her eat.
Deal,” The fox remarked, his mouth now wide open. The fork soon after entered his mouth and slid out between his closed lips clean. The cake rested on his tongue, bringing him an immensely sweet taste that he couldn't deny to liking, not to himself anyways. She didn't give him very much, so it didn't take him long to swallow it, “I don't think you gave me enough to get an accurate feel for it.”
Judy smirked, taking more from her plate, “So in other words you liked it, and want more?”
“Not the words I would use—mainly because they'd mean you were right and I was wrong—but… yes.”
Nick crumbled the empty plate in his hands, the cake didn't hold up long to their alternating bites, “Hey Carrots, about our deal; do I get to decide when you have to eat it?”
“Uh… I guess,” She replied, confused as to why it mattered.
“Great!” Nick exclaimed, grabbing her by the arm, and leading her towards the door, “Well let's go.”
“We can't go now!” Judy responded, pulling against his grasp, “Everyone threw a party for me, and we just got here.”
“Carrots they don't care, they're not even paying attention,” Nick said, pointing at all the other mammals, who were completely oblivious to them, “and you said I could decide when, and when is now.”
“Fine,” She said begrudgingly, “but if someone notices we're gone then I'm telling them you kidnapped me.”
“That's only kind of true,” Nick replied, dragging the rabbit along, “and if they see we're gone they'll just assume we went to be 'alone' somewhere.”
“And we want that?” Judy asked, her face heating up with embarrassment.
He shrugged, “It doesn't really bother me. They seem to think so anyways, why not just have fun with it?” Nick released her arm and now instead held his hand out in front of her, Judy took it, taking a moment to share a glance with him, and then they left the room, and soon after the building, grinning like fools.
