#fangmyer

@patrickarch

@articianne

Alison arrived home from school she had her backpack over her should and looked exhausted she had been teased relentlessly, she wanted so badly to punch the dickens out of the other kids, but knew deep down that would not help.

“Hey sweetie” called a voice from the couch.

Alison hadn’t even seen Jack sitting on the couch.

“Hey dad”

“Hi sweetheart, how was your day?”

Alison smiled brightly “We had the whole last class was art and it was great, I drew a fox”

Alison pulled out her book and showed Jack the picture. He didn’t move from the couch but held a paw out and took the book looking over the picture.

It’s beautiful, “who is it?”

“The neighbour, I think she is very pretty!”

Jack knew who Alison spoke of; she was speaking of Ms Raine, the young fox who lived in the penthouse across from Jacks penthouse suite.

“Can I go show her?”

Asked Alison, Jack pursed his lips, he hated Alison’s fascination with other foxes, and it made him feel bad, but mainly uncomfortable.

“Sure” he said through strain “just be home before mom gets home okay?”

Alison did a 180 degree turn and went to go to the neighbour’s house when she paused under the doorframe.

“Dad?”

Jack who had gone back to watching television hit the mute button.

“Yeah?”

“What are you doing home?”

Jack looked blankly at the television “Just sick sweetheart”.

“Oh…okay, I’ll be back soon”.

Alison shut the door and Jack waited till her heard her paw steps disappear before reaching between the couch and pulling out a bottle of scotch and his pills.

“This is getting out of hand” he sighed throwing back three of the pills, as his eyes stayed poised on the dark figure sitting in the corner of the room rocking back and forth crying.

Alison tapped gently at the door to Ms.Raine’s penthouse suite.

“Hello Ms.Raine?”

“Hello?” choked a voice from the other side of the door; the voice was soft but sad.

“Hey Ms Raine, it’s me Alison”.

“Oh hi sweetie, what can I do for you?”

The door cracked a little and Miss Raines hazel eye peered out.

“I drew you a picture!” Alison confirmed with a gleeful smile holding up the picture.

“Oh sweetie that’s beautiful, is that you” she breathed out, sounding to Alison as though she was out of breath.

“No…It’s you!” explained Alison holding picture up for Ms Raine to take.

“Aw thank you” she exclaimed reaching a shaky paw out to take the picture from Alison, her paw however was shaking like mad.

“Are you okay Ms Raine?” quizzed Alison.

“Yeah, I’ve just got a temperature and haven’t been feeling too well, but it’s okay, its normal…you’ll understand when your older sweetheart. Ide invite you in but I don’t think I can today, maybe another night you can come over and we can watch a Fox tales?”

Alison’s face lit up with excitement.

“Well I hope you get better” comforted Alison.

“I think I’ll be much better soon enough” said Ms Raine with a bright fangy smile.

Nick was sharply woken by the god awful sound of his watch blaring in his ear; his sight was blurry as he tried to push himself up, his arms felt like paper that folded beneath his own weight.

“What? Are you kidding me?”

Nicks rest had barely recuperated him and he had 30 minutes to get dressed and get down stairs for his first shift.

He tried to sit up but his whole body seemed to resist him.

“Come on Nick, enough already” he spoke to himself, bashful that he was feeling this way, never having felt anything like this.

Each second the image of the Vixen in his mind reminding him why his body was completely drained.

It took Nick 12 minutes to drag himself from the floor and into the bathroom where he stared at himself in the mirror, trying his hardest to give himself a pep talk, grasping each side of the basin with as much force as he could muster.

“She’s just a Vixen, you’ve seen plenty before, this one is no different, she’s just…” he paused a moment as his thoughts took over thinking of other Vixens he had fancied and noticing none of them came close to this fox. “She’s just…undyingly beautiful and kind” he finished in a defeated whisper.

Nick sluggishly walked into his living room, snatching his shirt off the floor and slowly buttoning it up and rolling up the sleeves. He could hear the crowd grown downstairs, he knew he should be nervous but was too tired to think straight.

He grabbed the aftershave off the small bedside table and sprayed around his scruff twice.

He then walked to the mirror in the bathroom; he took a deep breath, poked his chest out and smiled.

“Nicholas Piberius Wilde” he exclaimed to himself smiling brightly extending his paw out as if he were to shake someone’s paw, his paw trembled with an uncontrollable force.

He pulled is paw back placing on in the other and rubbing them together as if that would sooth his tremor, however it did nothing.

