Judy wasn't sure when things had gone wrong but one thing was for sure… they had most certainly gone wrong. To think that things had started out so well, that Nick was had shaken paws with her parents and was saying such kind words to her niece Lilly mere moments ago. How could one member of her family ruin everything so quickly? How could one member of her own family say things that were so blatantly hatful and harsh? Admittedly, it was rare that anything but apathetic sarcasm, or anything of much sincerity, left her grandfather's mouth; he was a rather weathered old rabbit after all. She exhaled a curt huff as her grip tightened on the thin steering wheel of her blue pickup truck. The thunderclouds boomed above her as a torrential rain created large gushes of mud that flowed like rivers making it difficult to steer in the older vehicle that lacked any sort of power steering mechanism. Large dollops of mud smeared themselves on the windshield hindering her already poor sight of the once dirt road. She leaned forward over the steering wheel and narrowed her eyes as she bit down the wretched feeling of bitterness rising in her gut. Her grandfather tried to explain to her that he had only said those things to Nick because they were true and that he didn't want her to find out the hard way. He said he did it to protect her because he loved her and didn't want her to get hurt by a fox that would ultimately cause her nothing but heartache. He went on about how precious and naïve she was for believing in someone who was simply a lost cause. Judy subconsciously pushed her foot down on the accelerator as negative emotions continued swarm her mind. Her grandfather told her that her youth was a precious thing and that she shouldn't waste years of her life trying to make something out of a universally unfixable problem… a fox. She wished she had stood up for Nick at that very moment and told her grandfather all of the progress they'd made together. She wished that she had told him how ridiculous he was being and that the only thing that needed fixing was his attitude.

Swallowing down the bitter bile that had risen in her throat from her thoughts Judy grimaced. The worst part wasn't even the things that he'd said about her partner or even the things he said to him. No, the worst part was the reason he did it. He honestly believed that foxes were not individuals or even equals but simply an unfixable problem that had society had been burdened with. He believed that by trying to tear apart the bond that she and Nick shared he'd be helping her and showing love for her. He didn't view it as destroying a friendship, just cutting off a parasite. That old bunny had looked at Judy and then to Nick and decided that one of them didn't belong. Judy always knew that narrow minded, judgmental and hateful animals existed but to discover that they were in her own family was quite jarring.

She didn't feel quite as safe anymore. She always considered her home to be a safe haven where she could escape the narrow mindedness of society and be protected and surrounded by those she loved. Now however, she knew that not even her home was safe from hateful minds and while in hindsight it should have been quite obvious given the size of her family that at least one of them would be, it was never really anything that Judy thought possible or even thought about. As her image of a safe home had weakened, she realized the only place she could feel safe right now was with Nick. Sadly, Nick had left her home to "go for a walk" after hearing the venomous remarks of Judy's grandfather. It was sad eating lunch without him, she wasn't very hungry anyways. She wanted to sit next to him and introduce him to her loving and accepting family but that obviously hadn't happened. She waited for him to return from his walk and back to her home for lunch but he never did. After an hour she began to worry and after hearing the flash flood warnings on the radio she began to panic.

Bunnyburrow didn't have much in the way of trees aside from the thin rows that dotted property lines or small patch of woods. Most of the land was cleared fields and while this was excellent for farming it wasn't so good at keeping soil from running off and turning to mud like larger roots kept it from doing. Normally Bunnyburrow had a superior water draining system to compensate for the lack of tall vegetation but due to an abnormally large spike in population construction and renovations had to be done to keep up with housing demands. Sadly, this meant that some drainage systems would be temporarily dysfunctional until construction was finished. The construction was scheduled to finish before the next big rainfall but nobody expected a flash flood… nobody ever does. So, for the time being, large waves of uncontrolled water and mud would wreak havoc on the countryside including wherever Nick was. Suddenly, one of her wheels lost traction as she began to hydroplane and enter a tailspin. On instinct, Judy smashed down the brake pedal with all her might as she jerked the steering wheel in the opposite direction she was spinning. She thought she'd been driving carefully, how had this happened and when had she reached this ludicrously high speed?! As suddenly as she had started to hydroplane she came to a grinding halt as the truck brutally jarred from its sidelong impact with the low shoulder of the road. Judy's body violently lurched to the side only for her seatbelt to prevent her head from having a fatal impact with the left window. While the impact wasn't fatal it was still extremely painful and disorienting when her small body smashed against the left door of the car and her head still managed to crack the window on its impact. The seatbelt may have saved her life but it only served to lessen the impact, not prevent it.

