Nick's eyes roamed around the interior of the SUV once again, noting the gleaming faux wood paneling, plush cloth seats, and the large central touchscreen. So far, he had found that the touchscreen was his favorite part and he had been busy playing with it ever since they left the dealership. He had to admit to himself that the used vehicle was starting to grow on him, even if it wasn't the sports car he would have preferred.

The fox lowered his passenger side window further as he tried in vain to air out the car. From the moment he had first opened the door, he had noticed the faint scents of the family of skunks that owned the car before. While he had never met a skunk that smelled bad, much like foxes they had an uphill battle in the way other mammals perceived them. So the dealership, in their infinite wisdom, had decided to try to mask their scents with a liberal amount of harsh cleaners.

While he wouldn't have minded the mild, musky scent of the skunks, what he was stuck with was not only their scents, but the strong odor of chemicals too. The smell of which, he was firmly convinced, had been designed by some evil genius to target and wreak havoc on a fox's sensitive sinuses in a deliberate attempt to render them incapable of smelling anything.

Eventually, he grew tired of playing with all the car's controls, and his eyes moved to take in the city passing by outside. As the buildings blurred by he smiled, recalling how Judy had gone over every inch of the car before practically vanishing from sight inside its engine. At the time, he had just grunted in agreement with the everything she said while he spent the time admiring the view of his mate's cute butt and twitching tail.

The truth was that he didn't have the slightest idea what she had been talking about in regards to the vehicle. He just hadn't felt much like admitting it in front of either Judy or their raccoon sales mammal. With all of Zootopia's various forms of mass transit, he had never found the need to own a car before. As a consequence, his experience was limited to the few times that Finnick had grudgingly allowed him to drive his van.

The vulpine pulled his attention back to the present as he glanced once again at the rabbit behind the wheel. He sighed at seeing his mate hunched over the steering wheel, ears forward, eyes narrowed, with the same look of annoyance in her features that had been there since they had left the dealer. He had hoped that by now she would have gotten over most of her anger, but it just hadn't happened.

As they pulled into the parking lot of the small strip mall, he looked about to check out their destination. While he passed by the plaza many times, he never had a reason to stop before. He examined the various small shops before allowing his eyes to settle on the sign directly in front of them. It had a grey wireframed image of a cityscape in the background with text 'Wilde Reality' in bright red lettering over the top. He smiled at how the bottom of the 'y' morphed into the stylized shape of a fox tail that curled back around under the entire name.

As he looked at the realty office, he had to admit that he was more than a little impressed. It was much larger and looked far more professional than what he expected .

"Well, it looks like mom's business is doing well," he muttered to himself.

He looked over at the bunny when he didn't get a response, noticing that she was lost in thought. As he started to open his mouth to get her attention, he was interrupted as his phone rang. Nick suspected he knew who the caller was before his phone cleared his pocket.

A quick glance was all that was needed to confirm his suspicions, "Carrots, its Chief Buffalo Butt again…"

His mate merely growled in annoyance, "Ignore him." Then after a moment, she added, "You should just block him. I already did."

Nick sighed while flicking a thumb over the screen dismissing the call, "Judy, we are going to have to talk to him at some point."

The bunny rounded on him snapping back, "No, we don't! I put everything that needed to be said in my resignation letter."

The fox broke into a small laugh, "Yeah, but 'screw you we quit', while rather poetic, probably didn't provide him with much information."

Judy tried, but couldn't help bursting into laughter. It took her a while to regain her composure, but when she finally did, she answered, "My letter did NOT say that!"

The fox smirked as he pocketed the phone, "Oh, yeah, that was my letter. And while I do appreciate your turning it in for me, I suspect neither the ZPD or the Mayor's office will be sending me any New Year's cards."

The rabbit's ears suddenly dropped down her back as she closed her eyes and gently thumped her head against the steering wheel on hearing Nick's thinly veiled sarcasm. "Okay... Okay, I get it. I should have talked to you before turning yours in. I'm sorry, but I was ticked off, and I didn't think you would mind. They did reject your entry into the ZPA right after promising us you could attend. Besides, you were all set to resign just last week!"

Nick leaned back, waving a paw in dismissal. "It's fine. It's just that if you hadn't been in such a rush, I might have been able to pull in a couple more paychecks before someone realized the city was still paying me a small fortune to do absolutely nothing."

Judy leaned back in her seat as the last of the anger she had been carrying throughout the day finally drained away, leaving her feeling strangely empty inside.

She tried to hold back the tears as she asked in a quiet voice, "Oh Nick, what are we going to do now?"