Nick breathed out “Well, here goes nothing”

Nick got down stairs spot on time, the place was busy but, relaxing, he felt as though all eyes were on him, and at the same time calm; every animal here was simply relaxed having a nice dinner or laughing around a table that had one too many beers balancing atop it.

“Hey Nickie, sweetie”.

“Hey Pricilla, where do you want me?” asked Nick wondering where to start and feeling a little out of place.

“Well Sarah is behind the bar serving if you wanna start cleaning the tables and throwing out those bottles” she shouted over the sound of the jukebox starting up.

Nick smiled and nodded turning to catch Sarah’s eye, giving her a greeting nod, she was a deer in her early twenties with a cock sure smile, she had freckles and dressed in very casual attire and worked the bar like she lived there, knowing where everything was, she flung her head back reciprocating Nicks gesture, Nick could tell she must have worked here a long time as she knew everyone’s order before they even placed it.  

Nick turned and made his way table to the first table the people continuing their conversation as if Nick weren’t even there only turning when he had the last bottle in paw to thank him for cleaning the table, the second table and third table was much the same, then Nick came to the table that had the most bottles on it, the one that looked as though it was about to overflow; he grabbed an empty glass and some at the table turned and sneered when they saw the fox only to lighten up and join him in their conversations when he gave them a reassuring and shy smile which was mirrored by Pricilla shooting them a stare as she walked by, obviously the rowdy ones were regulars and knew Pricilla’s stance on treating other with respect.

“Nicholas but people call me Nick” explained Nick answering ones question while still collecting their empty bottles.

He reached out grabbing a half full bottle while talking and a tiny paw grabbed his “hey there fella don’t be to overzealous, that’s not finished yet” pointed out the beaver with a chuckle.

Nick also chuckled letting go of the bear and moving instead to stacking up the empty glasses that remained. It took Nick two trips to get their table clear,

“Don’t forget to wipe down the table and put down coaster newbie” explained the deer who walked past him with a tied-up bin bag

“Coasters?” asked Nick unsure as to where they were located.

The deer simply pointed to a marble bench top that led toward the kitchen, which atop sat a stack of fresh coasters, Sarah manoeuvred past Nick, making her way to the back door to take out the trash.

Nick grabbed the coasters and made his way to the sink where he found the cleaning spray for the tables and a clean cloth; he tucked the cloth into his belt and hung the spray by the nozzle from his pants pocket.

Nick returned to the rowdy table; he sprayed his cloth wiping the sticky spilt beer from their table top and threw down several coasters from in his pocket.

“Thanks Slick Nick” laughed a leopard slapping Nick encouragingly on the back .

Nick swayed with the hit and went to speak but instead just smiled, nodded and moved to the next table, then the next and the next when he was suddenly interrupted.

“Nick!” yelled a voice; he looked to the back door to see Sarah standing there an aggravated look on her face, her paw gesturing to the bar.

Nick just stood confused

“When one of us goes somewhere the others got to watch the bar” she called out rolling her eyes and storming over to the bar to serve the queue of various mammals.

Nick fumbled and with haste nervously made his way to the bar

“Hi, what can I get you?” he asked the first animal in front of him

“I already got him newbie” called Sarah, focusing on punching the order into the til and not even looking up to address Nick.

“What can I get you sir; he asked sliding to the next animal.

“Hey I was first” called out a customer to the left.

“Sorry, what can I get you?” Nick asked moving to the customer that had called out.

“Two scotch on ice, 2 jerry lagers and one of these” explained the customer holding up the cocktails menu and pointing to one.

“Cold never bothered me anyway” read Nick out loud revising the name of the drink “on it” He confirmed turning to the bench of alcohols and glasses behind him, and suddenly his confidence became staggered, it was like a maze to him, everything looked the same and he could only hear the yelling of the customers behind him and to make it worse the images of the Vixen seemed to only get more progressive the longer he was awake.

Nick fumbled and dropped glasses and took more than twice as long to make the drinks as Sarah, he handed back incorrect change and forgot the ice in one of the scotches.

But after 17 minutes he had finally served his first customer. He moved down the bar asking the next customer, who, to Nicks surprise seemed to be the last one there.

“Sorry fox, the lady already got my drink” he confirmed reaching over and taking a drink from Sarah who passed it over Nicks shoulder. The customer raising his glass to her in thanks and her responding with a glinted wink.

