Zootopia: Blind Faith

[Proto Triose]

Nick grabbed the newspaper as it bounced off his chest, glancing momentarily at the part of the headline he could read. Will O'Riley's work. He could try teasing, threatening, all the things that were fairly standard. But he knew it wouldn't work. Because it wouldn't work on him. There was one thing his father had taught him, only recently, however, that just might. Because it most certainly worked on him, as evidenced by his confession in the car. Maybe it was just that Judy, his most beloved partner in truth, disarmed him every time. But maybe not.


Nick threw the paper into the trash, looking back at the cameras. "You know, Aurora. You're absolutely right." His ears fell, and he reached out, turning the knob again back to the conveyors, where he saw Judy picking something up off the ground. No doubt Aurora saw it too, but it was a bit late for that. They had a warrant to search the premises, after all. Any evidence found could most certainly go back with them. Turning to leave, he took a few steps before stopping. This way, his back was to her so she couldn't see his features. Time to put his past to use in the present.


"For what it's worth, Aurora," what was it Finnick had said about her, he was like a brother? "Back then. I couldn't have asked for a better partner, and I blew it. His tail hung along the ground behind him, but he still didn't turn around. "You understood me. You were like a sister to me." Carrots, you were a genius. Hopefully this worked as well on another fox as Judy had on him. "I'm sorry. I was young and dumb, and I didn't know what to do. You don't have to forgive me. Hell, I wouldn't.


And you're right. You've done nothing wrong but try to go straight. So did I. We've always been a lot alike. Listen, I know a simple sorry can't fix it. I owe you more than I can repay, and I'm asking a lot of you to even be here. I had to fight to be the one to come here, you know, so I could at least try to mend burned bridges. I owed you at least that.


If you think of anything, you know where to find me, alright?"


He stopped at the doorway, putting a paw against the frame, head still down. Come on, take it. Worst case, at least Judy had a lead, so this was his last ditch effort. "I'm proud of you for coming here instead of going back after you got out. For what it's worth." He started walking out slowly, in hopes it worked.

[Dynax]

Something moved in Aurora. Her ears twitched, her tail lowered. Something seemed to crack, and she said harshly,


"Wait." She gestured Nick to come back with her small paw, and sighed heavily, reluctantly. "I can't tell you anything about the Bloodmouth right now," she said in something that almost bordered on apologetic. "Mammals have lots of stories. Suspicions that they're a smaller Predator. Wasn't it a Fox print they found at the scene? So a Fox, or an Aardawolf or Coyote." she shrugged. "You're free to look at the security footage it it'll help," she said, indicating the control panel. "I won't stop you from doing that much at least."


She unwrapped a Back to Basics bar and began to gnaw on it distractedly with sharp teeth, watching Nick carefully. It was one that had a Rabbit on the packaging, and it almost look like she was stifling a smile as she chewed on it. She offered another one to Nick. "You can have it if you're hungry. We get them for free here," she said casually.

[Proto Triose]

Nick stopped, perking one ear up to listen to what she said. He kept up with it, taking one step as if seeing if she were sure before coming back to the cameras. It was a slow process, rewinding the days ever so slowly, keeping the cameras on where Judy found the ticket. He had to make it look he wasn't eager, was doing it because he was grateful for the help. He looked over at the bar, almost let his tail twitch. That would have been a sure giveaway. Instead, he reached out and took the bar.


"A bunny." He looked at his own packaging. He knew it wasn't coincidence, either. "Still have your sense of humor, I see." He smiled at her, putting the bar in his pocket after sniffing it. "It smells good, but I ate right before coming over. I'll keep it for later when I need a snack. If, of course, that's alright with you? I'm not going to get arrested for taking stolen property, am I?" He used his own humor, the same type of jokes he used to tell. "I suppose I'd have to be arrested by the rabbit this time, huh?"


He almost missed it, stopping the cameras just in time. There was another prey on the screen. Not Buck, he noted, looking almost crestfallen. That would have been way too big of a swift close to all this business. Still, there was an Aardawolf, practically cornering him. Nick zoomed the camera, but he couldn't make out what it was. He assumed it would be whatever it was Judy had picked up. At least they had a species. Then the Aardawolf turned, giving him a fairly good picture of his face. Nick hit the pause button.


