"I'm Nick, and I'm a fox.

"My fur is bright orange locks.

"My paws have nice brown socks

"And…something, something, box?"

He always forgot that last line. Nick knew he had to ask his mother for it, and at the same time he knew he'd never actually get around to the question.

The fox stared in the mirror, humming what he could remember of the song to himself. Meanwhile he turned his face this way and that, trying to groom his fur with a little black brush before bed. He stood in a single rectangular space containing all of his earthly possessions. A bed was pushed into one corner, a dresser into another, a fridge by his door. A sturdy wooden desk sat opposite the fridge and sometimes doubled as a dining room table. The only decorations were three photos on his dresser: one of him with his mother, the other with Judy, and the third with the entire ZPD. