By UneventfulWaffle
It was a quiet day in the center of Zootopia as Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps were on patrol, In the moment as they were passing by the First National Bank of Zootopia, The alarm began to ring out.
"Z-248, this is dispatch we have reports of a 211A in your area, over."
"This is Z-248, Copy that moving in to investigate." Said Nick.
"Z-248, Do not engage, you are to stay where you are."
"Direct orders from the chief, he wants the two of you out of this."
"We have other units en route to your location."
Nick let out a sigh before responding on the radio.
"Copy that, Over."
"Why the hell doesn't Bogo want us in there?" Questioned Judy.
"I don't know, but this is bullshit, We should be in there helping,"
Not sitting on our asses in this car waiting for them to get away." Said Nick
"Orders are orders, Nothing we can do about that."
"And here I was thinking you knew me." Said Nick
"I'm going in there."
"You running in there probably isn't a good idea."
"Well I can't just sit here doing nothing, You can come along if you want,"
"If not just stay put in the cruiser and be ready for whatever happens."
"This is stupid Nick, It's suicide."
"Whatever you say carrots, I'll be back in no time."
Nick moved his way out of the cruiser slowly approaching a window of the bank to scope things out, Before going back in he decides to go back to tell Judy his plan.
"Alright, looks like three guys, Couldn't get a very good look though that window, I'm going to try to sneak around through the back of the bank and see if I can get the jump on them."
"Okay, Good luck Nick, I'll be waiting"
"just please don't go getting yourself killed in there." Said Judy anxiously.
"Don't worry yourself too much there Carrots, I'll be in and out in no time."
"You had better be..."
Nick set off towards an alleyway leading behind the bank.
Immediately Judy began to fear the worst.
What do I do if he doesn't come back?
Do I just sit here and wait?
This is gonna drive me insane... I should be in there with him, Not cowering in this damn car. This is so idiotic. Judy thought to herself.
Ten minutes had easily passed since Nick left Judy's sight, Not one sound, No sign of Nick. When in that moment, a roar of gunfire rang out from the bank, The doors flew open and out ran 3 polar bears, rushing into a vehicle that parked there long before Nick and Judy had.
Sure enough, behind them followed Nicholas Wilde.
"NICK GET IN!" Judy screamed at her partner. After flinging their car door open.
The fox quickly entered the passenger's seat of the old cruiser as Judy sped off now in pursuit of their vehicle, Sirens blaring.
"this is Judy Hopps unit Z-248 we are in pursuit of 4 assailants of code 211A, appears to be 3 gunmen and their driver, Over."
"Z-248 do not pursue, Report back the the station immediately!, Do you copy?!"
"They're gonna get away if we do not pursue, tell the chief that's not gonna happen."
"What the hell happened in there?!" shouted Judy.
"Well I snuck in through the back as you know, perfect spot, right by the vault but still nice and hidden, I had a good view into the lobby, didn't look like anyone was hurt so I stayed put and waited for them to finish bagging, as they were heading out of the vault I tried to tell them drop the weapons and the cash and everything turns out a whole lot better, So naturally, They told me to fuck off, Ran away, and shot at me."
"I started shooting, then I realized who we were dealing with..."
"who were they?"
"Well, here's the downside, it was a few of Big's goons..."
"oh great, Just Great!"
"We should have just listened to the damned radio! No scratch that."
"YOU should have just listened to the damned radio!" said Judy belligerently.
"Hey I'm not the one driving after these guys right now." replied Nick.
"You just had to go in there and get us involved didn't you?"
"of course I did, and judging by the gunfire they didn't quite appreciate it" Said Nick sarcastically.
"oh Jesus Nick! You're hit! What did I tell you?! We have to get you to a hos-"
"Now's really not the time Carrots, I'll be fine, It's just a flesh wound anyway."
Judy could tell just by first glance it was far worse than the fox was letting on, Blood was pouring from his side Faster than she had even thought possible.
"Nick, we have to go now!"
"Fuck that, the sooner we catch these bastards the sooner I'll go to a hospital, deal?"
"Shit... Deal."
A new found determination took over Judy's entire body, her partner's life on the line, her best friend's life on the line.
Slamming her foot on the gas pedal, she sped up her pursuit, weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds almost as though this was all routine for her.
"Carrots, where's the first aid kit? It's not in the glove box."
"dammit! Station has up keeping them in the trunk now."
"Well shit... you got a light?"
"now isn't quite the time for a damned cigarette Nick!"
"Well seeing as we don't have medical supplies in here I need something to close up this wound I'm not gonna last too much longer otherwise."
Nick's vision was beginning to blur as they sped after their assailants.