"Is there a way to print this out anywhere?" He put a paw out, slowly putting it on Aurora's smaller one. Smaller; the thought nagged at him. But nothing came of it. Aurora was here, working a legitimate job, and he just found a suspect. "And thank you, Aurora. It ... means a lot."

[Dynax]

Aurora continued to eat her bar noisily, looking as though she was ignoring Nick's words. However, that  was not he case, her eyes were fixed on his every move, reading whatever she could of his body language. The air between them was tense, and despite her brashness Aurora seemed to be on high alert, as though looking.


"Getting cute with me isn't going to help your case, Wilde," she said, her voice flat. "Oh, that Aardawolf works here. Assembly line. His name's Jong Lewe. The wallaby is Brea Mckenzie. She's janitorial," Aurora explained. "They frequently have little spats like this but nothing that either of them could get in trouble for. You can just print it right here," she added, gesturing an old printer in the corner.


But when Nick touched her paw she pulled away firmly, leveling him with a hard stare but saying nothing.


"Don't thank me," she grunted. "I don't need to get on the cop's bad side now."

[Proto Triose]

Nick was already printing the still, just in case. Despite what she said, he wasn't sure yet if he could trust her words. Folding up the image and tucking it in a pocket, he turned to face her. "Fair enough." His eyes fell on her nearly finished bar, even as he pulled the one in his pocket out. It was going to disgust him, having to do this. It was on principle, more than anything, though. Everything at Back to Basics seemed legitimate enough. Until a psycho serial killer went rampaging, they even had a prey to support the brand, so how bad could it be? He unwrapped the bar in front of her, pulling the wrapped off all the way. Crumpling it up in his paw as he took a bite, he held out his hand for her wrapper, nodding to the trash can.


"I'll throw it out for you on my way, at the least. Your trash can is already full. I know you'll have to clean up if you start throwing garbage around." He put all of the innocence and nonchalance in his eyes that he possibly could, carefully balanced. Like he was desperately trying to do even a small thing to help her out. He hadn't dwelled long enough on the possibility for it to show in his eyes that he suspected her in any way, he was sure of that, but the way she tensed up ... he wasn't going to take a chance.


He forced a swallow. The truth of it was the bar wasn't actually that bad, and it did brighten him up. He could see why they were addictive, if he was going to be honest with himself. All the more reason not to ever eat another one. he thought while he stood with his paw out for her wrapper.

[Dynax]

Aurora hesitated for a fraction of a second and finished peeling her bar before carefully placing it in Nick's paw. Her eyes had remained cold for the entirety of the meeting, and they did not waver now. Her ears were still stiff with bitterness, and her ever present snarl wrinkling her muzzle.


"Tasty, aren't they?" she said as Nick took a bite. "This one is my favorite flavor." She ignored his overtures for anything resembling friendliness and flicked her tail at the door. [size=78%]"Don't let the door hit you on your way out," she said with a voice full of casual venom. "I'm sure your partner is waiting for you. I have work to get back to." she said, swiveling her chair back around.[/size]
[/size]
[/size][size=78%]It was a dismissal and a hard one. There was a brief silence between them that stretched into eternity, something uncomfortable, heavy with things left unsaid. But she ignored him, and proceeded as though he had already left. [/size]
[/size]
[/size][size=78%]**[/size]
[/size]
[/size][size=78%]"There you are!" Judy said with relief as Nick approached her. "I think I've found something that's going to help us. We're about out of time so we need to get back to the car."[/size]
[/size]
[/size][size=78%]By now night had fallen on the city, and the neon signs and brilliant lights had started to dance the blackness away. Once they were in the patrol car, Judy opened her mouth excitedly before remembering herself. "Did it go all right?" she asked, reaching out to touch Nick's shoulder.[/size]

[Proto Triose]

Nick had unfortunately had to crumple the wrapper a little bit, though he'd left it not balled up so he could remember which wrapper was which. Once in the car, he had immediately opened the glove box, looking for an evidence bag. He stopped, his demeanor relaxing at Judy's hand on his shoulder. He leaned his head ever so slightly to the side - was he squeezing her hand, or was it just a movement? It wasn't for sure - before he snapped open an evidence bag and tucked Aurora's wrapper in it. "It went as well as it could have, all things considered. Almost didn't get anything." Then he pulled the image out of his pocket, holding it up to her. "But I did see you found something, and managed to get her to let me view the tapes. Found this, in the same location you found that slip of paper." It had a fairly clear shot of the Aardawolf's face in the image, along with the wallaby janitor.


