"You know you love me"

Judy sighed and gave a small laugh from where she sat in the corner of the diner. This had to be the hundredth time that Nick had said that line, and just like always she gave back her expected line that had become a byword between them.

"Do I know that… yes; yes I do… but I hate it every time you try to win an argument with that line."

Nick grinned at her from his side of the table giving off that sly charm that seemed to emanate from him so naturally. "Come on, Carrots, you know I bring up several good points about this."

"I know" Judy admitted with a sigh "it just seems that the Jedi are doing their best to serve the galaxy, they stand as an ideal for millions of mammals on hundreds of worlds and you can't discredit the good that they do."

"And I'm not" Nick countered "all I'm saying is that the Jedi got so mired in tradition that they became rigid and unable to see the enemy that was right under their noses. That is why the Sith were able to win against them, the whole Order was fatally flawed." He punctuated his statement by bringing his paw down on the table with a thump.

As Nick was talking Judy let her eyes wander around the diner which was rather empty despite the normal lunch rush of the city. Only a few other mammals were seated at the other tables mostly engaged with their own meals, though every now and again one of them would glance over to where the two of them were sitting in the corner as parts of their conversation caught their interest. Judy smiled again as she briefly thought back to all of the unique and crazy conversations that had occurred between her and Nick since they had solved the Night Howler case. Their back and forth banter had ranged anywhere from the tasteless jokes that Nick was fond of to modern pop culture, as was the case now.

"Ok O' wise master of the Force," she said overdramatically " how would you change what the Jedi did."

"First, more flexibility, the Jedi need to be able to adapt to the changing times just as the Sith did. They need to be ready to think outside the box and use new ways of facing the enemy instead of always falling back to the old standbys."

Judy nodded "go on."

"More importantly, the Jedi need to not fear emotion. They were so afraid that any negative emotion would lead to the dark side that they keep it all bottled up. If they had found a way to balance their emotions and learned that not all of them were bad then it would have kept many of them from falling to the dark because they did not know how to deal with those emotions."

Nick stopped and took a sip of the fruit smoothie that the diner made from scratch, as he set down the cup he saw Judy looking at him with a curious glint in her eye.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing" she quickly replied "It's just I would have thought you preferred to keep your emotions in check mister 'never let them see that they get to you'"

"Well what can I say Fluff," he said with another sly grin "maybe you are having some impact on me after all. I guess it just doesn't feel right for those mammals to be forced to suppress emotions because the world wants them to." Nick's eyes glanced down for a moment and his ears dropped slightly, Judy's smile faded as she realized that he was most likely speaking from his own personal experience. Nick had made a near total change of both his life and his attitude since they had met, yet still, the memories of his old life would not die down so fast. However, before she could open her mouth to reassure him her phone buzzed and she grabbed it off the table.

"Looks like it's time to get back on patrol," she said standing up "you ready?"

"Yep" Nick stood up "time to become the defenders of the light again," he said with a smirk.

The duo paid for their lunch and walked out to where the squad car was parked. They jumped in and Judy took the wheel while Nick called in to report them resuming their patrol. The car moved slowly through the streets, this part of town was mostly a residential area so traffic was sparse, nonetheless, the two officers were careful to pay attention to their surroundings while they continued to talk, they had to be ready for any disturbance.

The better part of two hours passed with the most serious crime that the duo had to deal with was issuing a ticket to a construction worker for littering. The two of them never knew exactly what they would have to deal with out in the field, with some days tense and fast, others slow and uneventful like today.

"So Carrots," Nick asked as they idled at a red light "any luck looking for a better place to live?"

Judy shook her head "so far the ones I've looked at are still out of my price range." Nick sighed and shook his head "I still don't understand why you won't use some of that new fame of ours to try and lower the price."

"I've told you this before" she replied with slight irritation "I want to be able to say that I bought a place to live with my own hard work and skill. Leave it to rich celebrities like Gazelle to throw fame around that way."

"All right honorable Jedi Hopps" Nick joked "I'm just saying that there are landlords in Zootopia who would kill for a chance to have someone as famous as you living under their roof."

Judy gave a small chuckle as she drove on, When she had first arrived in the city she had thought that her small apartment was wonderful as her first independence place of residence. Now, however, in comparison to the excitement of stopping Bellwether's plot and her's and Nick's daily interactions, her apartment had become rather dull. It had dutifully sustained her as a place to live these past few months, but right now Judy wanted something bigger and exciting, not by a lot but some.

She had kept Nick up to date on her search and it was not the first time that he had suggested riding her fame to pay for an apartment. In fact, she was fairly certain that Nick had brought it up just to toy with her, she certainly wouldn't put it past him.