There was silence as she waited for the bar to be completely clear before she threw = a tea towel over her shoulder crossing her arm and tapping her hoof.

“Listen Newbie, rule one of this bar, there is always someone here” she explained uncrossing her arms to point to where Nick and her stood behind the bar.

“Always…got it?”

Nick nodded he could feel his body shaking.

Sarah raised an eyebrow, her eyes seeing the shake in Nick, Had she gone to far? She thought to herself.

“You don’t look so good?” she confirmed suddenly “are you okay?”

Nick didn’t reply he simply nodded.

Sarah rolled her eyes realising she was being a little rough on the new guy, she tapped Nick on the shoulder.

“Hey don’t worry, I’m just a little stressed tonight okay? Just relax, and pay attention you’ll be alright”.

Nick looked up and smiled at her “what do I do next?” he asked.

Sarah smiled “the best job there is”.

Nick was in the bathroom sliding the mop backwards and forwards the bathroom was in shambles and someone was on the toilet with a symphony going.

“Greeeaat” he explained as he held his breath slopping the mop back and forth as quick as he could.

Nick was minding his own business when two Coyotes walked into the bathroom standing next to one another by the troth.

“Yeah so Cory might have us a new job… two cops” He whispered leaning over into his friend ear who pushed him back and gestured his eyes back to Nick.

“What him? Hey janitor, you’re not eavesdropping are you?”

Nick who was nervous he may get caught out simply shook his head and continued to mop.

“Yeah I didn’t think so” laughed the Coyote nudging his friend “told ya”.

The two finished washed their paws and towelled them and threw the towels on the floor in front of Nick, who starred at them as he grudgingly bent over to pick them up.

“Not your issue anymore Nick…head down…” he convinced himself trying not to think of what the two Coyotes had been talking about while taking a leak.

Nick got back to the bar and Sarah was simply towling it off and checking the pressure of the taps.

Nick strolled up next to her, “need any help?” he offered

“No, but you can serve the customer waiting”

Nick turned “oh sorr-“He began until he saw who it was.

“Hello Nick” spoke a she wolf on the other side of the counter “Nice earring barkeep” she giggled.

“Hi…” said Nick his earlier confusion coming back like a wave.

“Can I please get -“she asked while her seductive eyes danced over Nick and simply fell off him, his minds only thought however was the eyes of the unknown vixen.

“A water with ice”.

“Coming right up” Nick walked over to the bar, his eyes however were watching the she wolf from the reflection in the tiles, the stance, the gaze, he couldn’t be wrong.

He scooped ice into the glass and put the glass under the tap of water turning it and placing it down in front of the she wolf.

“Thanks stud, how much is that?”

“Waters free” confirmed Sarah, intervening without realising, what Nick knew was so obvious; the she-wolf was playing games.  

“$5.00” confirmed Nick ignoring Sarah, unable to help himself from playing the game back. His years in the ZPD, screaming for him to confirm what he already knew to be true.

Sarah stopped wiping the table and stood chest to chest with Nick trying to grab his attention “No newbie water is free to customers” Nick moved his head to see past her not wanting to break eye contact with the wolf.

Nick knew the game, intimidation, seduction, information and resolution…he had seen it played much better than the she wolf was playing, he had been on the receiving end and learnt what it was and how it looked, and Nick never forgot a lesson learnt in pain.

The she-wolf smirk deepened “Okay slick, $5.00” the she-wolf opened her purse and pulled out a 5 handing it to Nick who took it and held it.

Sarah, turned back to the she-wolf whose eyes were locked with Nicks, Sarah looked at her for a moment then at the look plastered on Nicks face and realised something was not right

“What’s the catch?” asked Nick

“What about a kiss?”

“Not happening” responded Nick almost robotically, his hair standing on edge as if the question offended him, his mind going straight to the vixen, right to her defence as if kissing this wolf would be a betrayal on her.

The wolf sighed “Well then I guess I’ll be going home alone tonight after all”.

Nick needed answers and as the she wolf walked away he knew what to do.

He paused a moment thinking of whether or not this would help his situation with Pricilla, but he needed to know, he needed to verify what he knew so obviously.

Nick took a deep breath and barked as loud as he could “GUN!” he shouted.

Everyone dropped to the floor, cries of fear exiting their mouths and muzzles.

However due to years of training, the wolf had dropped the glass and in one motion held a handgun in her paws; pulled from her purse. She scanned the room for the perp with the gun; her stance typical of an operative, when there was no one else except her with a gun, she realised Wilde had gotten the better of her.

