They got to you, Carrots.

Part Four

It took time, but Judy learned to ignore the oceanic pain that welled in her chest. Some days it overwhelmed her like a tidal wave, slamming into her emotions and forcing her to feel the losses of her family and friends and Nick. Other days she had it under control, or at least the visage of it. Those days she liked the least because the world felt dull, but at least she could handle the numbness.

But her new home, or so she was beginning to call it, was comfortable and removed far from Zootopia. After all, what better a place to stay than in the countryside with Mrs. Wilde, Nick's aged and lovely mother?

-/-

Nick was going out of his mind. Judy had never come back from the meeting with the Feral Coalition and the entire city was being searched for their beloved bunny cop. And he had been out there with the teams, seventy-two hours strong when eventually Chief Bogo had to tell him to throw in the towel. An exhausted cop wasn't a helpful addition, he was a liability, a disaster waiting to happen.

So Nick was sent back to the offices to collect his things and then sternly told to wait fourty-eight hours before returning to join the search. He was never good at following orders, but this time, he could barely keep his eyes open. Maybe Chief Bogo was right and he did need sleep...

But his weariness vanished in a blink when he saw what rested on his desk. The carrot pen. One paw touched his pocket where it had been before, but it seemed his partner had hustled it from him long before now.

Nick approached the pen and hit play. A recording sang back at him all the words from Judy's meeting with the Coalition. To Nick's utter surprise, a single tear streaked down his cheek. It had been too long since he heard her voice.

And then he noticed that there was a second recording on the pen. Shorter than the other one.

"Hey, Nick. Carrots here. I know you'll hand the pen over to the Chief for evidence. We hustled the Coalition good, didn't we? With the information from the recording I'm sure you can catch them."

There was a long pause and he almost thought the recording was done, and his chest tightened in a vice of pain.

"I'm staying out of Zootopia for a while. I'll follow the news until the Coalition is caught, but I'm tired, Nick. With Mina gone, I feel like I lost something really important. I don't know what to call it, but I know I can't be a cop if I feel this way. But, you Nick, have a bright future. The ZPD needs cops like you and so in a couple days you'll get a bunch of applications. I did a little researching and those are some potential partners for you on the force. You're a strong fox, I don't think you need me or anyone, but everyone should have a partner."

She tried to muffle it, but Nick could still discern a distinct sniffle that made his head bow.

"I'm letting go of Zootopia and I hope you'll do me the same courtesy. Please tell my parents with some sort of good excuse. They don't need to worry about me now. I love you and goodbye."

And that was all.

The fox played it again. And again. And again. He leaned his head on his desk, letting the voice of Judy lull him to sleep. If he was going to find his partner, he had to at least be rested enough to stand on his own two paws.

"...I love you."
"...I love you."
"I love you too, Judy."

-/-
Clawhauser found Nick in the morning, but it wasn't how the car usually saw the fox. The cop was drinking coffee and hard at work already, his desk cluttered with open files and sticky notes were everywhere.

"Wilde, you do realize it's 5 AM?" Clawhauser asked cautiously, approaching slowly with one donut in paw.

"The earlier the better, Clawsy." Nick said with an upbeat tone, not bothering to glance up. "Tell me, if you weren't allowed to live in Zootopia or go see your family, where would you go?"