"Aurora said they both worked there and they had spats all the time. She's different, Judy. I couldn't trust her." It was almost a defense, but it was more to reassure himself. With a sigh, he held up the bag still in his paw, with the wrapper. "Especially because of how she was so quick to defend those two. When I touched her paw, she snapped it away. It wasn't natural, but it wasn't unnatural either. It's to be expected. Still. She has small paws." He said that in a way that would prompt Judy to understand what he was saying. "So I managed to get this from her. It has a saliva sample on it that we can run. Just to be sure."


Putting the bag delicately back in the glovebox, he looked up and over at her. "What did you find? Something that will tell us where to go next?" While Judy was watching him put the wrapper away, she no doubt saw the animal that was on both of their wrappers. He didn't throw either of them away, as he didn't have time. With her quick thought, she probably knew he'd had to eat one of the bars, too, which he hadn't mentioned - mostly because she knew how much he disliked them. And he had swished coffee in his mouth and spit it out on the street corner before getting in the vehicle with her. "I hope it's better than what I got. A picture isn't going to help much if we don't know where to use it."

[Dynax]

Judy blinked at the evidence bag and then turned her attention to the image Nick had printed out, showing the face of a snarly looking Aardawolf and a cowering wallaby in a janitor's uniform. She recognized the location as the place where the found the unusual red ticket. Her face twisted in sympathy when he discussed Aurora and his lack of faith in her. She nodded, understanding. She refrained from saying "I told you so" because it wouldn't have been helpful in the slightest. She had guessed that whatever Aurora had been like as a thirteen year old kid and what she was like as a thirty three year old full grown vixen who literally grew up behind bars would be dramatically different from whatever tenderness Nick could remember.


"Sly fox," she said, impressed as he slid the wrapper into the evidence bag. "It definetely can't hurt to run it. Actually, if we're going to suspect that she might be connected to the case somehow, after twenty years of prison I'm sure she must have a pawprint on file somewhere. As for where to go next," she said, holding up the ticket, "I found this. It just has the number 7305 on it and this gang symbol. Or what I think is a gang symbol." she put the ticket away. "Either way, I think I know who we need to visit next."


**


For the second time that day, Judy had changed out of her police officer's uniform, and wished she had brought a jacket. Her thin fur did nothing for the chill of Tundratown. This time, they had to park the squad car in a public parking lot, and Judy had had to put a call in to Fru Fru. About an hour of waiting later--for one didn't simply drop in on Mr. Big unnanounced since despite the fact he was a crime boss, he was also a businessman. Fru Fru was estatic to hear from Judy, and after twenty minutes of exchited chatter was happy to send a car to pick Nick and Judy up at a discreet location. The Polar Bears in question were not Kevin or Raymond, but the driver turned out to be Mr. Manchas, who greeted them with a tip of his hat and a toothy smile. Judy was pleased to see that his cars had long since faded and were nearly invisible against his dark fur.


Mr. Big had elected to meet them at his home once again, but instead of his formal receiving room, he had them meet him in one of the more private rooms in the house, a comfortable sitting room full of squashy, fancy armchars and couches, richdly decorated with authentic paintings and ornate lamps. Mr. Big's tiny chair was resting upon what for anyone else might have been nothing more than a coffee table for a Bear-sized individual, but for him worked as a platform that raised him to Nick and Judy's eye level when they sat down in the comfortable sofa chair together.


