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Part 12

There was that sound again, a constant beep, beep noise that roused Chase from his sleep. His eyes were burning as if suffering from a fever, he didn't remember anything that had happened after being dragged into the Tundra Town bay by an enormous dinosaur...

Had it all... been a dream?

Chase opened his eyes slowly, he was lying in a dimly lit room, staring up into a pasty white colored ceiling over his head. He felt weak and turned his head to the right in order to see a heart monitor and an IV of fluids dripping down toward a tube that was connected to his arm. He took a deep breath, and winced at the constriction he felt.

"Hey, well look who's awake."

Chase turned to see Fangmeyer sitting at the foot of his bed looking at him. He was dressed in civilian clothes; a red jacket, a pair of blue jeans. Chase had obviously been out for a while as the tiger's smile looked more out of relief than anything else. "Wh-what happened?" Chase asked, his voice a bit hoarse before he cleared it. "Sorry, what happened?" He asked as he sat up some in bed, finding it difficult to move.

"Easy there." He waved gently. "After your forced introduction to the lake, you passed out. I guess the sudden temperature change from Sahara Square to a lake where temps reached around negative thirty caused pneumonia. You've been lying here almost a week, until yesterday they had you hooked up to so many machines it made my fur crawl. How're you feeling?"

"I'd be lying if I said I were a hundred percent. How's everyone? Where's Chief Bogo--?"

Just as Chase mentioned Bogo's name, the door opened and the buffalo pushed his way in back first, carrying a pair of large coffee cups in his hand. "Fangmeyer, I do hope they got it right this time, I'm not going back downstairs to have them replace it agai--" He paused, noticing Chase sitting up in his bed. "Oh well, look at that. Sleeping Beauty decided to open his precious little eyes."

"Gee, Chief. Do you really think they're precious?" Chase teased, blinking them.

"I see you're just as bad as that fox." Bogo said, rolling his eyes.

Bogo was dressed casually too, probably for the first time Chase had ever seen him like that. He wore a black leather vest and a pair of darker blue jeans along with a button up shirt underneath with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The look surprised the wolf, but he didn't skip a beat. "Hey, I take personal insult to that."

"Which one is mine?" Fangmeyer asked.

"That would be the hot one." Bogo scowled at the tiger, who snagged the cup from his hand. "I'd say after that adventure we could all use a rest..." He sighed. "One would hope anyway."

"So... what happened with the dinosaurs?" Chase asked and peered at Bogo's cup. "And I had no idea you enjoyed iced coffee sir."

"I don't like hot things." Bogo said bluntly. "Spicy I can handle, but not hot things like coffee unless it's some unearthly hour of the morning when I need that extra jolt." He took a sip. "Anyway, as far as the dinosaurs were concerned, six of them were recovered, including "Big Momma"." He said, flailing his fingers in quotation marks. "She, unfortunately did not survive her little dip in the bay."

"Yeah, apparently being frozen doesn't keep you alive like movies make us think." Fangmeyer said as he took a drink of his coffee.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for your train?" Bogo asked, raising an eyebrow at the tiger.

"Already packed up, chief. Train leaves in an hour."

"Then get going, or I'll be forced to resend your vacation. We could always use more hands back at the precinct."

Like a pin had stuck him in the butt, the tiger jumped to his feet all of a sudden. "Oh you know, you're right. Traffic's going to be a real bear I'm sure, so I might want to head over to the station now." He chuckled nervously as he made his way to the door. "Great talking to you chief, and I'm glad to see you recovered Chase, I was really worried about you."

"Thanks, Tobias." Chase said with a smile and half a wave as the tiger stepped out the door.

With the tiger gone, Bogo cleared his throat and sat his coffee on the bedside table. "Right! Now, with him out of the room, I can get down to business." Bogo said as he withdrew a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. Padding his other pocket for his glasses, he found them and extracted them.

"Chief? What's going on?"

Ignoring Chase, Bogo put on his glasses and read the letter aloud.

"From the desk of Mayor Leodore Lionheart..." He cleared his throat. "On the recommendation of good friend and Police Chief Bogo, for his actions that went above and beyond the call of duty for his station; for maintaining calm under a situation of crisis and assuming an assertive leadership station and taking actions to avoid a single loss of life. It is my honor, and my privilege to award Detective Chasemiah William Howard the rank of Sergeant; Second Class. And hereto all the duties and rights suited to that rank. Congratulations!" Bogo's mouth had the hint of a smile as he pulled his glasses off, folded them up neatly in his pocket and withdrew an envelope before handing it to Chase.

"It would seem I've misjudged you." He paused. "I have a habit of doing that, apparently. But congratulations...

"Congratulations!" Judy exclaimed as she burst through the door, followed by Fangmeyer, Nick and McHorn. "I knew you had it in you! Didn't I tell you you shouldn't worry about it?"