The fox merely shrugged, "We are going to go inside and sign the paperwork for the house and pick up a set of keys. Then we are going to go and wait for our furniture to arrive."

Judy turned to see the small smirk playing across the fox's muzzle. She rolled her eyes, "You know that's not what I meant!"

She hesitated a moment before saying, "Nick, maybe we shouldn't buy the house. We're both unemployed and it isn't too late. We can still cancel the purchases we made this morning."

"Carrots, you love that house," Nick said gently "Besides, we have the money, and I refuse to let my mate continue to live in a neighborhood where I'll constantly be worrying about your safety whenever I'm not with you."

He took a moment and studied his mate, trying to judge her mood before deciding to risk it, "As for what we are going to do. Now that you seem to have calmed down, maybe we can discuss what you are going to do. Preferably without biting my head off."

The rabbit shot the fox a suspicious look before asking, "And what, pray tell, is that?"

Nick merely shrugged, "It should be fairly obvious. Chief Bogo has been trying to get a hold of both of us all afternoon. I doubt he would be doing that if he wanted to accept your resignation. You are the hero of Zootopia after all, and I suspect both the press and public are going to have a field day when they found out that you up and quit the force right after saving the city."

Judy replied before Nick could even finish talking, "Nick, we both saved the city. I would have never been able to do it without you!" Her eyes suddenly narrowed as her mind finally caught up everything the fox had said, "Wait, you're not suggesting…"

The vulpine cut her off, "That if he gives you the chance to change your mind that you do? Of course, I am." He grinned when he saw his wife's mouth drop open in disbelief, "Judy, while I'm flattered you felt it necessary to quit because of me, you really are being a dumb bunny about it. If I had known what you were planning, I never would have allowed you to do it!"

Nick paused a moment before amending, "At least, I would have done my best to stop you, anyway."

The fox's ears folded back as he glanced out the windshield, "Look, I don't know why I didn't get accepted into the Academy. Maybe they decided my background was too sketchy after all." He sighed, "Or maybe they don't think the city's ready to accept having a fox be a police officer."

He shrugged,trying to hide his disappointment, "Whatever the reason, what kind of mate would I be if I allowed you to throw away your lifelong dream because of it? I said it before, and I will keep saying it until it finally sinks in. You are the best officer on the force. Both the ZPD and Zootopia still need you."

The fox turned back to catch his mate's eyes as he forced a smile, "Now, while I truly believe that, I have to admit I'm not being completely altruistic here. Judy, please don't make me the reason you gave up on your dream. I'm planning on us spending the rest of our lives together, and I don't want to you come to regret your decision, or worse, have you come to blame me for it sometime in the future."

He let the rabbit mull over his words for a little while before continuing, "Anyways, I figure I have been idle for long enough. I haven't done any work for months, and it's probably time for me to get back to work. For years I've thought about opening an Ice Cream Shop, and now with Fin busy opening his restaurant, maybe it's time I do it."

Nick couldn't keep the sly smile off his muzzle as he added, "Though needless to say, I will be keeping my side business of selling recycled pawpsicle sticks as lumber in Little Rodentia. After all, that's where the real money is anyways." He reached over and gently cupped the rabbit's cheek, "Give me ten years, and we will have enough money to retire and do anything we want to."

The fox watched the bunny struggle a bit as she climbed over the SUV's center console, settling into his lap and immediately burying her face into his neck and chest. He shut his eyes as rested his muzzle on top of her head as they both simply took comfort in each other's presence.

With his eyes still closed, Nick eventually asked, "Well?"

He smiled at the muffled reply, "I'll think about it," that emanated from somewhere below.

"Well, while you think about it. How about we go in and sign those papers? The furniture store said they would try to deliver everything this evening. It would be kind of nice if we actually had somewhere they could deliver it to."

As he reached for the door handle, Judy caught his arm. She grudgingly pulled away from the fox's fluffy neck fur and pulled his muzzle down until their noses almost touched. "Nick, I just want you to know that I love you so much right now and that it's because of moments like this that I chose to pursue you as my mate."

Nick chuckled, "And it's because of comments like that, that I decided to let you catch me."

"Nick, put me down, now!"

The fox chuckled, "Sorry, Carrots I can't do that, this is traditional after all."

The rabbit tried hard not to laugh, but ended up failing miserably, "What kind of twisted species would possibly come up with something like this as a tradition?"

The vulpine was fumbling with the keys while trying to balance the squirming rabbit currently draped over his shoulder. "Says the bunny whose family sent us hundreds of text messages containing sexual advice and suggestive images. Not to mention all those links to various pages of the 'Canid Sutra' on our mating night!"

