Zootopia: Undercover Pursuit

Chapter 23: Caroline

Chapter 23: Caroline

As Nick and Judy froze in each other's arms they thought of nothing but each other. Fox didn't want to let her go, although he was aware of the risk they were taking by hugging each other in a rather private place like the locker room and especially the men's locker room. Still, he didn't let go of the rabbit from his arms, he even let out a quiet murmur which caused the girl to be flooded with a soft blush that doused her face. While in this pose, they heard the sound of a door handle being pressed, which signaled that someone wanted to come inside. In a flash Nick swept Judy's delicate paws off his shoulders, then pushed the rabbit away as far as he could , after which he himself turned his back on the door to be facing Judy, who was startled by the fox's behaviour. With an even more surprised look, she glanced at Clawhauser, who walked into the locker room as if nothing had happened. When he caught sight of them he stopped and looked at them with suspicious eyes.
"What are you doing here?" Clawhauser asked with uncertainty. The sight of Judy in the men's locker room and Nick in the same place was something surprising and both strange, unusual to him. Everyone at the station knew that Judy's relationship with Nick was the strongest of any officer, and seeing them in this place created all sorts of sometimes rather suspicious and counter-intuitive thoughts in his mind.
"We're...talking here, we wanted to talk in private, what about you?" Nick asked.
"I wanted to grab my jacket, I'm just about to leave.... did you seriously have to hide in here? You'd better find another place, if you were caught by the Commandant you'd be screwed" Clawhauser dropped out. He approached the locker number 44 and after entering his code took his grey jacket with a warm fur coat inside. The jacket, despite being a size XXL (the largest version of it), honestly barely fit the cheetah, if it was an XL , it would most likely be too small for him.
"Get out before someone else catches you, I'm on my way, see you next week" greeted the two cheetah friends. With a slam of the lock in his locker he walked out of the locker room closing the door behind him. Judy and Nick stared at each other for a few moments letting each other know that they were both surprised by the situation and embarrassed by what had happened.
"Ekh... I told you it wasn't the best..."
"That's okay, eventually they'll have to find out one day right?" Judy asked. Nick didn't answer. He smiled for a moment but quickly became serious and ran his gaze from Judy to the floor, he looked like he was thinking about something, which puzzled Judy.
"Nick?"
"Yes, yes, they have to find out at some point...but maybe we should get out of here first, okay? I don't think it would be a good idea to stay here much longer," Nick replied. Judy nodded with a motion of her head, then they both approached the door. Nick was the first to come out, checking to make sure no one was around to be sure no one noticed the girl coming out of the men's locker room.
"Okay, we can go," Nick communicated, they both headed down the empty corridor that led to the first floor of the building.
"So what should we do?"
"The commander asked me to go to him, he is to give us more information most likely" replied Judy. Nick nodded with a motion of his head and then they started walking towards the stairs. By this time something was starting to go wrong for Nick. How could the Commander ask them to go to his place when she only had Judy to do the job?
"Wait a minute Carrots, how did the Commander know that I would be taking part in this after all?"
"Well, to be honest, he asked me to convince you..." Replied Judy with a slight hesitation, fearing slightly the fox's reaction. The man had sometimes shown in such situations that he could be explosive and quite contradictory in conversation. To her surprise all he did was laugh while waving his head from side to side.
"Clever, I wouldn't have expected that," laughed the fox.
"He's a police officer, he knows psychology" remarked Judy.

