Things had changed in Zootopia. Mostly for the better, some things for the – not worst exactly – more like the not-so-much better. New bills had passed, new laws were enacted, the Mammal Inclusion Initiative was being supported more now than ever. There were the negative effects that stemmed from the Night howler incident. Many natural prey animals were still cautious around predators and new gangs had formed. The center of worry for the ZPD were the rumors of an underground operation centering around the Night howler market. Mentions of black market drugs and experimental testing could not be ignored by the officers of Zootopia. Fortunately, Zootopia would push through and survive the recent events, Judy on the other hand wasn't sure that she would.

Her noisy neighbors were away for the weekend. Silence was something that Judy rarely experienced. She grew up in a house full of young siblings, shared a dorm with obnoxious roommates at the police academy, and now was living in an apartment next to Zootopia's loudest neighbors. After growing up with as many siblings as she did, Judy was used to noise - she could even ignore it - but some quiet was nice every once in a while, especially on a night like tonight.

She was tired. She was tired of the publicity, she was tired of the drama at the ZPD, she was tired physically. Judy's ears drooped and her eyelids closed as she fell face first onto her bed. Always one for theatrics, she let out an uncharacteristically loud groan and listened to the unfamiliar silence. She could get used to this. Nothing was more calming right now than the silence. It didn't take long for her deep breaths to even and her half-lidded eyes to fully close.

Tap-tap-tap. "Hey, Carrots!" Tap-tap-tap, "I know that you're in there."

Judy cringed, her nose twitched, she covered her ears with her pillow. This was not the time. He could have just called her phone, except she remembered turning it off to eliminate distractions. Nothing that he had to say could have been this important. How had Wilde even found out where she lived? Judy forced the threatening tears from her eyes and blinked a few times.

Tap-tap-tap.

Any other time she wouldn't mind a visit from Nick, she had even planned to invite him over for blueberry pie and coffee sometime. Nick wasn't the problem. He was great, she loved his carefree attitude and snide remarks. She didn't even mind when he called her a "dumb bunny" or even cute – although that one was pushing it. No, Nick wasn't the problem. The problem was that she had a bad day, her head pounded after the disaster with the reporters this afternoon, her parents had called and she felt bad for ignoring it, she finally had some peace and a little bit of quiet and now it was ruined.

Tap-tap-tap. "Hopps, are you okay in there?"

She wanted to pull the sheets over her head and scream "No, I'm not, just go away!" She wanted to go back to sleep. She wanted to cry, for no reason in particular other than it just wasn't one of her best days - and she felt like it. She couldn't hurt Nick's feelings though. They'd been through so much together and she had to put on her best face for him, even if she didn't feel like it.

She swung her feet over the edge of the bed and padded over to the door, vainly trying to smooth her fur on the way over. She briefly acknowledged her jammies but figured that Nick wouldn't care too much if she was wearing baggy sweatpants and an old t-shirt. The next set of tapping was cut off as she opened the door. "What do you want Nick?" She felt briefly sorry for snapping at him for no reason.

"Dang, you look like hell! What happened to you in the last few hours, Judy?" She was slightly taken aback by his shocked expression and exclamation as well as his use of her first name. She could feel fresh tears pricking at her eyes once again. She knew that he didn't mean anything by that remark but still, she didn't look that bad. Did she?

Subconsciously her hand went up to smooth back her ears again and then move down to wipe her nose as she sniffled. "Hello to you too, Nick." Her voice came out dry and very unamused. "I'm glad to see you too." She could feel her cheeks coloring as her voice cracked and showed more emotion than she wanted to show in front of her partner right now.

Nick still looked shocked but now his expression was full of worry and confusion. "Judy, what's wrong? Are you hurt? Is someone else hurt? Your family! Is your family okay? Is it-"

"Nick, slow down," She cut him off, "My family is fine, I'm fine, everything is just fine."

Nick had pushed his way into her apartment seemingly checking that everything was in fact, just fine. Once he was fully satisfied and had gotten a good look at the tiny room he turned back to Judy expectantly. She should have figured, she thought looking at him standing in the middle of the room with arms crossed, nothing would escape his sharp gaze and he would demand an explanation. Judy shut the door a little harder than she meant to. She flinched as the sound of the slamming door reverberated in her ears causing her head to pound even more fiercely than before.