"Shit, good point, It's in my pocket, hold on a second."
"Got it."
"Alright, give it here"
"here put this in your mouth too while you do it."
"a gag? Carrots at least take me out to dinner first." he quipped at his partner.
Judy clearly wasn't too pleased with his comment.
"Just trying to lighten the mood,"
"Now's not the time." barked Judy
Nick let out a resigned sigh before flicking the lighter on.
"Well, Here goes nothing..."
"good luck Nick."
Pressing the lighter to his side Nick let out a scream, deafening even through the rag filling his mouth, The searing pain rivaled even the gunshot wound he was attempting to fix.
"NICK! Jesus! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"
Nearly passing out from the pain Nick snapped back to reality.
"Yeah, Yeah I'm good, turns out burning a fucking gunshot wound hurts like hell, literally, Who'd have thought?"
"Just focus on the road carrots or else this gunshot won't be the only thing killing me."
"It looks better for now at least." Said Judy attempting to reassure herself and Nick.
"We're almost on 'em too." pointed out Nick.
He was right, They were fast approaching their target vehicle. As they did so the vehicle opened fire, bullets narrowly avoiding Nick and Judy.
"SHIT GET DOWN!" barked Judy
"Way ahead of you cottontail!"
The other vehicle was plowing through traffic, slamming into cars, in an attempt to cause the speeding vehicle in their pursuit to crash. Ignoring pedestrians and other officers in their way, Forcing them to leap away from the car.
"Alright nick here's the plan, I'm gonna try to pull up next to them"
"I want you to see if you can take out their tires."
"Sounds like a plan."
Judy accelerated after their assailants, attempting to avoid all obstacles being thrown at them was difficult, But she was handling it quite well.
Bullets still flying at Nick and Judy, at this point it was nearly impossible to see through the windshield, the fabric of the seats being torn apart with each foot they drove, each bullet piercing the vehicle, hitting the engine slowed them down.
Nick unholstered his pistol and prepared to open fire, However the streets were to crowded to safely shoot at the vehicle.
"Carrots you're gonna have to get up closer to 'em, I can't get a clear line of sight here."
"Oh, and uh, why aren't we moving anymore?" Nick questioned.
"Because there are no openings Nick."
"Everything's stopped bumper to bumper out there..."
What the hell did we start? Judy thought to herself.
It looked like a war zone out there, bullet holes everywhere, people had just abandoned their cars in the streets to try to get away from the gun fight.
accidents all over the place meant to slow Nick and Judy, It had worked almost perfectly, Except for the fact that the criminals were now in the same situation as they were.
"Then it looks like we're just gonna have to get out and move up."
"looks like it partner..."
As they exited the vehicle you could hear a pin drop, The city was silent waiting to see what would happen next, no moving traffic, no birds, just nothing.
"Nick I don't like this, I don't like this one bit."
"It's okay Carrots, We've got this under control right?"
"I'm gonna move up to their door, and try to talk to them."
"Okay..." Said Judy hesitantly.
Nick was no more confident in his plan than she had been,
but it was the best that he could think of at the time.
"Open the damn door you idiots! We know you're in there!"
Nick couldn't hear a thing coming from inside the vehicle, and he didn't dare try to get a peek through one of their windows.
He motioned for Judy to approach him.
"See if you can hear anything coming from inside the car" Whispered Nick
and in return whispered "got it" from Judy
As she pressed her ear to the door she could hear movement as well as faint conversation.
"If we don't get this money out of here the boss'll kill us!"
"Well what do you propose we do then? The car's stuck and we have no ammo to shoot our way out of here."
"Who the hell needs ammo? We have teeth and claws for a reason, We've just gotta get up close and finish 'em off before they can react."
Judy backed away from the van and nodded to Nick.
"Is that so?" Said Judy smugly drawing per weapon before nick pulled the doors open.
"God dammit! You idiot did you forget she was a bunny?!?! she could hear you from a mile away!"
"alright, show's over, drop your guns and exit the vehicle, slowly,"
"I don't wanna see any teeth or claws either." Said Judy
Nick tossed the polar bears handcuffs.
"Put those on and get in the back of the car, and don't try anything." Nick said firmly.
"The boss ain't gonna be too happy about this,"
"We might just have to tell him who picked us up."
"Be a real shame if he sent someone after you, I can see it now, Hero cops murdered under mysterious circumstances!"
"Yeah, Or maybe we'll just tell the precinct about your ties with Mr. Big."
"I hear the ZPD doesn't take too kindly to corruption."
"Shut up and get in the car."
"You say a damn thing to anyone about us."
"and prison will be the least of your concerns." threatened Judy.
