Archive of Our Own ^beta

Nick thought that the world had progressed past the point of being dangerous to predators, but he supposed that was just because of his skewed worldview after he joined the police force.

One evening, he decided to take a stroll through town, out of uniform. Sometimes Judy would accompany him for his night walks, but he usually did them alone.

This particular walk was in the later category.

As he was walking, he heard what sounded like commotion down an alleyway and turned his head to see what was going on. It sounded like a group of animals were murmering to each other.

"Who's there?" he asked, and then the murmering went quiet. He wondered for a moment if he should just turn away and continue walking, but he couldn't think about it too long before some sort of object flew from the darkness and hit him on the head, knocking him out.

When he awoke, he was surrounded by darkness. He tried to move but quickly stopped when an unbearable pain soared up his leg, accompanied by a heavy, metallic clang. A candle was lit nearby and he was able to see what had caused it.

A bear trap was clamped around his leg.

That was hardly his only concern, however, as he then noticed that he was in a cage. His vision was blurry from tears that had instinctively come up at the pain from the trap, but he did his back to track the source of the light.

It was a beaver, and he was glaring daggers at the fox.

"What do you want?" Nick asked, his voice coming out strained as he was careful not to agitate his trapped leg too much. "I don't have anything for you"

"I'll keep this brief" the beaver said, stepping closer to the cage. "We just want to keep the streets safe"

"So you kidnapped me and locked me in a cage with a bear trap" Nick replied flatly. "Makes perfect sense"

"We don't think that your kind should be wandering the streets" the beaver explained. Just as Nick was about to ask who 'we' was in reference to, he saw a number of other animals come into the light.

They were all prey.

"Oh, you guys are extremists" Nick realized aloud. "Look, you probably didn't realize cause I'm not in uniform, but I'm actually a cop, so-"

"They're even in the police force!" a mouse squealed in dismay. "We're doomed"

Nick's leg really hurt, and he just wanted to go back home. He reached for his phone but quickly realized it wasn't in his pocket and his heart plummeted.

His growing sense of fear and annoyance began to take the form of a low growl emanating from his throat and his captors flinched, as though expecting an attack even though he was literally locked behind bars.

"See, this is exactly what we mean" the beaver said. Nick wanted to cry. This was so much worse than when he was a kid. "Pierre!"

The beaver snapped and, before Nick could even process what was happening, a pair of paws began to put a muzzle over his face. He did nothing to stop the distressed whimper that came out at the cold feeling. Something was also wrapped around his neck, and a soft electrical current began to buzz around his throat.

It was a shock collar, like Zootopia had back in its infantry before there were any predator protection laws in place.

This was really, really bad.

"It's just a precaution, you understand" the beaver said to the distressed fox. "It's just safer to keep you contained"

Safer for who?

Nick wasn't sure exactly how long it was before police cars surrounded the building that he'd been moved to, but it was now light outside.

The carnage that was his leg had drained him of a lot of blood, which stained the surrounding fur, and he was sure he'd need to be in a cast for a while, if he even got to keep his leg at this point because it was definitely very infected.

He was surprised that police had even found him, but he was glad they did. Before the prey could even think of a solid plan, a few officers kicked down the door.

One of them was Judy.

She quickly ran to the cage to retrieve her partner while the extremists were apprehended. An ambulance was called when they saw the state his leg was in. It was all a blur to him, frankly.

He put his head against his partner's chest and then everything went black.

When he regained consciousness, he was in a hospital bed, and the pain from his leg was miraculously gone.

He'd later learn that this was because, in fact, it had been cut off, too damaged by the bear trap to salvage.

It took him a moment to process the bunny rabbit at his side.

"Hey, Carrots" he muttered drearily. Judy managed a small smile then took a shaky breath before speaking.

"Hey, Nick" she breathed. "How are you feeling?"

"I've seen better days"

"They arrested the group that did this to you" she informed him. "It was a pretty open-and-shut case because one of them had the bright idea to film most of it. They also had a few more victims that were found and are all okay now, to my knowledge" she continued. "...The doctors couldn't save your leg"

"Oh, that's why it doesn't hurt anymore"

"You're getting paid time off of work while you're rehabilitated, and your insurance from work also covers a prosthetic, so that's all covered"

"Okay" Nick hummed. This situation really sucked, but he couldn't find it in him to feel too broken up about it. No, he didn't want to give those bastards the satisfaction. "When can we go home?"

"They want to keep you for a few more days to recover from the amputation, and then we can go home, but you'll still have to come here for your prosthetic and your physical therapy" she explained. "It's below-the-knee, so you're gonna have to get back some mobility there before a prosthetic will be fully useful, but we can get you some crutches in the meantime, I'm sure"

"...You seem upset"

"Yeah, well, my partner was kidnapped, tortured, and is now in the hospital with one less leg" she laughed uncomfortably. Nick frowned. "I'll be okay, I promise" she assured him. "But no more night walks" she told him firmly. "At least not by yourself"

"Deal"