"No! Absolutely not!" Bogo replied as he raised his voice at them.
"With a due respect, sir. That is all he wants to do, instead of letting her body slowly decay in the morgue, or having her buried improperly?" Judy said trying to keep him from shouting.
"What you're asking, Hopps. Wilde. Is that I basically release him so he can bury that accidental death in the warehouse, and not only that, but it could also endanger him and the lives of others." Bogo replied as he folded his hands together.
"But sir? He cooperated and gave us everything we need to cure those gone savage. Shouldn't he get a last request as he is about to be transferred to 'Zootopia penitentiary', where he is going to be locked up until he dies in prison?" Nick asked him as he explained Jeremiahs' final request, and set what he gave both of them on the desk. Bogo then stood up and walked over to the window overlooking the rebuild of the climate control walls, which were almost completed and functioning. He gave a heavy *sigh* as if he had been thinking about it very hard, but turned around.
"Okay, I will grant him this final request, but under one condition?" Bogo said as he sat back down and began to type it up on his computer.
"Yes, what is it?" Judy asked as her eyes widened.
"He has to wear a secondary collar, one that is much like the one he is wearing, except it will send a shock if he tries anything or gets angry. And has to be escorted by officers at all times including you two." Bogo said as he printed it out, and gave them a pen for him to sign.
"Yes sir, thank you sir." Nick replied as they stood up and took the paper and pen from his hand.
"He will be transported by a prisoner van, and will be watched at all times." Bogo said as if to tell them to get out of his office. Both of them left and closed the door behind them, and gave each other looks like they are holding the paper to a dying reptile his final request, though they knew that they were.
When they walked back into door #35, and saw that at least ten guards with rifles all pointing at Jeremiah as one of them opened the cell door. Another one was holding a box that held the collar for him. Nick then walked up to him and handed him the pen to sign it, but Jeremiah hesitated for only a moment before he took the pen, and signed it in his full name. Just then the guard holding the collar walked up and presented the collar to Judy.
"Why are you giving this to me?" She asked questionably.
"Jeremiah requested that you place it around him." He responded as he opened the lid, revealing a titanium-steel collar, with metal needles that will pierce through flesh, and send a painful shock in the process. This kind of collar is meant for the worst and unruly kind of criminal, the kind that will cause trouble even behind bars, and needed to be controlled. She looked over at Jeremiah with pain in her eyes as she felt pity towards him, and Jeremiah knew that she didn't want to put it around him.
"It's okay, Judy." He said as he slowly slithered out of the cell, and stopped just a few feet away from them. Judy slowly took it and walked up to him, biting the inside of her lip as she slowly wrapped it around him, but stopped just before she connected the ends of it.
"I-I'm sorry..." She said quietly so he would be the only one to hear her.
"Don't be. It's what I deserve." He replied as he looked down at her and into her eyes. He could see the pain in her eyes as well as she could in his. She then connected it, and watched as the ends tightened it around him, then pierced the needles halfway into his 'neck'. He flinched as they went deeper and deeper until they stopped, and blood slightly ran from each piercing. Some of the blood he coughed up, but swallowed it back down so it wouldn't get on her.
"And he also requested that Officer Wilde put the muzzle on him." The same guard said as he handed the muzzle to Nick. Nick took it and walked right up to Jeremiahs' head, but was also hesitant to do it.
"Come on, Nickolas? I know you wanted to do this to me. Go ahead, put it on me." Jeremiah said softly and looked into his eyes before Nick put it on him, and tightened it so it wasn't loose. "Thank you, Nickolas. And thank you, Judy." Jeremiah said as they connected chains to both collars, and put chain leashes on them so he wouldn't try anything.
"For what?" Judy asked as she felt some tears forming.
"For granting me my final request, of course." He said as he picked her chin up and tried to smile, but a guard pulled hard on the leash which cause the collar to dig the needles in deeper.
They got everything set up, Myriam was in a casket, flowers were set for her, and they got a preacher to say a few words before Jeremiah came up, and placed a single black rose in her hands.
"You were the one that gave me hope, gave me life, and made me feel again, Myriam. You may be gone, but you aren't lost and will never be forgotten." He said quietly as he held her hand for the last time, before they closed the casket and took her to be buried.