They made some polite small talk about their private lives that Judy knew the mob boss would appreciate more than their professional ones given that he was surely aware of the news and Judy placed a tiny wrapped present on the coffee table next to Mr. Big's chair. It was a dress for baby Judy, a present that Judy had been meaning to give for a while now but not having had a chance to visit in person. Finally, after their coffee cups had been drained, Mr. Big sat his down and said,


"Now, to business. I know things haven't been looking too good for the two of you in the paper, and I hear whispers you're on a tricky case looking for the serial killer. Now, what can I help you with?"


"While I was searching the Back to Basics factory, we found this," Judy said, procuring the red ticket and handing it to Mr. Big. "My best guess is that this is some kind of gang symbol or organization logo, but it's nothing I've ever seen before."


Mr. Big grunted, and Nick showed him the picture of the Aardawolf and the wallaby.


"Ah, I recognize him. Small timer, likes to fight." he sighed heavilly. "There is a good reason you've never seen this sign, Judy," he confessed, his voice sounding weary. "It's from an underground fighting ring called Natural Selection. It's the kind of dirty crime I would never stick my own claws in. The things they deal in are things that no self respecting businessmammal should be involved with, on either side of the tracks. Prey isn't allowed there, except as an offering, or a bet."


Judy didn't like where this was going but pressed on. "Could you elaborate on that, sir?"


"You don't need me to," Mr. Big said. "You have to know that the market for the flesh of Prey does exist. And it thrives in dark places. It would not surprise me that the Bloodmouth would be involved with them in some way. You can't safely go there. He might be able to," Mr. Big said, pointing at Nick. "But it's risky no matter what. If they find out you're cops, you'll wish they'd have just killed you."

[Proto Triose]

Nick stood next to her near the car. When he saw Judy shivering, he unlocked the doors and leaned in the back, unzipping his bag and removing another shirt of his. It wouldn't be much, but it was something. He draped it over her shoulders right before the limo came to get them, rubbing her upper arms in a familiar "There, get warm" motion.

The entire trip he talked with Mr. Manchas about how things had been after the Savage case, idly turning the heat up in the back compartment like it were him that needed the heat on.

At Mr. Big's, he was uncharacteristically silent, though Judy knew full well why. He still wasn't used to this whole setup, much less being in Mr. Big's good graces, though towards the end he had stood up and walked around a bit, leaning in and looking at various paintings.

"Speaking of media, there's this -" He held up a finger, but stopped when Judy shot him a look. "You know what. Never mind. We can handle it."

Mr. Big paused in his address, looking at Nick. "You can't just ice all of your problems, Nicky. That is a temporary solution. To a much bigger problem."

He continued with Judy again, while Nick went and looked at a lamp standing on a pedestal. He reached out a finger, bringing it closer and closer as Mr. Big talked. When he mentioned Nick once again, that he could do it, it made him jump and jab the lamp a little too hard, knocking it off the pedestal with a crash. Nick shot upright and spun around, straight backed in the way he had been when they first were taken here so long ago.

Clenching and unclenching his fists, with his ears on high alert and eyes wide, he pointed up at a polar bear near him. The polar bear growled and slapped him on the back of the head at a motion from Mr. Big.

He never stopped looking at Judy, so thankfully this time he didn't seem particularly upset about something Nick did. "You're sure that this," he pointed at Nick again, who received another polar bear slap to the back of his head and scurried away to sit back next to Judy. "Is the partner you need and deserve? We could find you a much more qualified one. To protect you." He leaned forward conspiratorially in his chair. "I know people in the ZPD."

"She's perfectly fine being unprotected by me. Wait. That came out wrong."

"Indeed." He was silent a moment, looking Nick up and down before turning his chair pointedly toward Judy. "Still, you could do worse, child. As we were saying?"

[Dynax]

Judy knew that Mr. Big meant well, and the idea of him having "contacts" in the ZPD beyond her, as hypocritical as that was, was a little bit uncomfortable. Still she shook her head and said politely, "After everything we've been through, Mr. Big, I can promise you that Nick is the only mammal I'd want by my side. As for the rest, we need to get to this crime ring. If there's a chance that we can find out more about the Bloodmouth by going, then it's worth doing, regardless of the risk. There is lots of missing Prey, and we can't just let this killer have free reign of the streets."




