Judy Hopps huffed heavy breaths as she came to the end of her 3 mile morning run. Her feet ached mildly but her fur felt nice in the crisp autumn wind. She braced herself for a strong finish as she rounded her last corner and pushed all the way to the end before slapping the lamppost outside of her apartment building which rang with a metallic shimmer.

"Whew!" she huffed.

"Carefull, officer legs. You might wear yourself out before your patrol even starts," a voice said from beside her.

"Nick!" she jumped and found her partner with coffee in hand on her doorstep in full uniform.

"Well duh. How many foxes do you know again?" he jabbed.

"For your information, I know more than a pawful. Also, what are you doing here? I thought you had a night shift with fangmeyer?"

"I did. Am I not allowed to see my most amazing friend in the whole wide world before catching some much needed z's?"

Judy furrowed her brow. She saw right through his routine.

"What do you need this time?" she asked with a sigh.

"Carrots, I'm offended that you think I can't be nice without needing something from you," he said and put his paw to his chest. "But since you mentioned it, I was hoping to catch said z's at your place? I have an afternoon shift in a few hours and your place is so much closer to work."

"Nick, the last time you did that I was cleaning out orange fur from my shower," she scoffed.

"I promise, I won't shower and I'll strip the sheets," he begged.

"Ehhh . . . ok fine. But wait, if you're going to sleep, why get coffee?"

"Actually this was supposed to be a bribe, but now that you're letting me squat at your place so quickly I'm not sure what to do with it now," he said and looked at it absentmindedly. Judy smiled and rolled her eyes.

"You're just supposed to give it to me, dumb fox. It's called doing something nice."

"Eeeh not so sure. Doesn't sound like much fun," he said and handed the hot cup of joe over to his partner. She smiled and handed him her set of keys before turning towards the precinct.

"Thanks for the coffee!" she called out. "See you at 2!"

"Fight the good fight, and all that jazz!" Nick waved and headed inside. He was out like a light within two seconds of his head hitting Judy's pillow.

The past year for the two of them had been wonderful, albeit less eventful than their first few weeks knowing each other. The Night Howler case came and went in no time by comparison, and Judy found that most police work was simple routine. Bull-pin in the morning, assignments (if any), patrol till noon, lunch downtown, patrol, coffee, then paperwork and clockout. Nick was right about Judy's place being so close to work, but she hardly spent any time there at all since work took up so much time. She was fine with that.

That morning's patrol had been like most. She was assigned time with a relatively green officer by the name of Derek Shepherd, a sheep with a notable love for peanut butter. Her squad car always smelled of the stuff after a patrol with him. She made a mental note to get the car washed during her second patrol with Nick. She eventually made her way to the lobby to wait for Nick to show up and stopped by the front desk.

"Hi Benjamin," she said to the flabby cheetah.

"Oh hi Hopps! Here to sample the greatest piece of Zootopian culinary perfection ever created?"

"If you mean donuts then no thank you."

"Not just donuts, these are Flake's donuts! My mother is in town visiting and she brought these from Saharah Square. I tell you, these will be the death of me and I will die a happy predator," he said and gleefully chomped down on a strawberry delight.

"I'll pass, but thanks. That's high praise coming from you."

"Suit yourself . . . Oh, maybe your fox would like one," he said and gestured to the door. Judy saw Nick, again in full uniform, making his way to them from the main entrance. She winced for a second at Clawhauser's wording.

"He's not 'my fox', Clawhauser," she corrected him.

"Oh yeah?" he said and leaned over the reception desk so he could whisper. "Then why did he stay at your place?"

"What? How do you know about that?" she said a little surprised.

"Ha! I didn't until just now!" he said with an excited giggle, "you two rooming now or what?"

"It's not like that! I just let him-" before she could finish, her phone began to ring in her rear pocket. She rolled her eyes and walked past Nick away from the gossip loving cheetah.

"Can you tell Clawhauser why you were staying at my place, please? I need to take this," she said and answered the call.

"Sure thing carrots." Nick answered. Judy plugged her earbuds in and began to speak.

"Hello?"

"Judy? It's Jake!"

"Hi Jake! What's going on?"

"Well believe it or not, I'm in Zootopia right now! And Rodger is here too!"

"Hey Jude," another voice called out.

"No way! What are you guys doing so far from home?" she asked.

"We're just running a few errands and thought we might stop by and see how our favorite police officer is doing. You free at all tonight?"

"Speak for yourself, bro, she's maybe top 3," the other voice chimed in again.

Judy jumped a little in excitement. "Of course! Do you guys want to meet my partner? He'll be free too," she offered.

"Well, yeah sure! Bring him on by. We're getting dinner at Enzo's tonight on Tuskan avenue. When can you meet us there?"

"Let's do eight. Thanks so much! I'll see you guys tonight!"

