The Fire Triangle, A Zootopia Fanfiction -- Part One: Fuel - 10

Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.

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The Fire Triangle—A Zootopia Fanfiction

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Part One:

Fuel

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Chapter 3 – Day of Carrots and Blueberries

(Continued...Pt. 2)

Judy sniffed and flicked a tear away, ears falling backwards in a sign of complete emotion.

The Bunnyburrows Station platform was literally swarming with rabbits, they seemed to be everywhere. It was hard to spot an individual face in a crowd like that, but the few Judy was able to pick out, she recognized immediately; and right there in the center of the throng were her parents, waving almost frantically in her direction. And as the Zootopia Zephyr pulled to a halt, the crowd raised a huge banner, strung between two poles. 'WELCOME HOME, JUDY!" It was decorated with hearts and a drawing of a police badge

"You didn't ALL need to come." Judy sniffed again. It wasn't her entire family out there, but is sure as heck felt like it, "And what's the sign for?"

When the doors opened, Judy's parents were there, the first ones waiting to greet her. She leaped off the train in a single bound and threw her arms around them, hugging them tight.

"You didn't have to do all THIS." She said, and then gave them each a kiss on the cheek.

"No Judy, but we wanted to," her mother countered and the three of them hugged even tighter. When they let go, Stu took hold of her paws beaming with pride as only a happy father can. "Welcome home Detective Hopps."

Judy stepped back and raised a cautionary paw.

"Easy Dad, I haven't made the detective squad yet."

"No, but we're getting closer." A voice from behind her said, "We worked our first undercover sting, the day before yesterday, helped our Chief make a big, important bust"

Judy frowned as she heard Nick speaking. Wasn't it just like him to exaggerate everything?

She turned to offer the fox a rebuke—and felt her face drop down to the floor. Nick was lugging their bags, hers and his, all by himself. D'ohhhh, she should have stayed and helped him instead of jumping off the train like that. Luckily, a couple of her siblings took note of the fox's plight and immediately pitched in to assist him.

"Hello Bonnie, Hi Stu." the red fox waved, freed from the extra burden. (They had known each other long enough by now to be on a first-name basis.)

"Hello Nick," the bunny farmer answered, thrusting out a paw, "Welcome to Bunnyburrows."

Watching him, Judy had to smile. They first time they'd met, her dad had barely been able to bring himself to touch Nick's paw. It hadn't so much the fact that he was fox as it was that he was a CITY fox—or that was how her father had explained it at the time. Whatever the reason, he had no such problem now by the look of things.

"Thanks Stu, it's good to be here." Nick answered, sounding as if he genuinely meant it before accepting a hug from Bonnie. "Quite the turnout," he observed, making what was for him a rare understatement.

"Well," Stu answered, hooking his thumbs in the straps of his bib overalls, "It's the first time in ages that our Jude-the-Dude's been back for Carrot Days."

A wince and a grimace hit Judy's face like a snowball. "Don't call me that in front of him!" she wanted to scream.

Instead, she said. "Uh Dad, what don't you introduce Nick to some of the others family members." She was speaking with a haste that the fox couldn't fail to notice, (although he gave no sign of it right then.)

"Yes, good idea," Bonnie Hopps chimed in even more hurriedly than her daughter. She turned and beckoned with a crooked finger, "Pop-Pop, come on over here and say hello to Judy's partner."

A crotchety voice answered from somewhere in the middle of the crowd. "Trudy, she here? I thought she got eaten."

Bonnie Hopps laid a fast paw over her eyes and Judy felt like doing the same; you would think by now her grandfather would have gotten over his aversion to foxes, but apparently such was not the case.

And now here he came, grizzled, winkled, and stooped, grey fur and black-rimmed spectacles, with lenses so thick they might have been fashioned from armored glass; the family patriarch, Morgan Haredigg in the flesh and fur. Like Claudia Nizhang, he moved with the aid of a cane (brass headed in his case) but unlike the red panda, his movements were that of a mechanical wind-up toy.

"Trudy where is she?' the wizened bunny inquired—while looking straight at Judy.

"I'm right here, Pop-Pop," she said, feeling a small flood of warmth. In spite of everything else, it was wonderful to see him again. Just the same, she decided she had better move fast, before her grandfather could misspeak again. She turned swiftly, waving her companion forward.

"And this is the fox you heard me talk about, my partner on the police force Nick Wilde." She spoke slowly as if reciting for a third grade spelling test. To her immense relief, the old rabbit nodded and regarded Nick amiably. "Mind hunkerin' down a bit, boy? I ain't so good fer stretching upwards these days."

"Sure, no problem," the fox answered, dropping down to his haunches with his wrists on his knees.

The old rabbit let out a whooping noise, "Ha, Got you!" and immediately began running his paw over the top of Nick's head in a fevered circular motion. Nick reeled back so suddenly, he nearly tripped over his own tail, and when he straightened up again, the wizened bunny was pointing balefully up at him with his cane.