Judy blushed and stopped her halfhearted struggles as she saw past her mate's rapidly wagging tail that the several foxes who had been busy loading tools and supplies from the house's garage into a maintenance van, had stopped working and were now watching them with interest.

"Nick, hurry up! We have an audience!"

"Let them watch. They're just jealous they haven't been able to chase down and catch their own bunnies."

With an audible click, the deadbolt surrendered and the front door swung open. As they crossed the threshold, the fox grudgingly let his mate slip down to the floor. "Welcome to your new home, Mrs. Wilde." He leaned in, intending to kiss her but was halted abruptly by the paw pressing firmly in the center of his chest.

Judy didn't bother hiding her grin, "Mr. Wilde, you do realize you're going to pay for that, don't you?"

The fox quickly moved the offending arm aside as he pulled her into a deep kiss. He enjoyed the fact that despite her earlier protestations, the rabbit eagerly met and returned it.

After a moment Judy broke the kiss, blushing furiously at the sounds of several whistles and catcalls coming from the foxes standing in the driveway.

Nick smirked as he leaned in and whispered into her ear, "It was still worth it."

As he went to close the door, he couldn't help poking his head out and shouting to the other foxes, "Okay, the show's over, folks. There will be encore performances at 7 and 10! Tickets are still available. Please be sure to tell your friends!"

After he had closed the door, cutting off the sound of the chuckling foxes he slipped his paw into his wife's and ran his eyes around the empty first floor. "Well, they were supposed to finish all of the work today, so how about we see what our new home looks like?"

Nick was standing on the back patio, looking around the backyard with an expression of dread on this face. They hadn't even moved in yet, and he was already starting to have a severe case of buyer's remorse. For at least the fifth time in the past ten minutes, the fox was internally debating that maybe he should have taken Judy up on her offer of staying in their old apartment. After all, his mate probably would have been perfectly safe there once he had blackmailed or if necessary hospitalized a couple of his more outspoken neighbors.

He tried to refocus on what his mate was saying without much success. For the past fifteen minutes, she had been moving about the backyard and enthusiastically describing her plans on converting the majority of into a vegetable garden.

While he didn't care what she did with the backyard, what did concern him was that Judy's plans seemed to keep expanding and all of them sounded like they were going to require far too much back-breaking labor for his taste. He had a sinking feeling about just who was probably going to get stuck doing most of the hard work.

He was already debating if he could get away with hiring someone else to do it, possibly while Judy was at work, when he heard the doorbell ring through the open back door. He grinned as he watched as Judy's ears quickly swivel towards the door moments before she turned and bolted past him heading into the house.

He took one last look at the backyard and shuddered at the thought of all of the work that would be involved. Nick sighed, shaking his head as he wondered once again just what he had gotten himself into, before he turned and followed his mate back into the house.

Judy couldn't keep the smile off her face as she raced to the front door, the excitement of spending the past hour wandering through their new home had almost made her forget her anger with the ZPD and the Mayor's Office. She skidded to a halt at the front door, then paused a moment to tug down her shirt before reaching for the doorknob.

As she opened the door, her eyes went wide, and she took an involuntary step back. Her paw was nearly to the pistol concealed under her shirt before she managed to arrest its movement. She tried to fight off her sudden unease as she looked at the two looming mammals standing in the doorway.

"Ma'am, are you okay?"

Judy tried to force a smile which had the unfortunate effect of appearing as more of a grimace, "Uh… Yes, of course, you… you just startled me."

The smaller of the two large rams laughed as he nudged the other, "Lenny, what did I tell you about that ugly mug of yours? It's so bad that now you're scaring the customers!"

Lenny just rolled his eyes and muttered, "Everyone thinks they're a comedian." After a quick glance down at the clipboard in his hoofs he said, "Anyways, we have a delivery for a Nick Wilde?"

"Um… Yes, that's my husband. I..." The rabbit nearly went airborne, while this time her paw did grip the butt of her pistol as the paw touched her shoulder from behind.

"Easy there, Carrots," Nick murmured reassuringly.

Nick studied Judy's eyes a moment a little surprised by what he saw in them before gently squeezing her shoulder, "Judy, I can take care of this. Why don't you go out back and determine exactly where you're going to want that garden?"

Judy looked down at her feet. It was a flimsy excuse, and she hated herself for it, but she grasped at it like a drowning kit. She nodded, thanking them before turning and making her way towards the back of the house.

It was over an hour later when Nick finally stepped outside onto the patio. He found his mate sitting with her back against the house, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs, and her chin resting on a knee. She seemed lost in thought as her eyes stared vacantly at the large wooden privacy fence that separated their back of their yard from the neighbors.