"See ya Jude," they both chimed before the call ended. Judy swiveled around and bounded towards the desk again and found the two predators eying her suspiciously.

"Hey Nick! My brothers are in town tonight and we're getting pizza after work. Want to join us?"

"Carrots, don't you have like, I don't know, over a hundred brothers? I'm not sure there's enough pizza in Zootopia to go around."

"These two were in the same litter with me, so we are much closer than most of my siblings."

"I see, so why bring me? I mean, foxes don't have a great track-record of getting along well with rabbits from bunny burrows. Need I remind you that this is the same family that armed you with fox-away when you moved here?"

Judy winced at the comment, and inwardly thanked herself for not telling Nick about all the other anti-fox protective gear her parents bought for her before she moved.

"Don't worry Nick, if anything these two will get along with you too well," she reassured him.

"Oh oh, Hopps, Wilde?" Benjamin's called out. They both looked at him covering the phone mic with one paw. "Chief Bogo wants to speak with you . . . what's that sir? . . . Ok. . . and he says you can make dinner plans on your own time."

"Tell him we'll be right up," Nick said and followed Judy towards the elevator.

Judy and Nick made their way down the hall towards the chief's office and knocked before entering quietly. Bogo wrapped up his conversation with Clawhauser before hanging up his phone and donning his reading glasses and thumbing through a case file on his desk.

"Have a seat," he said and gestured to the chairs beside his desk.

"Is there something wrong, sir?" Judy asked.

"Yes, Hopps, you two are in major trouble," he said calmly. Judy froze up immediately, but Nick crossed his arms and scowled.

"This isn't about the time we let Flash off with a warning again, is it?" he asked.

"I reserve the right to punish a violation of a direct order whenever I see fit, but no," the chief responded. "You two are now officially the only officers equipped to handle this case since I'm promoting Fangmeyer to homicide," he said and waved a red file around angrily.

"Really? Wow, way to go howler," Nick mumbled to himself.

"The case requires covert reconnaissance and you two proved capable during the Night Howler incident. But be warned, this one could get much more grimey. I need to know you are in before I can give you the details," he said and waited for them to respond. Judy shot her partner a glance. Nick gave a sly smile and winked at her, his trademark signal of approval, and she smiled back.

"We're in," Judy nodded.

"Who are we chasing down this time?" Nick asked with his coy attitude still on display. Bogo frowned and dropped the file at the edge of the desk, glaring at them.

"Meat traffickers," he said coldly. Nick's smile immediately vanished and Judy audibly gasped.

"In Zootopia?" she asked.

"We believe so. McHorn and Delgato busted an underground gambling parlor last week that was serving real steaks and venison. They found a meat locker that was completely stocked with well-packaged frozen meats," he described.

Judy felt sick. The thought of murdering animals was horrible enough, but to butcher and cook their bodies? It sent a shiver down her spine.

"Have there been any missing mammal cases reported?" Nick asked.

"None out of the ordinary, and there was no evidence of butchery so we believe this operation imported their inventory from abroad."

"So we're looking at smugglers?" Nick clarified.

"Extremely well-funded smugglers. If this meat was acquired from abroad, then to even get a few pounds in undetected would take mountains of resources. At this scale, we expect the suppliers to be established and organized," the chief clarified.

"Do you mean we might have an underground meat cartel in Zootopia?" Judy asked, still a little in shock.

"That's your job to find out. Wilde, use whatever contacts on the ground that you have and find out where this casino got their supply from," he said and tossed Judy the case file.

"You can count on us, sir!" she said and saluted.

"Now careful, Hopps. You can't go and make arrests once you start finding more. If there is a cartel, then we need to keep them thinking we are none the wiser. Find out what you can and report directly to me, understood?"

"Yes sir!" they booth chimed and saluted before heading out the door. Judy still felt a little queasy from the thought of butchered animals, but kept her head level. The meat trade was extremely illegal in Zootopia, and could easily get a mammal a life sentence, but other countries were less developed and less secure. Some even had legal practices where a mammal that died of natural causes could be butchered and used for the predators of their society, but those were certainly the exception. Any imports of illegal meats was easily found by the sniffers at border patrol, so it had been decades since Zootopia last had a problem with real meats.

"Can you believe it? How could anyone do something like this," she said to Nick in a hushed tone.

"Hey Carrots, I'm with you. The synthetic stuff is delicious and the thought of eating something that use to serve me ice-cream just makes my stomach sick," Nick answered.

"So why do it? I mean, it's very expensive and extremely risky to do, so why try it if the ethical alternatives are so good?"

Nick shrugged. "My guess is that some preds like to brag about having real stuff. Might be a status symbol."

"Any ideas on where to start?" she asked.

"What, you think cause I'm a predator I'll know everything about the illegal meat traffickers?" Nick jabbed.

"Nick, you know I don't mean it like that!"

