trouble 》junick

Chapter 5: History

"Got the file, Clawhauser?" Nick asked, taking a sip from his cup of coffee.

"Yep, her headteacher was very kind to give it to us," Clawhauser beamed happily, handing Nick the file.

"I'll be sure to thank him when I give it back," Nick mumbled, setting his cup down on the table behind him and flicking through the file.

Judy's headteacher had given Nick and Clawhauser Judy's student record, which held all the important information about her and her past, which was the one thing she wasn't proud of.

Judy wasn't in the mood to confess to a cop what her problems were; it was like confessing to a teacher - which she never really liked in the first place.

She also didn't like Nick one bit, other than the fact that he was a fox. He also treated her like a kid, when she was only a year younger than him, and his snarky remarks weren't at all helping.

But, at the same time, she felt safe around him. The night of the attack, he seemed genuinely worried about her, which came as a surprise to Judy, as nobody had ever really shown worry or compassion to her. At the same time, she hated Nick, but she liked him.

The way he was able to show that he cared with the stupid remarks he made made Judy see him as just another fox, not a natural enemy. And now she was sitting in the middle of a large interrogation room, the soundproof glass window in front of her being the only thing separating the two, along with the large table.

"Ok, so her name is Judy Hopps, and she's seventeen, but she looks seven in that picture," Nick pointed out, showing the picture of young Judy in her police costume smiling brightly to Clawhauser, who just shrugged.

Nick continued reading.

"Her dream as a child was to become a police officer, but after getting attacked by a fox at the age of nine, her father dismissed her dream and began abusing her as a result of public...ridicule..." Nick's voice drifted off as he looked up from the file and at Judy, who was looking down at the table.

Memories of his father abusing his mother right before his eyes flashed through his mind and he suddenly felt sorry for Judy.

"You ok, buddy?" Clawhauser asked, placing a gentle paw on his shoulder, which brought him back to reality.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," he shook his head and looked back down at the file in his paws.

"It says here that she ran away from home when she was sixteen to escape the abuse at home, and that she brought a little apartment in the bad side of town with some money she stole off of her mother," Nick explained, his eyes scanning the file in front of him. "She does well in school, but gets into too many fights, leading to her exclusion."

Nick placed the file next to him coffee cup and looked at Judy. She was a good kid, and he knew that. She was just misunderstood, and her past still haunted her sometimes. He took pity on her, and wanted her to live a good life.

Her dream was to be a police officer, but her father pushed that dream right out of her head with abuse, which made Nick feel sick to his stomach.

"Right, I'm gonna go interrogate her now," he stated, heading towards the door, but Clawhauser stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

"Be nice, ok? Kid's been through a lot," he said softly, smiling sadly.

Nick glanced back over at Judy, his ears falling to the sides of his head as sorrow overtook him.

"Don't worry, Ben, I will," he reassured and Clawhauser let go of his wrist before nodding, Nick taking that as his cue to leave.

God forbid he start crying because of all that Judy had been through.

~*~

How are you all doing?