"Where's your devil horns, boy? How'd you hide 'em?"

"Dad!" Bonnie Hopps cried, getting quickly between them. "I'm so sorry," she said to Nick and then took her father by the shoulder and began to walk him away. "Now darn it, Pop-Pop, I thought we discussed this."

For what seemed like hours, an awkward silence reigned over the platform. No one seemed to know what to say; Judy Hopps wanted to jump into the nearest trash container and pull the lid closed after her. "Why don't you come with me Nick? Me and my briiiiight ideas!"

Finally, her father cleared his throat.

"For what it's worth Nick, the same thing happened the first time he met Gideon Grey."

From somewhere out of sight, a pair of high voices rang out again.

"The Devil I say, the DEVIL!"

"Daaad!"

If there had been a pole handy, Judy would have been banging her head against it, but when she looked over at Nick, she was vastly relieved to see that the fox looked more amused than offended.

But then she saw him drop to his haunches again. "Hello, who's this?"

Judy felt her nose moving. What the...? What the heck was Nick...? No wait, a little paw was wrapped around her father's knee and a pair of small, green eyes peered out from between his legs.

"It's all right Cotton, come on out." she said, and a little girl bunny came cautiously out from behind her father. She was gray-furred like Judy, but lighter in color, dressed in a pink skirt and pastel blue blouse. She moved with slow shuffling steps and had her paws clasped in front of her—as if she'd just been summoned to the front of her class by the teacher; "What have I said about passing notes during lessons, young lady?"

For a moment, she just stared up at the fox with big winsome eyes.

"Say hello Cotton," her father prompted.

"H'lo" the little bunny said. She looked like she was going to start sucking her thumb.

"Hello Cotton, I'm Nick." The fox said hunkering down even further.

"Are you my sister Judy's partner?" She asked, so softly that Judy had to cock an ear to hear her.

Nick nodded and Cotton put her paws on her hips, no longer guarded, but curious.

"How come a fox is partners with a bunny?" she demanded, this time loud enough for everyone on the platform to hear—including Judy, who wished another train would come along so she could throw herself in front of it. First her grandfather and now her little sister; two for two on this fine morning.

But Nick just smiled.

"Well because before I met your sister Cotton, I was a street hustler, just getting by from day to day; I thought that if the world was never going to see a fox as anything but shifty and sneaky, there was no point in trying to be anything else." He glanced over at Judy for a second, then back at the little bunny-girl. "I was wrong Cotton, and it was a bunny—your sister—who taught me I was wrong. She made me believe that even a fox could make it as a police officer and she never stopped believing IN I was going through the Police Academy she was always there to prop me up, even if she wasn't there. Whenever I used to feel like quitting, all I had to do was remind myself, 'Judy didn't quit, and look how hard she had it'. I wouldn't be a police officer if it hadn't been for her. THAT'S why she's my partner. Do you understand now?"

Cotton's mouth compressed to a near pucker, and then moved from side to side while the considered the fox's words. Then she looked up again with those big earnest eyes and pronounced her verdict.

"I like you, you're nice."

...and gave him a big hug.

Almost everyone, 'Awwwed' and Judy made a promise to herself; when they got to the Carrot Days festival she was going to buy her little sis the biggest bestest slice of her favorite carrot cake ever! (With extra whipped topping just the way Cotton liked it.)

With the ice finally broken, the rest of the introductions went smoothly. (Her father didn't introduce Nick to everyone of course; they'd have been here until after midnight if he did.)

"And that's about it," he finally said, preparing to wrap things up.

"Uh just a second, Stu." The fox held up a paw. "Is Erin Hopps here? Judy told me on the train about her trying to get into ZAPA; I'd really like to meet her."

"Erin? Yes, she's here." The bunny-farmer responded cheerfully. He turned and called over a shoulder. "Erin? Come on out, Nick wants to say hello to you."

The voice that answered from somewhere in the crowd was high, angst-filled, and stretched taut as a bowstring, "Da-a-a-aaaad!"

"Young lady, you get out here this instant." Bonnie was back, and she was taking no guff from her daughter.

"All right, all right." The younger voice answered, and the crowd began move aside to let her pass. After a few second of this, a bunny girl of perhaps 13 years stepped forward through the gathering.

Judy almost gasped.

"Errrr-IN, oh my you've gotten so big and so pretty!"

What she DIDN'T say was, "and you've gotten such an attitude, too. How the heck did you talk mom into letting you dress like THAT?"

Erin Hopps was probably the closest thing in the family to a white rabbit, and she would have been except for the black fur around her muzzle, feet, paws, and the tips of her ears; she was tall for her age, her eyes were a deep azure blue. She had gotten her fur color, according to family lore, by way of a nearly forgotten great-grandmother. (Judy's black tipped ears had supposedly come from the same source.)