It took a small amount of time for Judy to find the courage to move again and while she had obtained a few painful lacerations, some of which were located in rather sensitive spots and a nasty gash on her forehead she was not nearly as injured as she thought she should have been. Slowly, she began to test her extremities for severe injury and while it was an excruciating process, she deduced that none of her bones had broken… for a brief moment she was very lucky. That was, until she realized what was happening around her. Yes, she had survived a car wreck with relatively little injury but she had still crashed her only way home. Her family was probably worried sick about her since she hadn't come back yet and there was still the issue of Nick pulling his disappearing act. Her head was ringing and thumping like both her heart and whistle had been moved to the inside of her skull. Judy was usually good under pressure. She had trained very hard in the police academy to earn her place at the top of the class so naturally she did what anybody rational being would do in this situation… She began to cry as she pulled out her cellphone to call for help. Her shaking and scratched paw however, did not seem to want to hold her cellphone much longer as it promptly fell between the door and her seat. She cursed in frustration which was an extreme rarity for her as she began to try to shove her paw into the small gap to retrieve her cellphone. Sadly, while the gap was just large enough for her cellphone to fit into, her already injured paw was being painfully crushed by the small space. She pulled back her smashed paw and began to nurse it realizing that if she wanted her cellphone back she'd need to open the door to make enough space. As she unbuckled and moved to unlatch the door her head began to throb more severely as her body seemed to screech in agony for her to stop and hold still. She knew it would all be worth it when she got her cellphone back though. She carefully opened the door only to her a small noise that made her heart sink… Plunk!

Her cellphone had fallen out of the truck and into the rapids of muddy water below. Judy panicked and lunged forward as agonizing and as stupid as it was she needed to get her cellphone as quickly as possible. She sprawled out of the truck and desperately felt around for her cellphone as she was now on her knees in muddy and freezing cold rapids of water and being assaulted by unrelenting jets of icy rain from above. Her heart raced in her little chest as she desperately searched for her communications device and only way out of the situation. She sloshed through the mud until she felt the familiar rectangular surface of her cellphone. She hastily wiped the mud off the screen and pushed the button only for it to fizzle in her paw and fail to turn on. She desperately mashed the button in hopes that she'd see the set background of her and Nick making dopey faces into the camera together but to no avail. Her phone was as useful as a paperweight now and she had become sopping wet and freezing over nothing. Mud began crusting inside of the cuts across her body as she returned to take shelter in her crashed vehicle. A filthy mixture of tears, rainwater and mud dripped down her face only for the disgusting mixture to find its way inside the cuts on her face to further her pain and discomfort. At least the rainwater had managed to wash away some of the blood oozing from her body. Her headache returned with a vengeance as she began to try and shred the lower portion of her pink, plaid shirt to create makeshift bandages. She began to tie a bit of the cloth around her forehead in an effort to stop the bleeding. When she had finished she began to curl up and sob quietly to herself. She knew she probably looked exactly how she felt… like garbage. A small sadistic voice in Judy's head found ironic humor in her current situation. She always thought she had trained to and was as tough as nails. She wanted to make the world a better place even if it meant confronting foes more than three times her size or running into a fight head on. Now however, she felt quite pathetic as something as trivial as a road mishap and some muddy water had bested her. All her training for intense situations and all her effort to prepare for the big things she was sure she'd be doing were all for naught. All her life's work, determination to prove herself and others would amount to very little in the end as it seemed the world was determined to snub her out of existence like she was nothing of importance.

She'd lost track of the time as her only clock was on her fizzled and broken phone. She tried to stay positive and optimistic like she always did but… there really wasn't a silver lining to the situation she was in. What was the bright side to getting in a car wreck in the middle of a flash flood and stranded in the middle of nowhere? Well, she didn't die so that was good. She also wasn't sure if she was going to live though so that was bad. Her injuries weren't severe as far as she could tell so that was good. However, her injuries were filled with hardened blood and crusted mud and might get infected so that was bad. She saw Nick coming over to her car from the distance… so that was good. Wait, Nick was here?! She did a double take out of the windshield and sure enough her partner was slowly wading through the muddy slop and towards her crashed truck. He seemed to have a limp on his left leg as he slowly advanced towards the truck. It was getting darker out and the rain was still abysmally heavy so Judy tried to do something that would make the truck more visible. As luck would have it one of the truck's headlights still worked so she turned it on its brightest setting and continuously beeped the wheezy horn. As Nick got closer his expression changed from one of pain to shock as he sped up his pace and opened the door as soon as he could. As soon as he possible he started to climb into the truck and get as close to her as he could.

"Are you okay?! What happened?! It reeks of blood in here, are you hurt?!" He launched a tirade of concerned questions at Judy.

"I've been better but I've done everything I can and… and I think I'll be okay. I'm just a little… scared is all," She admitted to him meekly.

"I'll say! What were you even doing driving out here in this weather?! I was just on my way back when these clouds came out of nowhere and started pouring Niagara Falls on my head. What's up with this, some sort of flood?"

"The radio said there was an incoming flash flood and you weren't back yet so I went to look for you and ended up getting caught in it," Judy explained.

"Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that you heard a severe weather warning on the radio and instead of taking shelter you went outside to look for me?"

"I tried calling you like ten times and you never picked up once!" She countered.

"I don't get coverage outside of Central Zootopia," He pulled out his phone and pointed to the corner that proudly proclaimed that he had no service in the area.

"What is the point of even having a phone with such a small amount of coverage?!" She lamented realizing his phone was as useless as hers was.