"not so tough now huh?" Taunted Judy.
"Carrots." Said Nick.
"Hold on a second Nick, There's not room for all three,"
"We're gonna have to call in some backup."
Judy heard a thud, She turned to Nick, His wound had reopened and he had passed out right there on the ground.
"Shit... NICK!"
She rushed over to her partner on the ground, blood was everywhere. She applied pressure to his wound and radioed for backup, tears rolling down her cheeks with a frog in her throat.
"This is Judy Hopps I have an officer down! I need an ambulance immediately! I repeat I have an officer down! Nick is shot! Send and ambulance immediately!"
"Ha! So I DID hit the son of a bitch!"
Judy's head began to swell with rage, her blood boiling now knowing what this polar bear had done to Nick.
"you... run now..." Judy said with teeth gritting.
"What, So you can tack on an extra sentence for resisting arrest? No thanks rabbit."
"No..." Murmured Judy.
She turned her head to the polar bear instantly he realized the mistake he had made, She drew her pistol on him and once more said.
"Run..."
"Shit! This bitch is fucking crazy!" shouted the polar bear before attempting to take off down the street.
However, at that point it was too late, Judy had snapped, and she had already made up her mind before she even opened up her mouth.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The shots rang out for miles, three shots had been placed squarely in the polar bear's back as he tried to run away.
She looked over to her vehicle, her two other suspects were in shock.
She mustered her tears back up before calling in once again.
"Oh god... I have one suspect down! He tried to run, Oh god... why did he try to run?"
she stayed with Nick until units arrived on the scene.
"Hopps!" shouted Chief Bogo.
"I need you to come with me down the station, I need to speak with you privately." said Chief Bogo calmly, although Judy could tell he was clearly, very upset.
"I can't, Chief I need to go to the hospital with Nick." said Judy, still recovering from her tears.
"There'll be time for all of that later, Right now however we need to talk."
"And what if there isn't time? What if he doesn't make it?"
"Don't worry Hopps, He'll be fine, besides there's not much you can do for him while he's unconscious is there? Now come with me."
"Okay..." Said Judy quietly, Holding back tears.
Looking back on Nick being rushed off in the ambulance.
Now back at the station Judy was greeted by Clawhauser.
"Hey Judy, I just heard the news, I'm so sorry."
I'm sure he'll be fine though!" Said Clawhauser cheerfully.
"Thanks Clawhauser."
"Hopps, This way."
Judy let out a sigh before speaking. "Alright."
Everyone stared at Judy as she walked with Bogo to his office, she could hear people whispering behind her back, but she was unable to make out a word they were saying.
"close the door behind you." Said Bogo.
Judy shut the office door behind her quietly, so as not to draw attention.
"Chief I-"
"three Times Hopss!" shouted Bogo.
"What are you-"
"I gave you orders three times, and not once did you listen!"
"What were we supposed to do? Let them get away?"
"You and Wilde would've both been better off had you listened to your orders."
"Well in the end we got them, Isn't that what matters?"
"That's right Hopps, You did."
"What do you think everyone's talking about out there?"
"She caught them! can you believe it? Isn't that amazing?" said Bogo mockingly.
"I don't understand..."
"No, You don't."
"Those two polar bears you arrested, We brought them in for questioning."
"and do you know what they told us?"
"They said you've been working with Mr. Big."
"And now these rumors arespreading like a god damn wildfire!"
"Now I've been doing my best to keep things under wraps for the time being, But people are catching on."
"You have to take care of whatever it is you do with Mr. Big, Or else this whole thing will explode, And now that I'm involved I don't want to go blow up with you."
"you've got one week to take care of this, Or things will go bad quickly."
"Now get down to the hospital and go see iof Wilde is awake, you should tell him about all of this."
"Thanks for the heads up Chief I will, I appreciate it."
The whole trip over to the hospital Judy couldn't stop thinking about Nick, oh god please be okay, this is all my fault, I should've gone in there with him, Who the hell does that? I swear if you're not awake when I get there...
As she entered the hospital a nurse greeted Judy.
"Hello Ma'am, What can I help you with today?"
"Um I'm looking for my friend Nick, Nick Wilde?"
"hold on a second let me check here for you."
"Okay here it is, It looks like you friend is gonna be down the hall to the left and up the stairs, Then it should be about six doors down on the left, Room A113."
"Thank you."
Judy made her way to the room and was greeted by a familiar voice.
"oh heeey, Carrots! what're you doin' here?"
"Oh thank god you're okay Nick, I was so worried! How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling a lot better now that they've got me on whatever this stuff is."
"That's morphine Nick."
