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Benjamin was thrilled to start his first day at the ZPD. To think that he could actually wear the uniform and chase after bad guys, he wondered if Gazelle would finally notice him.

That meant that he would have less time to work on the fan club website though. Hope Gazelle understands, he thought as he buckled his belt with some difficulty.

Officers at the bullpen were pretty polite to him, mostly because of Adira. Benjamin walked straight at Mansa and greeted him enthusiastically,

'Morning, Mansa! See? Here I am, finally a cop.' and he did a little spin to show off his uniform.

'Congratulations. You are quite something to make it here.' Mansa said, 'You're lucky. All of the parking duty is reserved for the wolves for howling during nightshift until the chief says otherwise.'

'No one wants your meter maid photos, Ben.' Adira greeted Mansa before sitting down beside Benjamin, 'That's why you'll probably never have the chance to wear the cute orange coat.'

'Oh, I'm not cute?' Benjamin pouted, 'Not good enough of a model, huh?'

'You are. But the others don't think so. You might have to rethink about the prospect of finding a boyfriend here, Ben. They don't seem interested.' Adira patted his shoulder.

Benjamin disagreed. The whole station of cops and none of them like him? Mansa was alright, why aren't the others treating him the same way?

Benjamin knew all along being a cop was tough, but he didn't think he would face such a big dilemma the first day at work.

He followed Mchorn to patrol all morning with a gradually hungrier stomach. All seemed calm and normal until they saw the door to Nutty Creations Bakery open with a bang and an otter scurried hurriedly out to the street.

'Thief! Come back!'

Mchorn pulled out his radio, 'This is officer Mchorn. We have a 484. Hey!'

Benjamin lunged after the thief. It would be nice if he caught the thief and went on headlines.

Mchorn decided to let Benjamin do the job. There's no way an otter could outrun a cheetah.

Benjamin followed the thief into the alleys and cornered her after a short chase. He took out the handcuffs.

'No, please. Don't do this!' The otter pleaded. She trembled at the sight of the dangling metal, hugging a paper bag tightly.

'I'm sorry, madam, but you broke the law.' Benjamin's nose twitched at a familiar smell, 'Wait, is that bread in the bag?'

'It's just bread. Please don't arrest me. My husband was injured at work and we gave up everything to pay the bills. We have two starving children and I have no choice. Please, let me go back to my babies.'

'I...' Benjamin couldn't bear to be so cruel. He heard the shuffling of heavy feet. Mchorn must have grew impatient and decided to check on him.

'Hide, quickly!' He whispered urgently. The otter scurried into his uniform through the collar.

'Clawhauser, where's the otter?' Mchorn was disappointed.

'Sir... I lost her.' Benjamin tried to hide his face by lowering his head. Having an otter in his uniform felt itchy and he didn't want Mchorn to see him making funny faces.

Mchorn gave a grunt of disapproval, 'Seems like good cops don't run in family. You're nothing like your sister, fat cat.'

Benjamin followed Mchorn moodily back to the cruiser.

'Thank you so much.' The otter whispered before dropping onto the ground. She hurried home to check on her family, unbeknownst to the polar bears that visited her home.

Mansa was surprised to see Benjamin in records when he went down to search for past crime files.

'What are you doing here?'

'The chief told me to work here for now. Mchorn doesn't want to lead me anymore because I let an otter go.'

'Wait he called a petty theft in the morning, you let the thief go?'

'She had a starving family, Mansa. I couldn't do it.'

'Ben...' Mansa sighed, 'This is another tough part of being a cop. You can't just let a criminal go just because he is in a difficult situation. Guilty or not it's up to the jury to decide, not us.'

'It's a she, and I know.' Benjamin never hated himself for being soft-hearted, 'I just can't convince myself to cuff her, not when she's pleading like that. I don't want to lose the most precious part of me as a mammal.'

'Give it time, Ben. For now I'm going to talk to Mchorn and the chief. No matter how badly you performed this just isn't right.'

'Thanks, Mansa. I don't want sis to worry about me.' Benjamin opened a file and began arranging the contents, 'Don't tell her about this, okay?'

'She's going to find out regardless.' Mansa said as he opened the door.

He saw Mchorn immediately after he closed the door.

'I'd like to have a word with you.' Bogo paused to see the rhino nod, 'about Clawhauser.'

'What about him?'

'You can't just ditch him like that, no matter how bad he is.'

Mchorn looked at him incredulously, 'You're the one who wanted to ditch the other Clawhauser when she first came here and now you're telling me I can't leave this useless pile of fat behind?'

Mansa's nostrils flared at the last few words. He snarled, 'Apologise to Clawhauser for what you just said, both of them.'

'What if I say no?'

'Apologise, or fight me.' Mansa raised his fist.

Mchorn looked at his arm for a second before admitting defeat, 'I'd apologise.'

He opened the records door and went in.

'Thank you.' Mansa said with satisfaction.

Time to pay a visit to the chief again, Mansa cracked his knuckles and started walking upstairs.