An hour had passed after they finished burying her, the ground was cold and hard, almost like it didn't want her. Jeremiah was positioned in front of her tombstone, which was right next to his wife. He just stayed there, staring at this new grave for Myriam, and the tears fell from his eyes could water a field of roses. He was holding the rest of the black roses in his tail, he had gotten her a dozen and only put one of the bunch in her hand. Judy then walked up to him and stood at his side, didn't say anything, not a word or gesture, just stood there with this broken reptile. Until Jeremiah suddenly spoke in a gentle, but pain stricken voice.
"She was all I had left in this world. I think the worst part about this is that when she died in my grasp, she said one word to me, just one...*sniff*... I never knew this, but something began to happen to me I didn't notice until after I brought her in. Almost like something that I thought I had lost, had been restored. Bringing her into my life had changed me and continued to do so, but I thought I had lost it forever that night." Jeremiah said as more tears fell to the ground.
"What was it that you thought you lost, but she restored inside you?" She said as she looked at him in his red and teary eyes.
"Love, Judy. It was love." Jeremiah said as he began to cry again, but took in a deep breath. "No parent should ever have to bury their child, nor should they watch as they die in their arms." He added as he laid the roses on her grave, before he broke down sobbing. The tears were like rivers that overflowed with the pain, and sorrow of it all. But it was time for Jeremiah to be taken to the penitentiary, and the guards came over and led him to the truck, which had two small windows in the back so they could see out. "I guess this is goodbye, Nickolas and Judy...*sniff*... you won't be seeing me for a long time..... Or perhaps, not at all. I wish you the best." Jeremiah said as he got in the back of the truck. Both Judy and Nick couldn't say anything, they didn't know what to say anyway. "Oh, and Nickolas?" He added as the first door closed.
"Yes, Jeremiah?" Nick asked as he tried to hide his tears.
"Don't wait to ask, ok?" He finished as he picked up his tail and used it to wave at them, before the final door closed and the guard got in and drove off.
"What did he mean by that?" Judy asked as she wiped her tears.
"I don't know? Maybe another question or something?" He replied, knowing full well of what he meant, and they drove back to the ZPD to finish up their work.
As Jeremiah was being led to the penitentiary, he got out his pocket watch to look at the pictures once more, then he looked up at the guard positioned to his left and sitting with an automatic rifle in his hands. They passed outside the walls towards it, because it was built outside the city so that if the criminals broke out, they would have to cross miles of forest and open fields to get back. It was a bumpy ride in the back, the rocks and the ditches they drove over as they passed through the path in the woods, was almost unbearable due to the collars still being fresh in piercing into him. Suddenly, two cars came from out of nowhere, one was in the front while the other was behind them, but they didn't try to stop them or anything. Just driving at the same speed they were going.
"Get ready for trouble!" Jeremiah over the guard's coms, and looked through the windows to see the one behind them roll down their window, and pull out an RPG grenade launcher! The one in the front did the same and fired first! Instantly the front burst into flames and debris, killing the driver and passenger in the front seat, then the other one aimed!
"I will finally get to see my family again. I've waited for this. My time has come." Jeremiah then closed his watch and then his eyes as he saw them pull the trigger and the grenade came flying at the doors! Instantly the doors and the roof of the vehicle erupted into flames and debris, before falling into a ditch on the side of the road and rolling a couple of times, and then stopping to burn! While behind the burning truck, lay Jeremiahs' collars, covered in fresh blood, and his pocket watch that opened back up when it hit the ground, but was stained a little black from the explosion.
Once Judy and Nick went back to the ZPD, they sat down at their desks and began their work, until they got a page from chief Bogo to go home and rest from everything that happened that day. It was only three in the afternoon and decided to go and deliver this letter to the lady at this address instead. They grabbed their gear and stuff to take home after they were done, and put it in their GPS before they hit the road, and found out that it was in Tundra Town.
It was a painful thirty minute drive for them, thinking about his last words as he handed them the letter. Once they got there, they walked up the steps together and Nick knocked on the door. They waited a few seconds before the door opened, and the most elegant, beautiful, and softest voice they have ever heard from a lady wolf. Her eyes were like diamonds and her fur looked to be so soft.
"Yes?" She asked them as they stood there for a moment.