She was looking around bashfully when she gently placed her firearm into her side holster turning back to Nick who wore a smug grin.

“You’re a cop” chuckled Nick unenthused, unfolding his arms and pointing at her. “I saw the firearm from the get go”.

“God damn it” muttered the she-wolf to herself.

“Not too good at the cop game are you?” confirmed Nick scrunching up the five and throwing it on the bar.

The wolf stalked forward snatching the five dollars shoving it into her purse “I’m not the first officer to be tricked though, am I Officer Wilde”

Nick knew she must have been speaking of the deception of Judy and Jack and simply nodded in agreement, everyone who had a badge had known about his decimation. He finished with a simple sentence; “I am no officer…”

Pricilla was just behind Nick and grabbed his attention.

“What’s going on Nickie?” she asked nervously, phone in her hand ready to call the police

Nick smiled at Pricilla, “sorry, just a misunderstanding, this is officer…-”

“Sparrow, Violet Sparrow” exclaimed the wolf putting a paw out to Nick, who grasped it and shook once.

Sarah was just behind Nick, pushing herself up against the wall as close as she could, she had never seen a gun before and her heart was racing, Nick could hear it and he turned.

“Relax, she’s a police officer-“comforted Nick before his attention returned to Violet ”… so…What do you want? Jack send you? Keep an eye on me?”

While her and Nicks spoke Nick saw the two Coyotes from earlier nudge one another and make haste for the door, looking back every step or so to make sure their withdraw had not grabbed unwanted attention.

Violet laughed into the back of her paw throwing her head back “I don’t answer to that puny little runt, I’m in the K-9 division, we deal with, bigger issues…”

“Such as?”

The wolf walked forward and pinched Nick’s cheeks “If I told you that good looking, I’d have to kill you” she spoke through pursed lips, teasing Nick playfully.

Nick pulled his cheeks from her clutches “I’ve had enough of cops…I think you should leave”

“I’m not the enemy Nickie boy” explained the wolf over her shoulder as she went to leave.

“Yeah Ive heard that one before” he gnashed. “Then what are you”

The wolf did a 180 degrees turn and walked over to the bar leaning over and whispered into Nicks ear- “undercover”

The words itself burnt Nick to the core Nicks thoughts went into overdrive,” Undercover, just like her, just like him, a liar in disguise a two face, traitorous, sly! Mother fu-“.

Nick hadn’t realised but his muzzle was gently pulling back to expose his canines in an aggressive manner “Settle down Vulpes, I’m just playing”

Nick didn’t respond; he just starred at her.

She gently pulled her head back and her ears dropped to the side in sadness, she had never seen someone look at her the way Nick starred at her, with undeniable hatred and fury.

She went to speak, when a throat filled rumble left Nicks throat and without understanding or another words, she fluster turned and walked out.

There seemed, in Nicks mind at least, to be several hours of silence.

“Psst” called Pricilla to grab Nick’s attention; who seemed to be starring off into a very bad dimension full of pain, suffering and underlying rage.

Nick turn to her rigidly to see what she wanted and she gently placed her hands either side of her mouth gesturing for Nick to drop the snarl and close his mouth and hide his teeth, that’s when he noticed every set of eyes in the place where on him.

Nick turned his snarl into a genuine yet awkward smile moving as slow as possible as if people couldn’t see him do it. He stood smiling at everyone who made eye contact, patiently waited for the crowd in the pub to return to talking and eating; when they did he made a direct line over to Pricilla.

He huffed out a deep breath, reached deep into his pocket, fumbled around before he grabbed the key to his room from his pocket holding it out in an open palm.

“I’m sorry” he apologised, “I assume you would like me to leave”.

Pricilla looked at the room key being held out to her and was instantly offended, her face screwing up in disbelief at Nicks action, she grabbed Nickies paw and folded his hand into a fist, making him grasp the keys, her eyes locked with him in an annoyed way, but annoyed that he would ever assume she would leave him on the streets over a small misunderstanding; not that there had been an altercation on his first night.

“Dos tables aint gunna get clean if you keep standin ere checking me out Nickie” she explained shoving his chest playfully, her eyes softening; worried her annoyed look may scare Nick.

Nick breathed out, “how stupid can I be” he thought; his eyes praised Pricilla, she never got mad at Nick, she simply fought with all her strength to show that someone gave a shit.

