jeriendhal | Fanfic: The Call, Missing Persons (PG-13 for violence)

Bonnie had fallen asleep, cuddled with Stu on the padded lounge chair one of the nurses had dragged into the hospital room for them. When she awoke the room lights had been dimmed down, and she could see the sun had set, leaving only the light of the streetlights outside. Someone had tossed a blanket over them both, and she found herself not wanting to crawl out from under it just yet.

Glancing over to Judy, she could see that there was no change. She just laid there, the respirator making her chest rise and fall like a well pump. Watching it, Bonnie felt her nose twitch in agitation. The thought occurred to her that it not be Judy there anymore. Maybe it was just her body now, and they were simply biding time before giving into the inevitable and turning off the switch.

No. Judy had believed in being a police officer, had wanted it so hard that she made it happen, despite all the odds against her. If she wouldn’t give up on herself, I’m not going to either.

Bonnie slid out from under the blanket and padded over to her daughter’s bedside. She stroked her paw gently along Judy’s cheek, brushing her fur back in place. “Sweetheart,” she whispered, “I know you must be hurting something awful right now, and if you want to go, your father and I will understand. But if you’re willing fight and come back to us, I want you to fight as hard you can. You never, ever gave up, never stopped believing in yourself, and we never did either. Maybe we were terribly scared for you sometimes, but we never gave up. So come back to us. We’ll be waiting right here for you.”

She felt Stu’s paw press into her back, and he leaned over to whisper, “What she said, Jude the Dude.” Then he stood up straight, stretching and cracking his back. “Hon, we should find a hotel room and get some real sleep. They’ll call us if anything changes, just like the doctor said.”

“I guess you’re right,” Bonnie agreed reluctantly. She leaned over and kissed Judy’s forehead. “We’ll be back, sweetheart.” Together they walked over to the door, opening it to find a new wolf officer on duty outside. “Hello officer,” she greeted. “We’re going to go find a hotel room. Chief Bogo said he’d provide an escort for us.”

“Of course,” the wolf said, stepping away from the wall. “I’ll take you there.”

Bonnie glanced back at the open door uncertainly. “Shouldn’t you stay at your post?”

The wolf smiled amiably. “My relief just arrived. She’s in the bathroom, should be out in a minute.” He pulled out his radio. “Ivana, this Phil. I’m taking Mr. and Mrs. Hopps to their accommodations. You take care of Judy.”

Will do, the radio crackled. 10-4, good buddy.

“10-4, good buddy”? Bonnie thought in bemusement. She hadn’t heard that one since the 70’s.

“All right, come with me.” The wolf began herding them towards the elevator.

* * *

Clawhauser knew it was silly to come back to the hospital. It wasn’t like there was anything to do after dropping off the flowers and donuts, and giving a little hello to Judy’s parents. Still, he remained agitated. Judy being hurt had upset him so much he’d gone through a whole box of Lucky Chomps just thinking about it. Yes, being a cop was a dangerous job, he knew that. But someone hurting a little bunny like Judy just wasn’t right. So he decided to come back and check in on her and her parents. Maybe if they were ready to go to a hotel room he could act as their escort. It ‘d been an awfully long time since he’d done anything like field work after all, and he’d felt so useless just playing switchboard operator when Nick’s original desperate call for help had come in.

He stepped out of the elevator and turned the corner, just in time to see Mr. and Mrs. Hopps walking down the hallway with a wolf officer he didn’t recognize. Ah well, there were so many in the ZPD. “Hi, Miss Bonnie, hi Stu!” he greeted cheerfully. “You going to your hotel?”

“Yes, thank you,” Bonnie said. “We’ll be back in the morning.”

“Okie-doke. I’m just going to look in on Judy and then head home I guess. Hope I see you again.” The wolf officer, Phil his nametag said, just nodded and guided the two bunnies into the elevator.

Turning the corner towards Judy’s room, Clauhauser’s eyebrows went up when he saw that there was no guard at her door. No, wait, there was another officer coming out of the bathroom, a female wolf with white fur and a frowning expression. “Who are you?” she asked, approaching him. Her accent sounded vaguely Slavic and her name tag said Ivana. Maybe she was from one of the Tundra Town precincts.