"Maybe you didn't hear me, my child," Mr. Big sighed. "At that fighting ring, Prey are bought and sold to be eaten."


Judy almost gagged at the thought, but she kept her head and stiffened her ears.


"All the more reason for us to get in there and shut it down."


Mr. Big finally sighed. "My child," he said, "I can give you a name of someone who knows them, but the mammals who work in that ring are enemies of mine. I can't garuntee the situation won't go bad. Try the docks, tomorrow night. There's a Fossa who works as a faciliator to get interested Predators to go. Name's Randal Smog. Go in disguise. He can smell cops."


**


After the business meeting with Mr. Big, the shrew had invited them to dinner, an invation that they could not refuse politely. By the time they were done, it was well past midnight, and Judy was both cold, disheartened and exhausted. They had big leads, but the reveal of where the ticket came from left her with a sick feeling in her guts. They got into the police car, checked it back into the station, but by the time they got to the bus stop Judy was leaning heavilly against Nick, and needing to resist the urge to hold Nick's paw. She felt small and sick despite their huge leads, and the idea of going back to her apartment, alone in the dark made he physically recoil.


"Nick," she said as her stop appraochd. It was raining again outside, which she was thankful for because it gave her a pretext for her request. "Would you want to stay with me tonight? So you don't have to walk home in the rain?"" she added quickly. "I still have some of your stuff..."

[Proto Triose]

Nick looked down the street, looking almost pathetic with his fur dropped from the water, his tail a lot thinner than it usually was. "I was going to walk home," he pulled something out of his pocket, a little plastic case with a dvd inside with a blue strip down the middle and 'Forrest Thump' written on the side. "But if I did that, then we couldn't watch the movie I rented for us, could I? And I'm not going to watch a movie about a dumb bunny by myself without my own dumb bunny right there with me. What kind of fox would I be if I did that?"

He was already moving up the steps, under the awning where it was relatively dry, shaking out his fur a little. "I think a night spent with you, after a day like this, is just about required. For sanity's sake. And of course, if I get a cold from the rain, how can I be there to keep you from doing something completely insane and extremely dangerous at the docks? I've seen you swim." He winked at her, holding the movie up.

"What do you think? Think you can keep your mind off work long enough to relax tonight?" If either of them needed that, of course, it was him. But he wasn't about to admit how much he needed it. He wasn't going to admit how much he needed her, how his heart raced at her even offering. How much more safe he himself would feel, with her around, and how he was honestly afraid of facing a lot of truths and history that was brought up all in one day. The nightmares he'd have, the thoughts he'd have. Yes, in many ways he needed her and her comfortable, familiar presence.

But he kept that facade of not needing it up like he always did. At least in public.

[Dynax]

She looked at the DVD in his hand. A DVD, who used DVDs these days? But the odds of the film actually being on Petflix were slim enough and luckily she had an external DVD player held together with tape that should work all right to function with the old disk. "I think we can make a gallant effort," she said with a small half-smile. She opened the door the the apartment complex and led them both inside. The wooden steps creaked as they padded up the narrow staircase up to the second floor, and Judy opened her door after wrenching her keys around.


Her apartment was a little bit cold, but that was nothing a few blankets and turning on the space heater wouldn't fix. She turned the string of twinkle lights that wound around the small space on, gently illuminating the narrow apartment. There was a tiny sitting area that snugly fit a a squat secondhand faded red couch draped with a pile of homemade quilts and knitted blankets from home. There was battered coffee table before it. It was slightly crooked as at some point one of its legs had been broken off and replaced with a piece of sturdy plywood and a brick, upon which sat Judy's laptop, a much needed purchase from last year. Her kitchenette was crammed up against a recess in the wall, spotless except for one dinged kettle out on the electric stove. And mashed up at the very back of the space was Judy's narrow bed, neatly made and half hidden behind a short Ikea dresser that was liberally decorated with small framed photographs a photo album. The door to the bathroom lay just beside it.


Judy turned on the space heater and dove behind her dresser to dig out some of Nick's clothes had he'd left behind from the last few times he'd stayed over and flopped them on the couch.