The night died down and the incident with Violet had left Nicks mind, replaced only by the exhausting thoughts of his mystery Vixen.

Nick had been at the biggest table towelling the same spot in a circular motion for the last 15 minutes.

“Hey Newbie” called Sarah, placing down the bins she was taking out to empty, packed to the brim with bottles.

“yeah?” replied Nick lifting an ear to show he was listening and ceasing his methodic wiping of the table to give her his full attention.

“You did good tonight…scarred some of the patrons, but you needa be a little scary to work in places like dis”

Nick smirked he had come to notice that every now and again when Sarah spoke, there was a slip of Pricilla’s accent that would mix in, and Nick also noticed that Sarah didn’t notice she did this.

“So when is clock off time?”

“Why you tired?”

“All damn day” explained Nick turning back to his table and continuing to do small circles with his cloth.

“But you’re a fox, you should be wide awake”.

“It’s complicated” huffed Nick, who now had such little energy; he couldn’t even do the circles on the table and simply leaned on it to catch his breath.

“Yeah well, you better get use to this night shift thing, otherwise da place-le eat you alive” explained Sarah, heaving up the heavy bins full of glass bottles and continuing on her way to empty them into the industrial bin located near the car park.

Nick was in his own world when he felt a Pricilla’s hand land on his shoulder.

“Hey Nickie, you look bushed”

Nick chuckled with a nod “yeah”

Pricilla began wiping down tables and they worked side by side while talking.

“Yeah, Nightshift is hard to begin wit, but you’ll pick it up soon enough sugar, don’t even fret”.

Nick smiled at her as he forced his body one aching moment after the other to continue to clean.

Nick walked out of Frays practice onto the busy zootopian street, he looked down to his paws and the $500.00 + dollars he now held firm in his paws and for the first time in such a while, felt as though he was not alone. He made his way across the street entering the mall and asking a shop front to change one of the notes to smaller change that included money for the pay phone. The shop keeper changed his notes, but could not get his eyes off the wad of cash carried by a homeless looking fox. Nick got his change and ran across the road to the pay phones. The bear that ran the shop Nick had exchanged the money at, picked up his phone as Nick walked away. “Hello, ZPD, what’s your emergency?” spoke a voice on the other side of the phone. “Yes, I believe I just served a thief at my shop- “ Nick arrived at the phones and gently slid two coins in pulling out the card from his pocket. “9648 4892 1212 4” he spoke out loud as his claws danced among the dials. The phone rang twice when it was picked up. “Ello waterin hole tavern, this is Pricilla” Nick’s voice choked and he didn’t quite know where to start. “Ello, ello” The silence lingered and Pricilla was getting frustrated. “Look Bobby bulldog, if this is anudda one of ya pranks you can stick it up ya-“ “Hello” splurted Nick finally. “Oh hello, this is tha waterin hole tavern, how can I help ya?” “Hello….Is, is this Pricilla?” Nick slapped his face feeling stupid, realising she literally answered the phone and introduced herself. “Ya huh, who’s dis?” “Um, look I don’t know if you remember me…” began Nicks rubbing the back of his neck nervously “I came in for a job interview a few years ago…I uh… A rabbit showed up… and…”. “Da police offica…Nicky right?” “Yes…yes that’s right” he explained gleefully surprised she remembered him. “How ya doing Sweetie?” The question was asked all too often and he knew that it was more a polite rhetorical that didn’t need answer. However Pricilla seemed to truly appreciate normality and so Nick answer how best he should. “Not so good” “Oh that’s no good hun, I just assumed maybe ya go da job at the ZPD when I didn’t hear from ya”. “No I never got the job back “affirmed Wilde. There was a pause in the conversation and Nick took a deep breath “Look I know it was a year ago that you were hiring, but you know-“ “Come in this afternoon, say bout 5 how’s dat for ya hun?” “That’s….perfect…that’s perfect…” “Okay sweetie, I gotta go, I’ll see ya at five”. The phone went dead and Nick simply stood starring at the receiver, a happy feeling deep in his guts, things were going to get better, with Jack no longer around to stomp him out, perhaps he had a chance. “I’m gunna get my daughter back JACK ASS” he snarled. He put the phone down and in the shiny reflection of the phone box he saw two reflections, dressed up in blue; walk up behind him. He turned to see Chuck and Delgato behind him, Chuck grabbed his by the scruff and pulled him from the phone booth throwing him to the ground and pinning an arm behind his back while chuckling to himself. “Hey, what are you doing?” cried Nick trying hard to pull his paw free. “Nick don’t resist” begged Delgato holding a paw out while talking into his two way. “What? What’s this all about?” grunted Nick, listening to Delgato’s orders; Nick letting his arm go limp. “Law and order” snickered Chuck in his ear, contorting his arm in such a way that it felt as though he was about to break the bone, and Chucks knee was so deep in Nick’s back he could feel the nerves screaming. “Delgato?” cried Nick, looking for Delgato to come to his aid and make Chuck less aggressive Delgato raised his paws, tied by the law due to the call they received. “Nick just, relax your body” he explained. Chuck went into Nick’s pockets; the first was empty but out of his left pocket Chuck pulled out a wad of cash. Delgato shut his eyes and sighed. “Oh Nick…where did you get this money?” asked Delgato assuming the worse. “I got it from a friend” argued Nick, his eyes pleading with Delgato. “Bullshit you don’t have friends” growled Chuck pushing his face into the concrete and putting the money into a zip tie evidence bag. “Hey that’s mine” yelled Nick trying to stand only to have Chuck push his head into the concrete harder. Nick cried out in pain as he did so. “Where’d you get the money fox” he shouted in his ear, all the eyes in the street now on Nick and the police, camera phones catching every minute. “A friend!” cried Nick Chuck lifted him and slammed him into the ground. Delgato went to intervene “hey enough-“