"Take it easy, Hopps, I'm just teasing. I'll put my ears to the ground. I don't know anything about meat, but I might know a few guys who like to gamble," he hinted. Judy didn't ask anything more. When Nick was brought on the force, his history led to some of his old contacts to go dry. It took a while to convince Bogo, but eventually they found that his contacts in the petty-crime life were too valuable to go hunting down so everyone adopted a 'don't ask don't tell' policy when it came to his contacts. As long as he got results, it was worth it and Nick never let the department down once.

The rest of the day went by with menial paperwork and patrol tasks for the two of them; a few domestic disputes, a few speeding cars, and a tiger cub who got stuck up a tree. The two of them met up in the lobby after hitting the showers and changing into their civilian clothes. Enzo's pizza was farther in midtown so they caught a bus to city center, all the while chatting about work and how Judy's bed was too small for him. It was good for Judy to get her mind off the case for a bit, and she was certainly excited to see her brothers.

After walking down a few blocks from where the bus dropped them off, Nick and Judy spotted the corner Pizza shop lit by red neon. Nick noticed two rabbits wearing jeans and button-down plaid waiting outside the restaurant. Judy bounded forward and nearly tackled them both with a hug, taking them both by surprise. They laughed and shoved each other, making Nick chuckle a bit at the sight.

"I can't believe you guys are here! You know, you guys are the first of the Hopps family to come visit me in the city?" Judy congratulated them.

"Well, we're just better brothers," one of them joked.

"Oh, guys, this is my partner on the force, Nick Wilde," she said and turned them towards Nick who caught up to them. "Nick, these are my brothers Jake and Rodger."

"How's it going Nick, good to meet ya," Jake said and extended his arm. He was tall for a rabbit, but somehow thinner than Judy, as if he was the same amount of bunny stretched out a little farther. He had a warm smile on his face and a slightly browner coat. Rodger was in between Jake and Judy's height and wore a sly smile that made Nick feel right at home. He was a little stockier and darker shade of grey and kept his arms folded. Nick shook Jake's paw and smiled back.

"Pleasure, Jake. First time in the city?"

"First time in years, but I remember this place being particularly good," he said and gestured to the restaurant.

"You've got good taste. Let's head inside, I'm starving."

The four of them sat down at a booth and quickly got settled. They ordered a large mixed veggies pizza for the rabbits and a smaller pepperoni for Nick. Rodger was devouring his food while he spoke.

"So you're a cop too, right? Ever see any action?" he asked with a long string of cheese connecting his mouth with his slice.

"Well, I once had to dart a cheetah moving at top speed," Nick said with a smile.

"No way! How did you manage that?" Rodger asked after another bite.

"Officer fluff over here was driving the squad car chasing after him. Cheetahs can get up to 60 miles an hour, but they tire out really quickly so as soon as we catch up beside him, I roll down the window and say 'Excuse me sir, can you give me directions to the nearest Zooburger?' then POP, I hit him right in the tush and he goes down hard." Nick accents his story by slamming his fist against his paw and finishes with another bite of his pizza. Jake and Rodger laughed heartily at his wit.

"Wow, officer fluff, didn't know you had it in you," Rodger joked.

"Did that really happen?" Jake asked. Judy nodded.

"Yup. He rolled down the window, he made a stupid joke, all during a high-speed police chase in a crowded area. Now you see what I have to put up with," she said and gestured to Nick.

"Oh don't be such a sour-tail. You gotta keep the job interesting somehow," Nick said.

"Yeah, because high-speed chases after dangerous criminals are not interesting enough," Jake joked, which got a laugh from everybody at the table. Judy loved seeing her brothers, and she was loving how well they were getting along with Nick. She decided to switch the subject to avoid talking about their next big case.

"Soooo Jake? How's your girl?" she teased. Jake suddenly got a little bashful and looked over to Rodger, who knowingly gave him a nod.

"That's actually why we're here," Jake said.

"Everything ok?" Judy asked, a little concerned.

"Oh yeah. Annabell is fine. Everything's . . . well it's ok, but also, like . . . more? It's all . . . well," Jake fumbled.

"Jake's proposing," Rodger said flatly with a smug smile on his face. Judy's ears perked up and she gasped with a shriek before giggling madly.

"Oh my goodness! I can't believe it, I'm so excited!" she cheered. Nick laughed as she literally hopped out of her seat a little.

"Congratulations in advance there, bunny-boy. You scouting locations?" Nick asked while Judy tried her best to calm herself down. Her stupid smile went from ear to ear and for a bunny that is saying something.

"I'm actually shopping for a ring. Can't do it in Bunny Burrow without everyone in town knowing about it," Jake explained. Nick then turned to Rodger.

"And you're here just helping a brother out?" Nick asked.

"That, and scouting locations for the bachelor party," he said with another sly smile. Judy immediately went from happy to cross.