"You can shower first," she said, indicating his wet fur and clothes. "I'll--" she checked her mini fridge and winced. Just about empty except for what remained of a bundle of carrots, half a carton of raspberries and some soy milk. She hadn't gone shopping this week yet, "Order us some pizza!"


While Nick was in the shower, Judy ordered their mutually favorite pizza, plugged in her laptop and set the DVD up, trying to focus on making the apartment comfortable rather than the stresses of the day. She was concerned about the ticket, and their next leads, but mostly she was worried about Nick. He'd been through a lot today. This case was asking much of him, and yet Judy was almost desperate to know more. As innapropriate as it was, she knew she shouldn't have been there to see his reunion with Aurora. And yet...after Finnicks' words, and what Nick had told her of the vixen...


She thought of you as a brother...

She wanted to know more. She wanted to see all the pieces laid out in front of her, so she could make an accurate picture of the vixen that used to run with Nick.


When Nick came out of the shower, his fur towel-dry and sticking up in silly places, she she handed him the bills that would pay for the pizza and excused herself to the shower. She leaned against the tiled walls as the hot water poured down hr shoulders, feeling like a bad partner. She shouldn't ask him. They needed to just relax, get away from work for a few hours and go to sleep. She should not be still on about this!


She dried and threw on a blue T-shirt and sweatpants before exiting the bathroom in a cloud of aromatic steam, pleased to see that the pizza had arrived. They didn't bother with plates as they curled up on the couch and settled beneath one of her sister's quilts to watch the movie. Settled was an approximate word. With the size of the couch and the limbs they had to navigate--here long legs, Nick's brush--it took a bit of fiddling.


"Comfy? Can I press play?" Judy said, leaning over awkwardly to press play on the screen.

[Proto Triose]

When she'd come out of the shower, he'd quickly put one of the pictures down. She'd probably scene his paw touching the picture in a fond way. In his haste, he managed to knock over a few more, not having expected her out so quickly. Patting the pictures like that was how they were supposed to be, he went over to sit with her on the couch. His tail was still wedged between the sofa cushions and the back rest, but it wasn't being sat on or bent on any awkward way, so it was comfortable enough.

He nodded to her, taking up a slice of pizza and taking a large bite. "Nothing like home cooked at Pizza Den." He spoke around the mouthful. Once finished, while the opening credits rolled, he looked around her place, nibbling at a bit of dropping cheese. "I like it. It's homey. Could use a fox's touch though. Like this," he tapped the table with his foot. "Saw off the legs, make it shorter. It could be one of those popular tanuki style tables, if we played it right."

Setting the pizza down, he put an arm around her and motioned with his other hand to the opposite wall, encompassing the breadth of it with a swipe of his hand. "We could get a mural done over there. Of us, cuffing the perp. I have ideas." He sat back in the couch, grabbing his slice again, his eyes on the movie.

Shortly in to it, almost done with his second slice, he looked over at her. She'd been oddly quiet the whole time. Pointing at the movie, where Forrest Thump was running with those ridiculous braces on, "I think I would pay to see you try and run as fast as you do with those things on."

A little laugh, and that was it. She was distracted. If he were more openly honest, he was just cracking jokes to keep his own mind off the events of the day anyway. It was clearly both eating at them. Looking down at her half eaten slice, the cooling pizza, he set the remainder of his down. The movie kept playing, but he knew his partner. She needed this as much as he did. "There were moments, today, that I wish I could have seen her in the same way she saw me. Maybe things would have been different. Maybe I wouldn't have been so willing to save my own tail." He speared a piece of an olive on his claw, flicking it back into the box.

Wiping his hand with a napkin before patting her leg, he smiled reassuringly at her. "It's okay. It's been a long day. Since it's tied in directly with the case, you have every right to know. More than that, you make me want to tell you. Go ahead, you silly bunny."