“You want all these people to see that the ZPD stood up for a thief” yelled Chuck loud enough to be heard by bystanders; Delgato falling silent, the cameras and crowd making him nervous.

“I said where did you get the money from fox?” growled Chuck again. Nick was in tears, his shirt was torn and his arms hurt from being knotted behind his back. “A friend!” he shouted defiantly. “You don’t have friends” repeated Chuck lifting him up to slam him down again. Nick was in a flurry of confusion but could hear faint fast approaching footsteps, as if urgent, then an all too familiar voice.

Nick gently turned his head to see Fray standing underneath the doorframe to her office, she held the doorhandle in her paw, Nick could see she was shaky to see him, no doubt shocked by his decayed state. Her grey eyes locked with Nick, he could see her guilt. The guilt of not telling Nick what she knew so long ago.

“Hi Fray” choked Nick, raising a grubby paw and waving timidly. The silence in the waiting room was still steady.

Fray turned to the administrator “Please have Nicholas’ booking moved to priority”.

The administrator typed on her computer then turned confused to Fray.

“I’m sorry there doesn’t seem to be a booking for a Nicholas Wilde in the system” she confirmed.

“Fine, then I’m on lunch” explained Fray, gesturing for Nick to enter her office.

There was arguing and anger from others waiting but Fray just shut the door on them; leaving the administration team to deal with it.

There was an odd silence as Nick and Fray stood in the room across from one another.

Finally, Fray spoke “Please take a seat Nick” she started professionally.

Nick put his paws behind him and with great struggle lifted himself up on the table.

Fray slapped on a set of surgical gloves and grabbed Nick’s jaws opening his mouth and looking inside, before flashing a small flashlight into his eyes.

“Say ah” she ordered, making the same face Nick did as he opened his mouth with an “ah”

She placed a Popsicle stick on his tongue looking to the back of his throat with the flashlight.

She then proceeded to wrap a machine around Nicks arm tightening it with Velcro; she pumped it up several times with air before checking the gauge and then tearing it from his arm; the Velcro making a horrid noise.

She moved to grasp his ear tight and folded it back, using the light to see deep into his ear canal; checking for ticks and any damage, before cleaning it out gently with a cotton bud.

She placed her gloves in the bin with the Popsicle and cotton buds and the other tools in the top of her draw.

She went to grab Nick and continue when he raised his paws.

“Fray, I don’t have money for this…” he explained trying to stop her, before she completed her task.

Fray rolled her eyes scoffing as if insulted, pushing Nick’s paws away and grabbing his shoulder, lifting his shirt and placing her stethoscope to his back, the cold sending a chill through Nicks spine as he shot up straight wanting to move away from the cold end of the stethoscope.

“Stop moving Nicholas, you big baby” she teased.

Fray’s eyes gently wandering through the abnormalities in his fur, small tufts, discoloured where the bullets had shredded him.

“Breath in” she finally asked; after she realised she had sat silently starring at him for too long.