She had grown at least a good three inches since Judy had last seen her. And as she had observed only a moment ago, Erin was maturing into a lovely young rabbit, lithe and supple with none of the awkwardness that usually comes standard with a growth spurt.

So what the heck was she doing in THAT outfit?

Erin Hopps' ensemble could best be likened to a chip on her shoulder the size of a railroad-tine; she wore urban-camo denim parachute pants, a denim jacket with the sleeves torn off to make a vest, and t-shirt bearing the logo, 'I Slap Bass So I Don't Slap YOU." A braided collar encircled her neck, decorated with Welsh Cross in rose gold. She had backcombed her facial fur to make it stand out.

It was her eyes, though that really got Judy's attention, Erin had dabbed the lids and sockets with black eyeshadow to make them match her muzzle. It gave the younger bunny a haunting almost spooky appearance. Looking at her, Judy had to wonder again, how the heck had her sister ever gotten away with something like this. If mom wasn't careful, one of these days, she was going to come home sporting a nose piercing.

Ignoring Nick as if the fox were invisible Erin made a beeline straight in her older sister's direction

"Hey big sis," She said, and then gave Judy a hug that had all the warmth of a pat-down for weapons. Turning her attention to Nick—finally—she offered a peremptory paw and shook his quickly, "Hello." She might have been greeting a mannequin for all the emotion in her voice.

Judy Hopps was flabbergasted. Was this the same sweet girl she remembered from her last visit home?

"So can I go practice now?" Erin asked her folks, now completely ignoring both Judy and the fox.

Bonnie Hopps looked for a second as if the boom was coming down, but then she sighed.

"Yes, I think we all need to get going."

"Good," the young bunny declared, and melted back into the group again.

The second she was gone, Judy buttonholed her mother.

"Mom? What the heck is going on with her?"

Bonnie sighed and said with infinite patience, "She's growing up Judy, she's...at that age."

"Yep," said Stu, coming over to join his wife, "Going through her moody phase, just like you did, Jude-The-Dude."

Judy's ears shot upwards, and then shot backwards.

"What? Dad, I never had THAT much attitude!"

"Oh, no?" It was her mother talking, "How about that time when you wrote us from summer camp? Six pages long—telling us how much you hated that place and everybody there and especially us for sending you."

"And then when camp was over, you didn't want to leave." Her father reminded her.

"Uh, I thought it was only five pages long." Judy fidgeted with her fingers for second, before remembering with horror, "Ohhhh, no. NICK!"

She turned and looked feverishly at the fox, who was gazing at the roof of the station, pretending to find the weathervane interesting. Oh, peachy! She was going to be hearing about this again, and the worst part was, Nick would wait until just the right moment to spring it on her and then, SNAP!

From the other side of the station they heard Erin's voice again.

"Hey, are we GOING?"

Everyone turned en masse and headed for the station exit. Judy had just wrapped her paws around her travel bags, when she heard Nick Wilde's voice close to her ear.

"Jude the Dude?"

Judy's teeth clenched and her lips compressed. Ohhh-kay, to paraphrase another famous law enforcement officer, it was time to nip this in the bud.

She set down her bags again and turned to address the fox, wearing the sweetest smile ever and speaking in an even sweeter voice.

"Nick, sweetheart...I don't mind if my folks call me Jude the Dude—but if YOU ever do it, I'll bite your face off, mmm'kayyyyy?"

She grabbed her bags and continued on her way, still wearing that beamy smile.

Exiting the Bunnyburrows train station, Nick and Judy discovered a long line of vehicles, pulled up on the roadside and waiting. It was a motley caravan, to say the least; everything from a mini-van to a stake-side flat-bed trailer, filled with straw and, drawn by a farm tractor.

The minute Judy spotted it, a river of memories went coursing through her—those wonderful moonlight hayrides from back when she'd been on as a little girl. Okay, so maybe it wasn't nighttime yet; the hay-wagon and tractor were still there and two out of three ain't bad. With that in mind, she Nick's arm she all but dragged him towards the trailer. (Wisely, he did not attempt to raise a protest.

On the ride home, little Cotton Hopps insisted upon sitting on the fox's laps, something Nick seemed to find genuinely touching.

Maybe inviting him along hadn't been such a bad idea after all, Judy swiftly decided

In the meantime her mother—who was riding with them in the wagon—decided to take advantage of the interlude to bring her and Nick up to speed on the day's schedule.

"We're going to go back to the warren first so you two can unpack and get freshened up before we head on out to the festival. It shouldn't be especially busy there today; things don't really start to pop until Saturday. One thing though: if you're planning to do any shopping for crafts or souvenirs, you'll probably want to get that done today. A lot of the booths sell out quickly when the weekend crowds get here."