"Ah--thanks, you guys... I was pretty sure I blew the whole thing."

"Well, I figured when you crawled out of that freezing water missing everything below what used to be your belt..." He pointed out, making Chase blush and pull his blanket up against him. "I figured you probably had the stuff it took to be a vital member of the team."

Chase turned the envelope over and his uniform's pips fell into his hand. He smiled broadly as he clutched them. "Thanks, you guys." He said. "This means a lot."

"Well I've got to be going to catch my train." Fangmeyer said before reaching over and giving Chase a hug. "You feel better. The docs said you've got to be in here a few more days, so get your rest."

"I best be off as well." Bogo said. "Now that Chase is feeling better, I'm afraid I have another appointment to keep at the jail.

"Where's Clawhauser?" Chase asked. "I'm surprised he's missing this one."

"He's already at the jail." Bogo explained. "Miss Blurr's assistance is being commuted into her sentence, she may be released as early as today and he decided to put in his weight, as it were."

"And we're headed back to the station." Nick said. "We just came down to see how you were getting along during our lunch break."

"We'll be seeing you around." Judy said.

As everyone slowly evacuated the room, Chase waved them goodbye. As he leaned back, he noticed another weight in the envelope and pulled out a small portfolio wallet and opening it up he found a new badge emblazoned with his name and his identity on the other side. "Looks like it'll be plain clothes for me now..." He said to himself as he looked up to the closed door, and he smiled.

***

"So, they gave me six months for endangering the public." Victoria said as Bogo leaned in across the table from her. She was dressed in her normal outfit, but that would soon change. "So much for my science being the betterment of Zootopia, huh?"

"You just went about it the wrong way." Bogo said. "I think your only fatal flaw was you running when we needed you most."

Victoria smiled and nodded. "I am not a brave woman, just a scientist."

"Victoria." Bogo added, more seriously. "What happened to the last allosaurus? We'd recovered five or your normal ones plus Big Momma, but the sixth one that Detective Howard referred to as "Hook" is still missing."

"Who knows?" Victoria shrugged. "The collar was offline when I checked, perhaps someone took him?"

"Bah but the only one who would know about them that isn't accounted for was--" He paused. "You don't think..."

"If he's still out there, I doubt he'll get very far with you on the case." She smiled. Lincoln Katt can't exactly walk into a bar and spend one hundred and fifty million without raising an eyebrow."

"You're right." Bogo nodded. "Well, thank you for your time Victoria, and I do hope you settle in--"

"Joseph, wait." She said, putting her hand on his. "I know a lot has happened, but... I was wanting to talk to you about what happened between us."

"What is there to talk about? We had our careers, and we went our separate ways."

"Well, I was hoping that... perhaps we could start over say in six months or so?"

Bogo frowned, looking into her eyes. "'Fraid not." He said. "You see, I have--"

"A duty to perform." Victoria finished Bogo's sentence. "I know. Or..." Her eyes widened. "Or was it something more?"

"Not--exactly." Bogo shrugged. "But what's happened between us before... it's... over."

Victoria smiled and lifted her hand. "I understand Joseph." She said. "It was good while it lasted though."

Bogo blushed a bit and cleared his throat unnervingly. "Ahem... yes... yes it was."

Clawhauser was entering the hallway at the same time Bogo left Victoria's room, he had a sullen look on his face and the pair met in the center of the hallway before continuing on together. "So... uhm... Eddie's sentence got commuted by three months, so she'll be getting out in two years. I guess my weight wasn't much to shorten it by much."

"You did what you could, Clawhauser." Bogo said, placing his hand on Clawhauser's shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Benjamin." Bogo said, stopping and looking the cheetah in the eye. "Listen, I've been meaning to catch up on my work and everything anyway, so it would do me some good to practice some dispatch work--"

Clawhauser's ears wiggled some in response. "Chief? What are you saying?"

"You saved our lives that day, Clawhauser... twice and while I can't exactly promote all of my officers, I suppose I can give you this upcoming weekend off so you can go see your concert."

"OHHHHH CHIEF!" Clawhauser's voice went supersonic all of a sudden as the cheetah shrieked and clamped his arms around Bogo's waist in a grip so tight he could hardly breathe. "Y-You mean it?! Oh please tell me you mean it... or not, I don't want to hear it if you don't mean it, in case this is some sort of a joke, but then again, you're not the kind of person that makes jokes about--"

"Clawhauser." Bogo stated adamantly, making the cheetah pause in anxiousness. "Just go. Have a good time. That'll be all."

"You really mean it, huh?"

Bogo smiled a bit and returned the cheetah's hug. "Yes, I do. And thanks again for saving our lives."