Nick took a deep breath and held it, although it hurt to do so. He knew what took Fray so long he knew what she was staring at.

“Breath out”

Nick let the breath out, with great satisfaction.

“Wow, your lungs are truly fucked” she declared.

“So, what’s the diagnosis doc? Am I dead?” chuckled Nick.

Fray however didn’t laugh as she ran her fingers over the bullet wounds, and as Nick starred at her from his peripherals, he noticed her eyes were straining; she was holding back tears.

Without warning she gently placed her arms around Nick and hugged him, which caught Nick off guard; he gently laid his paws over her; his shirt tenderly rolling back down

The shop keeper changed his notes, but could not get his eyes off the wad of cash carried by a homeless looking fox.

Nick got his change and ran across the road to the pay phones.

The bear that ran the shop Nick had exchanged the money at, picked up his phone as Nick walked away.

“Hello, ZPD, what’s your emergency?” spoke a voice on the other side of the phone.

Fray dropped her head, guilt rushing over her followed by disgust, that Maria and Jack would stop Nick from seeing his kit.

“I’m sorry”.

“Jack and Maria picked me apart in the court room for custody, nothing I said mattered, they had me completely hook line and sinker…no job, I could barely walk… Heck even my policing certificate was null and void”.

“What do you mean your policing was null and void? You were one of the best officers the ZPD had…”

“It was all a sham, the whole lot; I only passed the academy because they needed me to. It was a set up from the beginning”.

Jack arrived at the ZPD and slung his work coat over the back of his chair, his first priority was to turn the air con on; his whole body seemed to be seething, heat flaring from him like a volcano.

The air con beeped once and the shutters began to glide up and down, Jack using the small controller to stop the air flow directly on his face.

He stood in bliss, the sweat beads on his face turning to ice at the cool touch of the air conditioners breeze.

“Does it really help?” snarled the voice of Nick.

Jack didn’t open his eyes to see where the voice came from her simply sat in bliss in front of the air con with his eyes shut.

“Shouldn’t you be gone by now?” he asked the shadows of the ZPD office, “I took twice as much as I should have…” he explained, talking of his medicine.

“Small pills can’t fix what’s going on with you Jack” the voice that spoke this time was different, deeper and he knew it was coming from his office chair, he half opened his eye and had a peek, on his chair sat Bogo, his massive tree truck like arms folded across the desk, his eyes glaring at Jack through the shiny rims of his small glasses.

“You’re not real” sighed Jack, pumping the degrees on the air con lower, until his office was like the arctic.

“Are you trying to match the temperature of the room with that of your soul?” snickered Nick, Bogo’s shadow joining in the laughter.

Jack turned and stalked over to Bogo’s old desk, now his base of operation, spun the chair and sat directly on Bogo, who disappeared in a huff of smoke.

Jack reached for the bottom draw, he opened it and dug around until he got his hand on the glass he was looking for. He pulled out the glass; it was fancy and made of crystal, with ‘Savage’ engraved into it. He then reached into the same draw to pull out a bottle of Jack Spaniels.

He moved to the small bar fridge he had set up under his desk and pulled out several substantially sized ice cubes placing them into the glass with a ‘clink’. A more then generous nip of the whiskey was poured into the glass, splashing over the ice cubes. Jack took a swig and downed the whole glass in one go; slamming the glass down on the table, gently pulling his tie from his neck as he felt he was dying from heat.

“How long you gunna keep this up Chief Savage?” pried Bogo in his deep accent.

Jack didn’t reply, he just poured another shot and downed it, this went on until the pills kicked in and the ridge of the sun fluttered in the window over his shoulder, the silhouettes had disappeared after his seventh shot. The clock on his desk read 5:45am, he had one hour and fifteen minutes to get back to normal, he hid the crystal whisky glass back in his desk and the bottle of Jack Spaniels. He lay his head in-between his arms, placing them on the desk, having set an alarm for a 30-minute kip. He had fixed his tie, the sweat gone from the blasting iciness of the air condition.

His eyes shut and he sighed as the darkness of sleep engulfed him.

He got up groggily looking around his office, his alarm had not yet gone off but he was sure he had overslept, he looked to the alarm clock only to realise he had set the alarm for PM instead of AM, groaning in annoyance at his own stupidity.

He looked around the office nervously, checking his message and emails to make sure he had not been caught.