The fox took a seat next to his mate and wrapped an arm around her, "So, want to talk about it?"

The fox smiled as the rabbit leaned against him and slowly shook her head. He kissed the top of her head before saying, "Okay, let me rephrase that…" He paused for dramatic effect, "I know!" he said in an overly enthusiastic voice, "Why don't we talk about what happened?"

The bunny shifted resting her forehead on her knees, "Nick, what's wrong with me? One of my best friends since elementary school is an ewe. Her brother used to hang out with us all the time! But now… I saw those rams and…" she hesitated before saying, her voice full of concern, "Nick, they did nothing, and I almost pulled my gun on them!"

"But you didn't, now did you? Judy, personally I am impressed with just how well you handled yourself, considering the number of sheep that have been doing their best recently to try and kill you."

Judy sighed, "But you weren't afraid,were you?"

The fox barked out a laugh and switched to a whisper, "You want to know a secret? The moment they went out to start unloading the truck I actually did pull out my pistol and checked that it was loaded." Nick shook his head, "At the time I knew it was stupid. It's not like the bullets would have gone anywhere since this morning, but I still felt the need to make sure they were still there."

The vulpine shrugged, "It took me until they were just about to leave before I started to relax around them." He gently nudged his mate, "And I wasn't the one that was forced to stare down the barrel of a hand cannon that I swear looked big enough for you to fit your head inside."

He pulled the bunny closer, allowing his tail to wrap protectively around her, "Judy, what happened last week is going to leave a lasting impression on both of us. It's just going to take time to get over." The fox sighed, "And I feel that some of its probably my fault."

Judy pulled away enough to turn and look up at the fox in both surprise and disbelief, "How can you possibly think any of it is your fault?"

The fox sighed, "Because, I should have followed my instincts and not allowed either of us to go and visit your family in BunnyBurrow. But, I was in love and I was too afraid to make a fuss about it so soon after we had just marked one another."

He saw the sudden flash of fear in his mate's eyes, so he quickly continued before she had a chance to say anything, "First, before you completely panic, don't get the wrong idea. I don't regret even for a moment that we registered as mates. In fact, the way I see it, that would have always happened at some point."

Nick could see the confusion in his mate's expression. "Judy, you somehow expect both of us to be getting better even though neither of us has been following any of the ZPD therapist's advice. I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way. This last week we were both supposed to be taking it easy and avoiding as much stress as possible."

The vulpine chuckled, "Well, I don't know how rabbits go about relieving stress, but I will tell you this last week has probably been one of the most stressful of my life. Between registering as mates, dealing with issues with both our families, finding a new home, the constant concerns about the news services and everything that happened today... quite frankly, I'm surprised that at least one of us hasn't had a heart attack or suffered a mental breakdown!"

The fox shook his head, "No, considering everything we have been through the past two weeks. I think that a few nightmares or being a little afraid of two giant rams showing up unexpectedly on our doorstep don't seem too bad."

He gave the rabbit a gentle squeeze, "So, starting tomorrow, I think it's finally time we start taking the doctor's advice."

The rabbit reached up and ran her paw along her mate's muzzle, "Okay. Sounds like a plan."

Judy considered a moment before chuckling, "Are you sure you're not just saying that as an excuse to get out of going to dinner at your mother's?"

The vulpine barked out a small laugh before replying, "Oh, I suspect that now that we are at least talking to each other, I can probably handle one dinner with her without stressing out too much. Besides, that's why you're going to be there. Worst comes to worst; I'll just go with plan B."

"Plan B?"

"Yep, that's where I throw you to the foxes while I make my getaway."

Judy laughed as she continued rubbing her mate's muzzle, "My, what a brave fox I married…"

Nick grinned in return, "I told you before Carrots, I'm a survivor. I never once claimed that I'm brave. That's why I have you."

They sat for a while until Judy's brows furloughed as a thought suddenly struck her, "Nick, why did you say starting tomorrow?"

"Um… No reason?"

She closed her eyes on hearing the evasiveness way he had answered the question. Sighing heavily, she asked, "Okay, what did you do?"

As they entered the house, Judy was surprised at how different it looked furnished. While they would still need to get many more things to make it feel like a home, at least now it had the basics.

While neither of them had ever purchased furniture before, the process had been relatively straightforward. For the living room, dining room, and bedroom they had merely looked at and chosen from the different combination sets that had been on display. Those sets not only had the benefit of being cheaper but had also been available for immediate delivery.

