Darkness

Chapter 6

I DON'T OWN THE ARTWORK!

Nick walked to the ZPD, sipping at his coffee. Today was Tuesday, meaning, tomorrow and Thursday was his and Judy's days off. He knew neither of them liked the idea of having days off with such a big case looming over Zootopia, but their were many other Officer's on the case. Tomorrow he and Judy left for Bunny Burrow to attend the Carrot Day Festival.

He met up with Judy in front of the station.

She looked up at him and smiled happily. "Hey, partner, ready to make the world a better place?"

"Sure." He replied, finishing off his coffee.

"Nick, are you ok?" She asked, noticing his unenthusiastic demeanor.

He looked into her lavender purple eyes. It was only getting worse for him. Like it or not, he was in love with Judy. It was consuming him alive. Just recently he had started day dreaming about a life with her. Fantasizing about marrying her, having children with her, which he knew was biologically impossible. Though if it were, he imagined their child would look like Silver Wise. Grey like her, with green eyes like him. He knew that's why this case hit him so hard.

Tomorrow he'd be in Bunn Burrow with Judy. Young bucks would be throwing themselves at her. She might fall in love on this trip. And he'd have to watch as the love of his life started a life with another man. The thought was more than he could bear. He could feel his soul cracking under the burden. It was too much, he knew he had to say something. He had to try.

"Hey, Carrots, I need to tell you something." His paws began to shake. "But I don't know how you're going to take it."

"Oh?" She said, clueless to the situation. "Well, let me hear it."

His muzzle quivered with fear of rejection. "I have feelings for," before he could confess, Officer Bounds stuck his head out of the door.

"Wilde! Hopps! Clawhauser has gone savage with rage." The wolf informed them.

Nick and Judy looked at each other with similar looks of disbelief. Dropping everything, they rushed into the lobby where they saw Chief Bogo desperately tryin to calm down the enraged cheetah.

"Clawhauser, calm down!" Bogo demanded. "We'll find her, it will be ok."

"Ok?! It'll be ok?!" His voice was a growl, opposite of his usual cheerful voice. "Of course you'd say that." He said harshly. "You don't have anyone in your life. Let alone anyone you love." His words were cutting, his chocolate brown eyes had turned black. "Are you even capable of love, Chief?"

Bogo's ears twitched, the cheetah's words rubbed him the wrong way. He was capable of love, in fact, the chief had his own little dirty secret. He was in love with a gazelle from Sahara Square, her name was Buffy. No one knew of this because he knew society would look down upon them. He was the chief after all, and that meant he couldn't be all lovey dovey, and lenient. He had to be a rock, strong and unwavering.

"Looks like I'm right." Clawhauser hissed. "Emily is the reason I became a cop. I was supposed to keep Zootopia safe for her, but I failed. No, correction, we failed her." Angry, he swung his arm, sending all the files on his station flying.

"What's going on?" Nick whispered to Bounds.

"Clawhauser's niece was kidnapped last night." Bounds whispered. "She's our youngest victim, she's five.Despite the warning Bogo issued at the press conference, these kidnapper's where skilled and ruthless. They broke into Clawhauser's sister's house, knocked her and her husband out, and stole Emily."

Judy's ear drooped. The Night Howler case was a hard one, but this one was much worse. These criminals made Belleweather look like an Angel.

Clawhauser started growling, his claws slipping out. The rage was more than the cheetah could handle. He wanted vengeance, and he wanted it now.