"ah whatever, they can call it whatever they want as long as it's workin'"
"I'm gonna let you get some rest okay? I'll be right here if you need me."
"I don't need you Carrots I want you."
Judy was shocked at what Nick had just told her, and she turned beet red.
"ha ha ha! that was a joke! you should've seen the look on your face Carrots!"
The next few days were pretty interesting for Judy, Nick was much more entertaining when he was on his pain meds, He enjoyed Judy's stories and gossip far more than he usually would while sober, he was much quicker to comfort Judy about the rumors and gossip of what had happened after that chase, six days later the nurses said that Nick was ready to quit his meds, Which was good because Judy was running out of time waiting for Nick to be completely coherent to debrief him about Mr. Big.
"Whoa whoa whoa, Wait a minute, and people actually believed them? Have you said anything?" Said Nick in disbelief.
"I haven't said anything, I'm not exactly comfortable with press conferences anymore you know." Said Judy with a tone of shame.
"There's always doubt Nick, once someone places it you know it doesn't go away, Not for a long time, People spreading it around didn't help too much either, Half of the damn city knows at this point."
"What can we even do about this? Mr Big will kill us if we try to stop co-operating with his 'organization'"
"I've got nothing here Nick, I was honestly hoping you'd come up with something."
"and we have one day?"
"One day." Repeated Judy.
"Well then, Let's go."
"What? Nick we can't just leave, You're only just off your medication, and there's no way we'll be able to just walk out of here without someone spotting us."
"You underestimate me carrots, Go close the door."
"Nick, Why?"
"Just trust me here okay?"
"okay now what?"
Have you ever seen one of those shows where people make their own makeshift rope?"
"Start stripping these beds."
"This'll never work."
"Just trust me okay? I've done this before."
"While recovering from a gunshot wound?"
"Okay, Maybe not exactly like this, but it's the same concept either way."
"You're sure two beds is enough?"
"we're only on the second floor Carrots, two beds'll be more than enough."
Nick and Judy began tying together pillow cases and sheets preparing to make their descent out the window of Nick's hospital room.
"You sure you're good to do this?"
"Well no, but I don't think there's much choice is there?"
Judy hated this whole situation but she knew Nick was right, They couldn't wait any longer.
"Now help me up will ya?"
"Okay." Said Judy reluctantly.
"Alright, Now I'd say we'll have about twenty seconds after we unhook me before they start rushing in here, So we've gotta be on that rope immediately."
"Got it." said Judy.
"Okay, It's now or never, you ready?" Said Nick.
"Ready as I'll ever be."
"alright, on one."
In unison Nick and Judy began their countdown.
"three... two... ONE!"
Nick and Judy started pulling wires and cables off of Nick as quickly as they could, and the machine started beeping very loudly, As they reached the ground they could hear commotion coming from the room above them.
"I think we're good Carrots."
"Car's this way."
"Okay Carrots, so here's what I'm thinking."
"We head down to Big's mansion and say we want out, and if that doesn't work we beg for our lives, and if that doesn't work we improvise, Sound good?"
"That's not going to work, it's not that simple, He'll never forgive us."
"All we did was arrest three goons, that hardly warrants 'never forgive us'"
"Nick look, I-I shot one of them, murdered one of them..."
"You what?!" Said Nick in disbelief.
"I snapped, you were going to die right there in my arms, I told him to run and I shot him..."
"Carrots we'll figure this-"
"Look. Nick, I got us into this, It's my fault we were working with Big in the first place, and it's my fault he probably wants us dead."
"Just get out of the city and wait for things to blow over, I need to go on my own, I can't put you in any more danger, I just can't." Judy told Nick tearfully.
"Judy Listen to me."
Judy was surprised to hear her name come out of Nick's mouth, it was a rare event.
"I'd have done the same, If I thought you were dying I'd have done far worse than kill the person who did it, You saved me, I was just a broken conman before I met you, taking me along on that case with you, helping me figure out who I was, being around you makes me want to be more, to make you be proud of me, To 'make the world a better place' and I will never forget that."
"I care about you Judy, if I let you go in there on your own, I couldn't live with myself, I would be broken all over again. I would rather go in there and die with you, the one person I care about more than ANYTHING else in this world, than live the rest of my life thinking 'I should have gone in there with her, Not cowered out here in this damn countryside.'"
"Carrots like it or not we're in this together, Live or die, I'm with you 'til the end." "Although I'd prefer to avoid the latter."
"Nick I care about you too, and if you really want to do this then I know I can't make you change your mind, And since Neither of us has a plan we're probably better off together anyway."