As they walked into the living room, it wasn't hard to notice the single item that she hadn't purchased. She frowned, and wondered briefly how Nick had even been able to buy it without her knowing considering she couldn't remember any time they had been apart, "Nick, what's that?"

The fox's face took on a surprised expression as if just noticing the item for the first time. He walked over to it and poked at it tentatively with a claw several times before stepping back to rub at his muzzle, "Well, while I don't have your extensive ZPD training in deduction, I think that just might be a TV."

Judy rolled her eyes, "Hilarious, Nick. I'm quite aware that it's a TV. What I want to know is why it's there? I certainly don't remember us discussing purchasing that monster this morning."

"It's not that big." The fox said defensively, "It's the same size as the TV's in your parent's living room."

Judy, closed her eyes, as pinched the bridge of her nose, "Nick, they have those because not only is their living room at least ten times larger than ours, but there are often around fifty rabbits watching each one!"

She walked over and collapsed on the sofa staring up at the massive screen. It was hard to judge, but she wouldn't be surprised if the damn thing were nearly as tall as she was.

She glanced briefly at her mate and while he was trying hard to look nonchalant about the whole thing,she could see more than a hint of concern in his eyes. That, along with the nervous way the his tail-tip kept flicking back and forth in small rapid movements was a clear indicator of just how much he was worried that he had probably gone too far in purchasing it.

While annoyed that he had done it without asking, she found it hard to be too angry with him. The truth was that if Nick wanted the TV, then he deserved to have it. It was his money after all, and other then herself it wasn't like she had brought much to the table when they become mates.

She sighed, knowing that in many ways she was guiltier than he was about making decisions without discussing them first. First, she had refused the land her parents had offered them, and then she had turned in both of their resignations without ever asking her mate's opinion.

She closed her eyes for a moment before saying, "Fine. You can keep it. But in the future, both of us need to start including the other in our decisions BEFORE we make them."

She tried not to smile as she heard the audible sigh of relief from her mate. She opened her eyes as Nick settled on the couch next to her.

The fox pulled her close gently kissing the top of her head before saying, "Love you."

She couldn't help chuckling, "Yeah, that's what all males say when they know they're in trouble."

Nick grinned widely, "That's because we know just how often it helps us to get out of it."

"Right... Just keep telling yourself that, and we will see just how well that works when you really screw up."

They were silent several minutes just enjoying each other's company until Nick finally said, "While I don't know about you, I'm starving and considering everything that has happened today, I'm also exhausted. How about we grab some takeout and head home?"

"Um…about that, I was kind of thinking that if we stopped at the apartment and just packed some basics then maybe we could spend the night here."

Nick sighed, "Can't we just wait and move in tomorrow? I really am tired, and depending on the traffic it will take us at least half-an-hour each way not to mention all that time packing and unpacking."

Judy squeezed her mate's paw, "Tell you what, if we spend the night here I will let you sleep in as late as you want tomorrow."

The fox chuckled, shaking his head, "That's not much of an incentive, considering I'm usually up before you."

He saw a smirk suddenly appeared on the bunny's muzzle and her nose started to twitch. Even though he knew he was going to regret it, he asked anyway, "What?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just wondering what it would feel like."

The vulpine grew even more suspicious as he tentatively asked, "What, what would feel like?"

Judy tapped a finger to her lips as she replied innocently, "Oh… It's just that I have never been in a jacuzzi tub before, let alone shared one, and I was just wondering what it would be like." The bunny sighed, "But if you're too tired, then I guess we'll just have to hold off until the next time that I'm in the mood."

The fox tilted his head back, groaning in defeat, "Carrots, you do realize that's completely unfair, don't you?"

"Do I?" The rabbit's lips broke into a mischievous grin, "Yes, yes I do…"

Author's Notes:

The word of my demise has been greatly exaggerated though massive amounts of overtime, a chest cold that lasted over a month, and finally the flu, all made attempts. ;)

Anyway, I hope the chapter wasn't too bad. I know, I know, it didn't resolve anything, but after twenty-six chapters, and then a long break, I needed to put out a bit a refresher while also trying to get back into writing.

Given how hard it was to pick up this story again after such a long break, I have decided to make a few changes going forward. As you may have noticed, as the story has progressed, chapters have been getting increasingly longer and longer. I decided that starting with this chapter that I'm going to start trying to cut back on their size. Hopefully, this will result in more frequent releases while also making it a lot easier for my proofreaders/editors and me.

While I haven't heard any complaints, I also noticed while re-reading the story that in the later chapters I have probably been going into far too much detail, so I'll probably start trying to cut back on it a bit so that the story can advance at a faster pace