“I’m Clawahuser, Precinct One. What were you doing?” he asked.

“Going to the bathroom,” she said.

“The other officer should have waited until you were done before he left,” Clauhauser admonished. “The way things are, Chief Bogo would write you both up for sure.”

“Sorry,” Ivana said, ducking her head. “I check on the little bunny now.”

“Sure, I’ll wait out here.” Clauhauser watched her slip into the room, closing the door behind her. He waited outside uncomfortably for a moment, trying to figure out what was bothering him. It was something niggling at the back of his brain that had nothing to do with worrying about Judy. He scratched his head, trying to think, and then realized several things.

1.) He hadn’t recognized either of the officers, and after years of manning his desk in the lobby, Clawhauser figured at this point he knew everyone at the station house. Not recognizing one officer he might put up to distraction, but he couldn’t imagine he’d ever miss two.

2.) Leaving Judy’s door unguarded, even for a minute, was seriously unprofessional. Chief Bogo would be having nice loud shout over that one. Risking the chief’s wrath at a time like this would be something no officer would want to chance.

3) Their nametags had been wrong. Phil and Ivana? They should have displayed their first initial and their last name, just like his C. Clawhauser or Nick’s N. Wilde. Phil and Ivana were the tags you saw on a barista at Stardoes.

4. The gun at Ivana’s hip hadn’t been a department issue Glock 21, but Beretta 92. For the life of him Clawhauser couldn’t figure why she’d use a non-standard weapon. The only real difference between them was the Beretta could…

… use a silencer.

In all his years on the force, Clawhauser had never fired his pistol outside the practice range. In all his years he’d never figured he would, given his preference for desk work. But for all those years he’d dutifully kept up his range qualifications as required, so when he kicked in the door he had his pistol held in both paws, pointed right at the false officer as she turned in surprise, the silenced pistol in her paw.

“Drop you weapon!” Clawhauser shouted. Instead of obeying, the false officer chose instead to dodge backwards, raising her Berretta towards him. His pistol kicked twice in the cheetah’s paws, roaring in the confined space, and the wolf dropped, landing hard on the tiled floor, two bloody holes in her chest.

He kicked the weapon out the dead wolf’s paw, sending it skidding across the floor, turning to run past the nurse’s station, shouting, “Secure that room!” Clawhauser slammed his shoulder against the door to the stairwell, jumping down them three steps at time towards the sky bridge level, while he yanked his radio out of his belt with his free paw and shouted, “This is Clawhauser! 10-20 Zootopia General! 10-32, two civilians disguised as police officers. One dead, the other with hostages, possible kidnapping in progress, officer in pursuit!”

He burst out of the stairwell, feet almost skidding out from under him as he turned and pelted across the lobby and onto the sky bridge, doctors, nurses and civilians gaping in his wake. Up ahead he could just see Mr. and Mrs. Hopps being helped into a black SUV by the false officer. At Clawhauser’s wheezing shout he turned and snarled, jumping into the back with the two bunnies.

The SUV then accelerated, zooming towards the exit. Clawhauser barreled down the parking garage’s stairs, lungs burning, feeling every pound of fat slowing him down. I’m a cheetah, I should be faster than this. He made it down the second flight of stairs just in time to see the SUV roaring towards the exit. Clawhauser stood in the middle of the exit ramp, raising his pistol to fire again, trying to shoot out the truck’s tires, only to have to dodge out of the way as the truck barreled towards him. He spun around as he was clipped in the shoulder by the SUV’s passenger side mirror, catching a brief glimpse of the terrified faces of Mr. and Mrs. Hopps in the window as he fell.

Then he was landing on hands and knees, gasping, trying to catch his breath as he hyperventilated into his radio, watching as the truck turned onto the street. “Clawhauser… Black SUV… going north… Pride Avenue… partial license Delta… Victor… Romeo… Send... send units. They’ve got Judy’s parents.” He started sobbing uncontrollably. “They’ve got Judy’s parents.”