He popped open the top draw taking out a packet of mints and gum, he demolished two mints and threw the gum in his mouth chewing frantically, hoping to cover the all too familiar scent of straight spirit. He then popped two paracetamol tablets, before he reclined in his chair taking deep breathes and having several glasses of water, pulling out all the stops to get his head back in the game.

This had become another ritual of sorts for Jack, a silent, undisturbed night of sleep was becoming more and more impossible for him and getting over his habitual new drinking habit that to begin with was a challenge; had simply become something he had to work around.

This was the weakest and most useless Jack had felt in his entire life; unsure of who to turn to and what to do to fix it, his usual fix for things like this was aggression.

He slid from his seat and made his way to the door, cracking it open and peering outside, all around officers were getting to their job’s, Jack sighed thankful that he had not been caught sleeping on the job and even more that no one had annoyed him all morning.

He looked to his wrist to check his watch; it was twenty past seven. He could tell the alcohol was not all gone as he had to stare at his wrist watch for several moments before he could make out the time, while reading the time; over his wrist, he saw an officer walk in late.

“Fangmyer, late again?” growled Jack to himself.

Jack ran to the edge of the balcony.

“Fangmyer!” he shouted for all to hear, before pointing an order for Fangmyer to come and see him.

 Fangmyer finished his talk with Nick and took off for work, sad he was not able to get more out of Nick but thankful enough at the fact he was talking.

Fangmyer got to the station at 7:20am almost 20 minutes late and as he walked in and greeted Clawhauser, he heard Jack yell from the higher balconies above.

“Fangmyer!”

Jack didn’t say anything more; he just pointed toward his office.

Fangmyer rolled his eyes knowing he was trying to replicate Bogo and came off as nothing but annoying and pretentious.

Fangmyer began his way to the office when he passed Maria, who waved at him.

“Hey Fangmyer, you ready to make the world a better place?” she asked giddily

“Like you did for Nick?” replied Fangmyer, sipping the last of his coffee; without even looking at her or breaking his stride.

Maria had been trying to get into Fangmyer’s good book since everything happened, no doubt wanting some inside information on the well-being of Nick, Fangmyer seeing his silence on the matter and her unknowing of Nick as a good punishment for her actions. Something for her to stew on.

Fangmyer was almost at Jacks officer when he got pounced on.

“HAHA, in trouble again stripes?” hooted Delgato, Fangmyer’s old partner, who stood next to his new partner and new recruit, a Hyena named Chuck.

“When you gunna learn?” laughed Delgato slapping his shoulder.

“Yeah” chimed in Chuck uninvited, cackling without control “maybe you should make friends with the chief, instead of bums”, the reference was to Nick, who Chuck had picked on once before and not since, Fangmyer made sure of that.

Fangmyer’s eyes turned aggressively serious; however, his face remained almost bland, like a maniac

He went to take a step forward; his aggression aimed at Chuck, when Delgato gently laid his paws on Fangmyer’s chest standing in front of him. Fangmyer was burning to the touch, he was seething.

“Woah, woah, let it go bud” laughed Delgato trying to calm him, patting him twice gently on the chest.

“Yeah, let it go stripes” chimed in the Hyena.

Delgato shut his eyes “Why couldn’t he just stay quiet” he thought to himself

“Can you go now” ordered Delgato pointing, trying desperately to defuse the situation, knowing Chuck was doing it intentionally.

“Where?” retorted Chuck sardonically.

“Anywhere but here” confirmed Delgato with a disbelieving shake of his head and growl in his tone.

Chuck walked off smug

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten our first run-in, cat” shouted the Hyena over his shoulder, using the word cat derogatorily.

Fangmyer glared and went to follow him when again Delgato pulled I’m back.

“Fang’s, let it go, stop this, what’s up with you today?”.

“That guy-“

“Is a douche, I know, but we can’t go attacking our own people, all blue remember…” explained Delgato hoping Fangmyer’s own motto would break down his anger.

Without intent Fangmyer aggressively pushed Delgato’s paws from his chest

“You know that went out the window” snarled Fangmyer turning and continuing to Jacks office

Delgato’s shoulders dropped with his ears, sad that Fangmyer had gotten angry now with him, “When?” shouted out Delgato after him.

“When Jack and Maria, chose to kill one of our own” he shouted loud for all to hear, looking up to Jack who stood on the level above glaring down on him.

Maria looking back, hearing it from down the hallway, her paw curling into her chest and her ears dropping, as Nick crossed her mind at Fangmyer’s words. All officers around her shot her judgemental glances.