"You better not be going to any naked bars, you two," she said with a wag of her finger.

"Yes, of course not," Nick nodded in agreement. "You certainly shouldn't partake in such debaucherous activities, especially not at 'Honey-Bunnies' down on 14th and Clawton street. The ladies there would pollute your righteous hearts."

"Nick!" Judy said and slugged him on the shoulder.

"What?! I told them not to, I'm on your side," he defended, unable to suppress a chuckle. Jake and Rodger both laughed loudly at his teasing. Judy frowned.

"Well if you boys are going to talk about such things, then the less I know the better. I'm going to the restroom," she said and got up. Nick politely let her out and took a seat and another bite while Rodger wrote down the address he mentioned on his phone.

"But in all seriousness, congrats," Nick said to Jake.

"Thanks. And thanks for looking after our sister on the force."

"Yeah we were all a little nervous when she first moved out here," Rodger commented.

"Hey, give the lady some more credit. She ends up saving my skin much more than the other way around," Nick confessed.

"Yeah she's taken us all by surprise! Doing so well on the force, taking down a major conspiracy, and she's got a fox for a partner!" Jake said. Nick inwardly scowled but kept his face the same.

"Why is that surprising?" he asked politely. Jake immediately realized how he sounded and choked a little on his cola.

"No no! I mean, not like foxes can't be great cops or anything, or that they're dangerous. I meant about what happened when she was younger," he clarified.

"Yeah, with Gideon," Rodger said. Nick's face finally twisted in confusion.

"What happened, what are you talking about?" he asked.

"You know, when . . . the whole . . . holy scatt, did she not tell you?" Jake said.

"Yeah, this is the face of someone in the know," Nick said sarcastically.

"Well, . . . when we were kids . . ." Jake began.

"She was attacked by a fox when we were all young," Rodger explained.

"What?" Nick said, and reeled back in his chair.

"Yeah, this fox named Gideon swiped her right across the face, and held her down against the ground for a minute shouting all kinds of mean things. Scratched her up real good on her cheek," Rodger said and demonstrated by dragging his claws across his left cheek.

"But he's an alright guy now!" Jake clarified. "He was just a jerk back then, but he's apologized and everything. But after that day, I thought she'd be terrified of foxes forever. I'm surprised her face didn't scar," Jake said.

"It did."

"What? How can you tell?" Jake asked his brother.

"Remember when we were 17 and Judy got bubblegum in her fur?"

"Yeah. Dad had to buzz her fur on her face, she was not happy about that."

"Well if you look really closely, you can still see the lines on her face. You just can't see it when her fur is covering it, but it's there," Rodger said.

Nick took in everything that her brothers were saying. No wonder she was so terrified of foxes when they first met. That fox repellent now seemed tame by comparison, and he always gave her a hard time for it too! It's been well over a year since they met and yet and he still brings it up just to tease her.

"She never told you this?" Jake asked quietly. Nick snapped out of his daze and looked back at the boys.

"No," he said softly, then shrugged and put on his best poker face. "I'm sure she thought it would offend me or something crazy, it's no big deal," he said.

Later that night, after Judy gave her brothers thick hugs goodbye, Nick walked quietly by Judy as she explained all about how bunnies typically move to a new town whenever they get married to avoid overpopulating their hometowns, that being in part why bunnies are farmers so often. Nick couldn't help but steal glances right at her cheek as she spoke.

" . . . because out in the midwest, land is so cheap so you can buy 100 acres to raise crops and a big family without worrying about space. That doesn't mean we still don't get . . . Nick? Are you ok?" she asked, snapping Nick out of another daze.

"Sorry," he said and shook his head. "Long day, I think I need to get some real sleep."

"In your own bed this time," she said waggling her finger at him. They soon came to the intersection where they had to part ways.

"Alright, get some rest, I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning," Judy said with a smile.

"My excitement can barely contain itself," Nick said sarcastically. "See ya carrots."

"Wait, Nick?" she said and stopped him.

"Hmm?" he asked. She hesitated for a moment, then threw her arms round his torso and squeezed him tight. "Woah, what's all this?"

"Thank you, Nick, for meeting my brothers and for being so nice to them."

"Hey, no problem. They're good bunnies and easy to get along with."

"It does my heart good knowing my best friend can get along well enough with my family," she said and let him go.

"Yeah. . . Ok, I'll see you tomorrow?" he asked and she nodded.

Nick waved and turned to walk back to his place by the water. He couldn't get the image of his partner trembling in fear of him out of his mind. He knew if he dwelled on it too long he would grow restless, so he thought it best to distract himself. The case deserved his attention anyway. Somewhere on the planet, innocent prey were being chopped up and shipped out to predators in his city. As cynically as he took the world around him, that was not ok. The leads on the subject were sparse at best, so he would have to make his own.

He had a few ideas.