"Excuse us, ma'am? Were from the ZPD. I'm officer wilder and this is my partner, officer Hopps, and we've come to ask a couple of questions to a Julia that lives here?" Judy asked as she held the letter in her hands.
"This is she, what is this about?" She asked as they tried to tell her. Nick was about to speak until the sudden scampering behind Julia almost made them jump. Two young wolf pups came running up and hugged their mother. She then rested her left hand on the door frame as her kids ran up to her, revealing that she was wearing a ring! Nick and Judy both looked at each other when they figured it out.
"Is there something wrong?" She then asked them as they looked back at her, and their ears dropped.
"Ma'am? Do you know a Charlie Wolfsbane?" Nick asked as Judy tried to keep herself together.
"Yes, he is my husband. Did something happen?" She asked as her eyes turned to them with a concerned look in them when they asked this. They both looked at her and their expressions told her that something was wrong. "Jason, Isaac, why don't you go play in your room? Go play with your video games and close the door so mommy doesn't hear, okay?" She told them and they scampered off with the biggest smiles on their faces. She asked them to come in and have some coffee for some warmth before they explained everything to her. They saw all the picture frames that had them with the kids, one of them was a recent photo of them holding a newborn, before they sat down on the couch.
When they were done explaining everything to her, all of them had tears in their eyes and trails down their faces. She was looking at her ring and moving it with her thumb as they talked, but now her face was buried in her hands when they finished. They then handed her the letter when she looked up at them and they began to leave, but she stopped them when she opened and saw their names in the beginning part of the note, which held his dog tags from his service, a DVD, and his wedding ring inside. She put it in and pressed play, the picture went to a chair when it came on, and they saw the Tomahawk GT in the background. Then Charlie walked over and sat in the chair before he spoke.
"Hello my darling, Julia. If you are watching this it means that I'm dead, and am leaving you, and our three beautiful children behind. But you need to know this, Julia. The years I spent with you, were wonderful. I remember our wedding, our trip to the coast, and when you accidentally spilled that soup all over me in that restaurant. You were so embarrassed from that, that you almost caused the waiter to spill your glass of Champagne on someone else in the restaurant." He said as he chuckled at that part. "I know we never kept any secrets from each other, sweetheart, but there was one I did keep from you. I am the 'White Knight' that everyone talks about in the news, and talks about all throughout Tundra Town. I have built this armor that helps me and protects me, but I never wanted to tell you because I was afraid." He began to admit as some tears rolled down his face, and wiped them away. "I was afraid of what would happen if you found out, and what would happen to you if my brother, Isaac Wolfsbane III, found out that you knew about what I did..... What we did after I came back from the war, and went through all that rehabilitation. He is the 'Black Knight' and pillages this city, and cannot be trusted. I have been protecting this city when I say I'm 'going to work' and don't come home till later that night. I am so sorry I never told you when I was living, and regretted it every day that I lied to you where I was really going." He then stopped suddenly and buried his face in his hands and cried for only a moment. All three of them couldn't fight back the tears they had listening to this. Listening to the same scarred and battle ridden Charlie that would never back down from defending them, was now crying as he did this living will. He then took a deep breath and continued, which startled Nick and Judy with what he said next. "Nick. If you're watching this, which means your questions you wanted to ask me when I was living, are being answered right now." When Julia heard this, she looked over at them as if they were important to Charlie, almost as much as she knew he felt towards herself and their children. "I knew your brother, Damian. In fact we were brothers in the military. We were in the same unit, and did all of our runs together. I was walking with him when I stepped on that mine, which killed him, and another one of my brothers. That was part of the enemy's ambush, the mine was just a distraction for them to rain all their bullets at us. I didn't know about all that until after I read the report that they gave me, and I knew that you wouldn't want to hear it from me. But I did some research for you when I learned more about you. I learned where your mother is, after they took you from her and put you in the system." He explained, and after about a half hour more, the video ended and Nick finally knew where his mother is. They all looked at each other, and felt as if they had grown closer as friends, maybe a family even.
"The ZPD will contact you to claim the body, they have been trying to find someone to." Nick told her, even though it hurt him to, but she understood and agreed to go down to the station in a little while. They exchanged hugs before they left her home, and began to walk to their car to find his mother.