[Dynax]

She had curled up comfortably with Nick and pressed play when he'd given her the go ahead. While the movie played she rolled her eyes. "A fox's touch?" She wondered what that sort of thing might entail. There he was bringing up the possibility of moving in together again. He did it lightly, but she knew that he was serious. Not the time, she though to herself. Try to relax and watch the movie. You like this one. And she did, for the first few minutes. She allowed herself to get sucked into it, but as Forrest's braces came off, it was as though the suffocating pressure in her own mind regarding Aurora, regarding the case shattered too. She went quiet, unable to process the film anymore, and her  mind deep diving into the events of the day. Where she normally might have provided observation and commentary in tandem with Nick's, she found she was unable to do so now.


She started to shift, not because she was uncomfortable, but because she suddenly felt nervous, uneasy. Anxious about what had transpired between her partner and his former friend. In the end, after his touch, she turned over and flopped, laying her back across his lap so that she was looking up at him. But it was also commonly known that a bunny wouldn't show her belly to anyone except the most trusted of friends, and it was this subconscious gesture that she hoped would communicate her confidence in Nick even as he spoke of all this.


"What happened, Nick?" she asked. "How did it all go so...wrong?"

[Proto Triose]

He knew it, well enough, and it made him feel that much better. Gently, he lay a hand on her stomach, leaning back further into the couch. "What's this, the second thing I've told you today?" He had closed his eyes, but opened one to look down at her for a moment. "One of these days, you're going to have to give me one." Then he kicked his feet up on the slightly tilted table, with Forest in the background. My momma always said life was like a box of produce. You never know what you're gonna get.

"We were young. Very young. But we'd both grown up on the streets, pulling small time cons to make our money. We both knew Finnick - that's how we got paired up. This part you know. By that time, I'd hardened myself to the world. Wasn't about to let anyone in. I thought Aurora was the same, but it turns out not.

Anyway, the part you want to know. Neither of us were kids. Oh, sure, our bodies were. But -we- weren't. We'd both pulled a lot of small stuff together, but we wanted a big score. The two of us, pulling off a large heist. Finnick found one he thought we could handle. A large shipment of freshly printed bills was being shipped in to a bank, and he'd gotten wind of the day and all the way down to the hour.

With that kind of information, he figured it was a sure win. Aurora and I, we made our plans. A simple Drop and Snatch. The crates would be kept overnight in a warehouse until they could be picked up in the morning. It was then we'd drop in from above with a crane, lift them out onto a boat, and be chugging along before anyone knew anything.

We were good, I don't deny that. Very good. We successfully managed to cut the alarms, rent the crane with a few bribes here and there. What we missed was the smallest, most ridiculous thing. One of the shipments we used to climb down - it had its own remote alarms built into the crate. We should have known, but we were high on the thrill of it all. The silent alarm tripped. Normally, it wouldn't be so bad, but it took long enough strapping the crate in that the police got there.

Did we panic? I'd like to say we kept our cool, pretended we were meant to be there. But we didn't. Yeah, we paniced. I jumped up the crates, running for my life. Aurora was more muscular, smaller. She couldn't follow me fast enough. When she leapt at the suspended money crate, she caught the bottom, but one of the police grabbed her ankle.

She lost her grip. During the struggle of trying to get him off her ankle, the crate swung and snapped free. I assume Aurora fractured an ankle, from her cries. She got away easy, though. The policeman that had been grabbing her, well ... The crate landed on him. He was killed. And Aurora was surrounded.

From the roof, looking down, terrified, I didn't know what to do. When a flashlight turned on me, the last thing I remember is Aurora reaching up to me, pleading, and a voice yelling for me to freeze. I ran. I ran as fast as I could, and hid in an alley for the next four hours, in the sewage drain. Until the search expanded out. They didn't get a good look at me, so I managed out to the streets and made my way back to Finnick's.

That was the last I saw of her." Judy could hear the pain that came with the memory the whole time he talked. Could almost see the little lost fox, soaked through with sewage and the spray from the ocean, trudging back to what passed for a home. Seeing someone killed, if accidentally, still at their hands, by someone so young. And there really wasn't much he could have done more, except allow himself to be caught.

But Finnick had relied on him, his mother needed the money he sent her; he couldn't let himself be caught. He still clearly felt bad for what he did to Aurora, even if he saw her as nothing more than a partner. It was still an awful decision he had had to make.