Judy's ears snapped upright and then she also snapped her fingers.

"Ohhhh Mom, you just reminded me. Do you know anything about a vendor selling Gazelle Japanese tour shirts? I promised to pick one up for a friend of ours back at the police precinct.

Bonnie thought for a second, and then shook her head, answering slowly.

"Mmmm, noooo, sorry hon...I haven't heard about anything like that. If they're here though, they'll most likely be down on Dealer's Row. I can show you where that is when we get to the festival." She stroked at her chin with a finger. "And let's see, there's the carrot-cake eating contest later today, oh and the Farmer's Benevolent Association is raffling off a car again, so be sure to get your tickets before they're gone."

"I will," Judy answered, and then she nodded wistfully; even with Zootopia's first-rate public transportation system, it would be nice to be able to get around on her own every now and then. (A sideways glance at Nick told her he was of the same mind.)

"And be sure your don't miss the talent show tonight Judy," Her mother was saying, her voice swelling slightly with a note of maternal pride, "Erin's going to perform."

"Yay!' Judy clapped her paws and then patted Nick Wilde on the arm.

"Oh great Nick, you'll get to hear her." Emo-bunny or not, Erin Hopps was a fantastic singer and bass player. But then Judy felt her brow furrowing, "But why tonight Mom? Won't there be more mammals at tomorrow's show?" (The talent show had run on two consecutive nights since back when she was in middle school.)

"I know," Bonnie answered with a sigh, "That's the idea. Erin's never played in front of an audience before and she felt it would be easier to break the ice with a smaller group."

"Right, I get it." Judy answered, nodding. It made good sense, but still....

Judy Hopps' favorite way of meeting challenge had always been to take it head on; she was the kind of bunny who always jumped right into the swimming hole. (Easing in gradually was for wimps and wussies.) It didn't bother her that Erin seemed to be taking a different point of view—except, for one thing. That kind of cautious attitude went completely against her kid sister's new, 'tough-grrrl' fursona. Was Erin acting out a role that wasn't really her? Judy hoped not, when she'd been that age, the girls at her school had had a word for kids like that—Poser, and it had not a label anyone wanted.

Well she could talk that over with Erin later; right now her mother was still speaking

"And then tomorrow night we've got the traditional Hopps family Carrot Days dinner and the bonfire afterwards," Bonnie had decided to skip ahead a little, "and of course, there's the Big Barn Dance on Sunday night."

"I wouldn't miss either of those for the world," Judy said from the heart, and looked over at Nick again.

He was pretending to find interest in a nearby windmill, but the bunny wasn't fooled. Her mother had just uttered another 'forbidden fox-word'—dance. Well Nick could try, but he couldn't put her off forever; sooner or later, by hook or by crook, she was GOING to get him out on the dance floor, period, end of story.

"Resistance is futile, Nicholas." She silently reminded him.

Then her father called from the tractor up front. "Hopps family homestead, coming up on your right!'

Judy's made her face turn poker-table neutral, no mean trick considering the look she hoped to see on Nick's face any second now.

She was not to be disappointed. When they came around the bend, Nick's eyes went wide, and his sharp, foxy ears turning backwards in astonishment.

Judy leaned in close, lowering her voice to puckish murmur.

"Well, what did you expect fox, a ranch house with a wraparound porch? Nope, sorry; we're bunnies, remember? And they don't call this town Bunny-BURROWS for nothing."

The Hopps family home was built into the side of a hill, no surprise there. But other than that, Judy could just imagine what was going through her traveling companion's head right now.

The front of the house looked like...well the closest you could come to it was an alpine chalet, with gingerbread trim in pastel-pink; except no chalet was egg-shaped with a pair of rabbit-ears sticking out of the top. "That's actually our wireless receiver." Judy explained, pointing. "TV, phone and internet reception can get kind of dicey out here in the sticks. And don't be fooled if the outside looks too small for a family this size. Trust me, there's a lot more underground."

"Will that be problem for you Nick?" he mother asked, suddenly concerned.

He just waved an airy paw, "Not at all Bonnie; us foxes like to den underground too. As matter of fact, back in Zootopia I live in a basement flat."

Someone called from one of the upper windows, "Hey all, they're back," and a skein of more bunnies came streaming out of the front door to welcome the caravan.

Stu pulled the tractor to a halt about ten feet away from the house, and set the brake, declaring lustily as he shut off the engine "Home again, home again, jiggity-jig!"

Judy couldn't help smiling; that was what her father always said, and it fit the moment like an old, favorite wind-breaker.

It was good to be home again!

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Author's Note:

Bunnyburrows, as it was shown in the film, always reminded me of some of the rural/agricultural areas I know here the Pacific Northwest.  The Willamette Valley, the Yakima Valley and the Rogue River Valley to name just three.  Accordingly I used a few of these communities as the template for The Burrows as it's depicted here.