"Everything is just fine, Nick, I promise. Just fine and dandy! Nothing to worry about, I'm great, never been better!" Her chipper voice sounded fake, even to her ears. "What brings you here this evening? If there is something that you need to talk about then we could discuss it over coffee. Or not, all out of coffee," She felt his eyes on her as she bustled about the room trying to act normal. His silence was disconcerting. "Well then, would water be fine? Or maybe –"

"Carrots," He actually sounded really concerned, that alone made Judy turn around from her place by the bottom shelf of the cupboard – she could have sworn that the coffee mugs had been right there. "You really don't look hot rabbit." He held up a paw to silence her protest on the subject, "I'm serious, do you feel okay? I think that all of the recent excitement has gotten to you. I'm just going to call Bogo and you can take tomorrow off, I can get some medicine and chicken soup." He pulled out his phone, this had to stop.

"No, you can't do that! I told you, I'm fine." How could he even think to call their boss, she could fend for herself. What she needed now was some quiet, some quiet and a long night's sleep. She would feel perfectly fine in the morning. There was no way that she would be missing a day of work over nothing, and she would make sure that Nick would know exactly that. "I'm fine. Honestly, never been better. Well, okay, I have been better, but that is not the point. I honestly just needed to get some quiet and rest after today. So can you just get on with whatever brought you here. Speaking of, how did you get here? I've never tole you where I live."

"Stop changing the subject, Carrots, that doesn't matter right now. What does matter is that you get better. You're obviously getting sick."

"Don't be ridiculous Nick, I'm not getting sick. I haven't been sick in my whole life." It mostly had to do with the fresh produce and growing up on the farm, always being in the sun and away from the pollution of a city helped one's immune system. She gasped, the city- "Oh, Nick, you don't think that I've become sick because of the city air do you? I'd never been to the city before now. Dad always said that the city air was polluted and I haven't had as many home cooked meals as I did at home..." She was speaking a mile a minute. Her logic was flawed but she was still concerned.

Nick just snickered at her antics and shook his head. "You're not dying, Judy. It's probably just a cold, you could have picked it up anywhere. I'm sure that the city air has nothing to do with it, neither does your diet. Heck, you eat ten times more healthy that Clawhauser does any day and he is hardly ever sick. I just think that if you are going to be sick you should call the Chief, take a day off, and rest."

Judy felt like she couldn't argue. Everything made sense now, the pounding headache, the extreme fatigue, the funny ache in her limbs, she was sick. She sniffled her nose and wiped some moisture from her eye. Why was she crying? Even more importantly, why was she sitting on her floor crying with Nick standing concerned just a few feet away in her apartment .

"Besides," Nick's suddenly bright mood brought Judy out of her thoughts, she looked up at him with misty eyes. "You need a break. Don't think that I haven't seen you working on this recent case during your lunch break, and after hours, not to mention the overtime that you've put in. You, little rabbit, need to chill." His sly smile worried her, "Plus, it will give me something to do this weekend; Bogo still has me on weekdays only. You're stuck with me this weekend, Carrots." He smiled even wider at her attempted glare.

Judy now wished that Nick was working weekends. Chief Bogo put Nick full time on weekdays only so that he could work the same hours as Judy and still have the minimum required hours until he "proved himself." Judy of course, still worked weekends and evenings. She would even pick up an extra shift occasionally putting her into overtime. What else could she do though, she loved her job and when a fellow officer needed her to pick up their shift so that they could have some time off she just couldn't refuse. Sure it made for some late nights and very long days, all worked through with very few hours of sleep, but it was work – what more could she do. She really did work a lot.

She tried to get up off the floor but her legs ached and wobbled when she stood. Judy clutched her head and winced, her head hurt. She swallowed and winced again, her throat hurt too. She looked up in time to see Nick as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and lead her forward to her bed. "You should probably call Bogo, Nick. I think that you're right, I'm sick." She could feel her nose twitch in distaste.

He smirked, Judy wasn't sure if it was because of the pathetic scratchy way her voice came out, the fact that she had just admitted that he was right, or that he was going to be her caretaker while she was sick. Whatever his reason for smirking, she was sure that she wouldn't like it.

"Don't worry, Carrots," They made it to her bed, she looked up at him expectantly. "I'll take good care of you." His wink and sly smile looked more menacing to Judy than anything.

This was going to be an extremely long weekend.

A/N - Thanks for reading. Hope that you liked it! Aren't those two just too cute! This wasn't my original plan for this story, I had a plot that was completely different and then Judy just took this story and hopped off with it to do with what she pleased...

Leave me some love if you want more. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Zootopia.