"It's all I thought I'd ever need. I don't know if you've noticed, Carrots but I'm not exactly popular," He showed her his contacts list and only four names were listed, Carrots, Chief, Finnic and Mom.

Judy had hundreds of contacts in her phone before it was destroyed and it was a little disheartening to see that her partner only had four. She wondered if Nick was often lonely considering that a forth of his contacts were probably just for work. That wasn't important though! Well, it was important just not right now. Right now they needed to deal with being stranded in a crashed truck in the middle of a flash flood and maybe even more importantly…

"Nick, you're bleeding!" Judy pointed to a rather vicious and jagged cut near his ankle.

"Yeah, when I was wading through the mud something sharp washed through and cut me but I have no clue what the heck it was."

Judy scowled as she thought of a few possibilities and ripped another portion of her shirt off to bandage her partner's wound. Luckily enough for her she still had enough of her shirt left to keep it from being very revealing… it did make her cold though.

"Probably a glass shard from a moonshine jar if I had to guess. Some animals out here create their own drinks and never really bother to clean up the mess when they're done. It's terrible because kits could hurt themselves or get into things they're not supposed to… oh, and this is bad too," Judy finished as she imagined the stern lecture she'd give to any moonshiners she saw.

"Why don't you try calling for some help?" Nick suggested.

"Oh, because I destroyed my phone," Judy said gloomily as she forcefully tossed the sodden thing on the warped dashboard.

Nick stared silently at the destroyed phone and then to her, "This is all my fault," He uttered.

"How me crashing a truck and destroying my phone your fault?" Judy tilted her head.

"I left you," He paused, "You invited me to meet your family and put so much thought and care into this meeting and I just, I left," He laughed the final bit sadly.

"Nick, my grandpa hurt you. I don't blame you for wanting to get away from that."

"I wish I would have just told him that he was crazy. He could say anything about me but I should have told him that I'd never hurt you. I wish I would've told him that you wouldn't get hurt because of me," He paused and looked around, "But I guess that would make me a lair, wouldn't it? Wow, your grandpa was right again."

"Stop being so melodramatic, Nick! I did this because I care about you! It's not your fault!" Judy countered.

Nick stiffened at this and looked like he was struggling to come to word what he was thinking. He looked at her in a way that was contemplative and almost… scared? He took in a deep breath.

"All my life," He breathed, "I've been afraid of caring about other people because I was afraid they'd hurt me. I didn't want to make myself vulnerable to anyone because they could easily use it against me. Now though I think the thing I'm most afraid of is you caring about me, not the other way around. I've accepted I care about you and I'm not afraid that you'd hurt me with that, I'm afraid you're going to get hurt because of that. When you care about someone you do anything to keep them safe even if you have to put yourself at risk. I don't want you to put yourself at risk, Judy, not because of me. I think you getting hurt is scarier than anything that could happen to me especially if you got hurt because of me. So please, I beg of you, next time I do something stupid like this please stay safe Judy. You're more important than anything that could happen to me. Does that, erm make sense?"

Judy wiped a tear from her eye and clicked her recording pen off.

"You recorded that?! I finally open up my heart to you and-" He was cut off.

"Nick, you said you trusted that I'd never take advantage of you, right? That you trusted me?" Judy interrupted.

He took a deep breath and began to calm, "Yes, I did."

"Well then trust me when I say that my grandpa is wrong and this proves it. If you're willing, I'd like to show this to him and the rest of my family with you by my side the whole time. This disproves all those stupid stereotypes and backward attitudes that people have about you and other foxes. If my family can't see what a wonderful, sweet and selfless fox you are after hearing this… well they're just crazy. So what do you say? I promise that I'll only do it if you want to and I'll delete the whole thing if you won't have it."

"Okay," He breathed after a pause, "We'll show your family what we can be together, what all predators and prey can be together once this stops," He gestured to the torrential rain and crashed vehicle they were still sheltered in.

A small part of Judy wondered what he meant by "what we can be together" but decided to think on it later as she simply hugged her partner both to show affection and to stave off the cold. She was slightly surprised when Nick returned the gesture as he seemed to wrap himself around her in some sort of protective blanket. She smiled as she knew that as long as someone thought so highly of her and cared about her so much that there was no way she could be as pathetic as she thought she was moments before and that she and everything else would be just fine.

Author's Note: Guess who's not dead, I'll give you a hint... me! I'd like to apologize for the long wait but I'd like you all to know that I've written and completed this chapter six different times but didn't like how any of them turned out. I know you've all waited far too long and I'll try to become more consistent with my updating. Also, an odd thing, I had to use the "Copy N' Paste" feature as document upload doesn't seem to want to work with my word documents anymore so if you see any errors in spacing (or anything else as I completely bypassed my editor on this chapter) please send me a PM or review. So, I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter and I greatly look forward to reading any reviews that you guys send my way! I've updated the story to break the walls of text into more readable chunks. Sometimes it is hard to judge how things will format themselves when I upload them as a long paragraph in Word will often appear to be very short on Fanfiction so I try to write them longer than usual. I hope this update makes things a little easier to read.