When they stopped at the door, the fox knocked gently on the wooden door, then let the rabbit inside first.
In the study Bogo, already prepared as it were, his pose said he was waiting for them, sat tapping his fingers rhythmically on the desk top.
"I see Wilde that you have changed your mind after all" said Bogo letting out an understanding look for Judy saying "Thank you".
"Sending Judy to convince me was a smart move" replied Nick. The commandant did not reply. He laughed ironically and took a catalogue out of his desk drawer. Meanwhile, Judy noticed the pictures of the three figures on the corkboard, which were also displayed in the briefing room.
"As I'm not a fox I don't have access to much data. There are much stricter rules in the fox district than in Zootopia...so one of the chiefs from the police force there will help you" replied the chief as he called out to a police officer.
A neat figure emerged from the smaller room next door, dressed in a grey police uniform. With her slender waistline and gently wide hips, the vixen caught Nick's eye. The woman with the bright blue eyes sat on the edge of the desk and looked at Nick and Judy as if she wanted as much as possible from their expressions. Her main focus was on the fox that was staring into her eyes and she had a feeling that she had seen a similar look somewhere before, she just couldn't remember where. In her subconscious she already had the thought that she must have seen a similar look of the same emerald eyes somewhere. At the same time Judy shot a glance at Nick, she was slightly jealous of the look he was giving the vixen, she knew that look very well, full of passion.
"Here is Caroline, she will work with you while the case is solved. She knows the fox district like the back of her hand, she grew up there when..."
"No need Commander. I'm Caroline Williams, Chief of Police for the fox district. As I'm sure the commander has already mentioned, there have been some recent suspicious disappearances that have gone unexplained by any means. Because of this, riots have broken out and we need extra help. Your task will be to find these people and the person responsible before more disappearances occur, we still don't know who is responsible, but one thing is certain. We need to find these people as soon as possible"
"As Caroline mentioned, you have to solve this case, you are our best officers, that is why we chose you. For the sake of your safety, you will leave at night, Caroline will give you the full file later"
"Meet me at 6.00 p.m. in the briefing room, I will be waiting for you there" The officer communicated.
"In the meantime, popatrul Zootopia, you can march off" replied the Commander. Judy AND Nick left the halls a moment later, and as Nick walked out of the door he could see a small smile on the vixen's face.

The patrol of Zootopia was not unusual, the area around the city centre was quite quiet, practically no intervention was needed because there was no need for it. The main contributing factor was that the police station is located there, making escape practically impossible. On what was undoubtedly a freezing day, Nick and Judy sat in their car, standing in one of the town's larger streets, with a view of the nearby shops and shopping centre. They had to listen to the radio all the time to keep in touch with the base. Even so, they spent this time mostly talking to each other, until nothing happened they could have a moment's rest. All this time Judy was thinking about the new officer who was going to help them, she was still having second thoughts about the way Nick was looking at her. He looked as if he was charmed, or at least gave the impression that he recognised and knew her.
"Can we talk about the new officer?" She asked in a certain Judy. Nick seemed surprised by the rabbit's question but nodded, after all he had nothing to hide.
"It's a bit strange, but sure."
"Do you know her? I mean, have you met her before or something"
"I so honestly associate those beautiful eyes..." Replied Nick ironically causing Judy to feel jealous. He knew that was the case by her lowered eyebrows and lowered ears down. Fox laughed seeing this, the sight of a jealous Judy unnerved him but at the same time he found it a sweet sight. Even though Judy knew Nick was playing on her emotions, she couldn't control her body language that said she was jealous.
"Hahaha, well stop it already. Your eyes are the only thing that can charm me, you know that."
"Nick, I'm asking seriously" Judy communicated. Fox also got serious at the girl's request, he expected that the more he went into it Judy might get offended and he wouldn't want that.
"To be honest, yes, it does look familiar...just not sure where from" replied Nick thoughtfully.
"Mhm...by the way, haven't you wondered what's going on in the fox district?"
"I told you I didn't want anything to do with that place"
"I remember, but don't you have some kind of fondness for..." Judy interrupted her sentence. She wanted to say if he didn't have any sentimentality about his home, but hearing the story she had heard he certainly had no intention of going back there let alone having sentimentality about that place.
"I'm just going there as a police officer, I'm not going to stop there without meaning to. Let's try to solve this case quickly and we'll be fine," Nick communicated. Judy nodded with a movement of her head. She expected that the fox would not want to talk about it any more and rather focus on topics that would relax him rather than stress him out more. Judy herself also needed to relax her head a little, she was starting to think too much about Caroline, she was starting to fear her a little, even though she had no basis.
"Anyway Judy, you have nothing to worry about, once we sort this out we can look after ourselves...mhm?" Asked Nick letting out his classic seductive stare, which Judy had no way of not blushing at. Those loving looks were making her feel superior and fond of her.
"Yes, Fox you are right, we just need to sort this out" Judy confirmed with a smile and a blush on her face.