"Let's call him then, tell him we're on our way and we need to talk, We can try to figure out a plan on our way there for if things don't go our way inside."
"Okay then, Let's get headed out."
It was the dead of night when they arrived at Mr Big's mansion, everything was serene,
The only sounds that could be heard were that of the falling snow and faint music coming from inside.
"You two, follow me" said one of Big's men.
stepping inside sent shivers down Nick and Judy's spines, Walking down hall after hall on the way to Big's office only made them feel worse about what might be to come, As they finally approached the door Judy turned to Nick.
"You're sure you want to go in there?"
"We've come this far, we can't really turn back now..."
The doors swung open revealing Mr. Big waiting for them, On the desk next to him was a picture of a polar bear facing towards Nick and Judy.
"It was 2 years ago that I told you never to show your face here again, and then I accepted you and this rabbit back into my home."
"who would have thought that the godmother to my grand-daughter, Would be the one to send two members of my family away to prison, And end the life of another."
"His name was Angelo Robearto. And you gunned him down in cold blood, like he was some kind of animal."
"Sir for all I knew Nick was dying in my arms, and he was to blame for it, I couldn't control myself."
"Quiet rabbit! After what you've done, There is no forgiveness."
"Look, you're right, you shouldn't forgive us, what happened was wrong, but it was a mistake, we just want out, You'll never see or hear from us again, It'll be like we never existed in the first place."
"Nicky, You know there's only one way out, and you're standing on top of it."
"Well actually, It seems like there might be another option."
"You'd better think twice before you make your next move here." Said Big.
"Oh don't worry, I have." Said Nick.
"See you two in hell."
You too sir."
Nick and Judy Drew their guns, Nick's first shot found it's way to Mr. Big completely obliterating him , Judy had shot the two bear's behind Mr Big's desk, They leaped behind his desk for cover.
"I counted 2 more on the other side of this desk! You?" Said Nick.
"Same here, Looked like a few more coming down the hallway too!"
"Nick I'm gonna try to make a run for the door on our left, when I say 'now' Cover me!"
"Got it!"
It was very hard to hear over all of the gunfire.
"Okay... And... NOW!" shouted Judy.
Nick peeked up over the desk and fired down the hall.
As Judy ran for the doorway she opened fire on the two polar bears still in the room, She managed to take one of them out.
"this way's good! your turn!" Said Judy.
Judy peeked around the corner and shot at the remaining polar bear in the room.
Nick bolted towards Judy, narrowly avoiding several bullets.
"get that door closed on your way in!" Said Judy.
"They're gonna be on us again any second, we've gotta keep moving, How much ammo you got left Carrots?"
"Twelve bullets, You?"
"about Sixteen."
"Okay we've gotta move, They're just gonna box us in here." Whispered Nick
"Alright, see if you can peek through this door, slowly." replied Judy.
Nick opened the door a crack for a split second.
"bad news Carrots, we're cornered."
"Great!"
"there are about ten polar bears out there standing in our way."
"Not great."
"Okay Carrots, here's the plan, I'm gonna peek out over here, While everyone's distracted you peek out of the door we came in and see if you can take out the guys in Big's office."
"alright, On your go."
"okay... Go!"
Nick swung open the door and opened fire down the crowded corridor taking out a few, Judy followed hitting two in the office.
"Room's clear!" shouted Judy.
" Nick! we're gonna have to make a run for it, I'm gonna take out that window behind Big's desk, then we jump."
"and there's no time for sheets?"
"Not this time."
Judy fired at the window, Shattering it.
"Okay now!"
Nick and Judy took off through the doorway, and across the room while firing down the hall, and out the window.
"FUCK!" shouted Judy.
"I think my leg's broken."
"I've gotcha Carrots!"
Nick threw Judy over his shoulder and ran for the car.
"trade guns I've got more ammo, You might have to cover us." said Nick
as Nick and Judy rounded the corner to their vehicle, they could hear shouting by the main entrance.
"Nick, We need to go, This might be our last chance to get out of here alive, If we don't make it, I'm so sorry about all of this, you don't deserve any of it."
"And neither do you, remember that."
Judy exhaled sharply before speaking.
"You ready Nick?"
"Ready as I'll ever be."
Nick and Judy ran for the car, Guns ablaze in both directions, this was their final stand, live or die, time felt at a standstill as they rushed for the vehicle.
"Just a little bit further!" Said Judy.
The final few shots rang out.
"That's it! They're gone! I can't fucking believe it!" Shouted Nick.
"We've gotta hurry, There are still more inside."
Nick and Judy entered the vehicle and sped off, they had survived.
"Carrots, Let's go see that farm of yours you're always talking about."
"You've got it Nick."