NaZooverse - Book 1: The Risen Curtain

Talk Between Friends & the Memorial

"I can't believe that you did something like that, Nick! What were you thinking!?"

Seeing Bellwether was not something that Nick had considered nice or pleasant, but still, the fox thought that he almost preferred that to what he was facing now.

Apparently, right after stopping by him in the hallway of Boarwood, the fox therapist with the long foreign name made a call to Chief Bogo's particular extension to complain about Nick going to harass his patient. How he had the Chief's particular extension, Nick had no idea.

The Chief, as they said, had apparently not taken it nicely. He wanted to fox to come back and to explain himself, until someone remembered him Nick had finished his shift already and that he had gone on his way to his off-duty time.

This seemed to have prevented the buffalo of going after Nick and dragging him to his office by the tail to do something to him. Still, the big bovine made sure to tell Wilde that in the following day, as soon as he was back at work, he was going to pass by his office for a long talk on the matter.

However, the talk he as more afraid of was the one that he seemed to be about to have:

Bogo was not the only one not happy with what Nick did. His little bunny partner also didn't liked the way that Nick had acted.

Judy had been really surprised for hearing that Nick had went to visit Bellwether in the prison, and that he had (according to what she heard) harassed and bullied her until she had a nervous breakdown.

All of that was unlike Nick, and she could not really picture Nick bullying anyone, not even the same ewe that nearly tore the city apart and nearly turned him into a savage. This was totally unbefitting of the Nick she knew, and that there was someone claiming that Nick had done it was something that troubled her.

She was sure to let it clear to Nick when she met him again, after she was done with her work and, consequently, with her shift, now being just as off-duty as Nick. She had met him in his apartment, and she was now having a conversation with him.

"Honestly, I cannot believe that you actually would do something like that." Judy said as she walked from side to side in front of Nick. The fox sat in his couch, looking like a kit caught painting the walls. This was something that Judy had the ability to do to others, to make them feel guilty about themselves for doing something that they had considered wrong. She was good at calling others out for their faults. She had gotten particularly good at it since their first meeting.

"Going to Boarwood to harass Bellwether?" Judy said, and Nick immediately had to defend himself.

"I didn't go to harass her!"

"Then why did you go?"

Nick looked at her, and these amethyst eyes were nearly piercing as they focused on the fox. It was not the kind of hostile piercing that Nick had received many times during the course of his life, but it was an inquisitive one. One that insisted for the fox to answer.

However, Nick was not sure of how to answer.

"I... I wanted to talk to her." Nick said, looking at his own feet.

"Talk to her about...?" Judy asked, and Nick could not really answer that. Not without causing many more questions to pop up.

Judy sighed, she continued to walk around, and her face was serious as she walked. Nick ventured to look up at a moment, and he saw her expression. However, this was not an expression of someone who was angry or annoyed, it was more like... a worried parent.

Nick knew that because he had seen that same look on his own mother's face a more than a few times while he was growing up, after he started making poor life choices. It was the look of someone who was worried about someone else, and wanted to help, but somehow couldn't, because the person would not let themselves be helped.