Judy was about to reply to the fox when suddenly a voice came over the radio.

"This is Dispatch to officers Hopps and Wilde, do you copy?

Judy quickly grabbed the receiver. "This is Hopps, we read you" she replied.

" We have a suspect caught in the middle of a house robbery, he evaded two of our men and is headed your way on foot." Dispatch continued "suspect is a male wolf with white fur wearing black cargo pants and a dark green hoodie. We need you to move to intercept him."

"Understood, moving to pursue and intercept." Judy turned the car around quickly as Nick hit the sirens. They drove several blocks while Nick stayed on the line as they were given updates as to the best place to intercept the criminal. Eventually, they pulled up to a small park that was, for the moment, thankfully clear of any children. Judy stopped the car and shut off the siren as they both got out and readied their tranquilizer guns.

They did not have to wait long, after around a minute there was a rustling noise accompanied by the sound of snapping branches as the suspect wolf came tearing out of the brush, a large bag on his back that mostly like contained his ill-gotten goods. The wolf's eyes widened as he saw both officers in front of him with their tranquilizers raised.

"Stop right there!" Judy shouted

The wolf froze for a second before bolting suddenly to the side. Judy fired her dart at the wolf but he stumbled to the side and it missed. Nick fired only a moment after her and with precision, hit the wolf in the leg. He cried out in pain but did not stop running, the drug would take a moment or two to sedate him.

The duo ran towards the wolf as he continued his escape and quickly turned a street corner to try and lose the officers.

Just as the wolf rounded the corner, however, he ran headfirst into a vixen who was walking around at the same time. The vixen gave a cry of surprise and fell forward, the wolf reflexively grabbed her and after a second's pause turned and pushed the bystander towards the two officers.

Judy was forced to a stop as she collided with the lady and was sent tumbling to the ground. Nick looked back at her concerned, instead, Judy pointed a paw in the direction that the wolf had fled.

"Go after him, I will stay and make sure she is ok"

Nick nodded and ran back to the car, jumping in he flipped on the sirens again and took off down the road. the sedative in the dart would be taking effect any moment now and the wolf would not be hard to find.

Judy meanwhile got to her feet and very slowly helped the lady up. She was an older fox with streaks of gray through her fur, she was wrapped up in a purple coat despite the nice weather and white sun hat had been knocked off and lay several feet away.

"Are you alright, ma'am, I'm with the ZPD and I am so sorry that you got caught up in this" she started to look the lady over for any injuries but was waved off.

" I'm alright dear," the vixen said in a gentle voice, "that young fool took me by surprise is all."

"Here," Judy said walking the lady to a nearby bench and helping her down "sit for a moment while I call for some paramedics, we need to make sure that your ok, don't worry my partner will make sure that 'young fool' won't hurt anyone else, ma'am."

"Please, call me Marian"

Judy smiled " Pleasure to meet you Marian" she then took out her radio and called back to Dispatch to send over a team to assist the vixen. Once that was done she shook Marian's paw and replied: "my name is Judy Hopps and I'll make sure that you don't have any more trouble today."

Marian smiled " You wouldn't happen to be that rabbit police officer I've heard so much about?"

Judy gave a bashful smile, "Yes, that's me."

"Well I just want to say how much I appreciate all that you have done, it does me proud to see someone young and hopeful fulfill their dreams."

Her smile grew even wider as she blushed slightly "that is kind of you to say, thank you."

"O my" Marian said suddenly and placed a paw on her head

"Are you ok?" Judy asked with concern.

"My cane, in all this excitement I forgot to pick it up."

Judy got and looked around for a moment until she saw a dark wood cane lying on the grass. As she walked over and picked it up Nick's voice came over the radio.

I have the suspect in custody and I am heading back your way, are the two of you all right?"

Judy walked back over to the vixen as she spoke, "yes she is a little shook up Nick but she seems fine, I've called the paramedics just to be safe though.

"Ok, I will be back soon"

Judy then heard a quick intake of breath and she glanced up to see Marian looking at her with surprise.

"Wait," she said in a trembling voice, "if your Judy Hopps then that young fox with you must be..."

Before she could finish Nick drove back around in the squad car with the wolf unconscious in the back. He rolled the window down and was about to speak when his gaze landed on Marian. His eyes widened in surprise and his mouth snapped shut as emotion filled his face, Marian meanwhile tried to stand up only to collapse back into her seat with her paws across her mouth,

Judy was still trying to understand what was going on when a glint of light reflecting off the cane caused her to look down. After a moment she gasped and nearly dropped the cane as suddenly it all became clear. There on the side of the cane was a metal band with the name of the owner etched in a flowing script.

Marian Wilde.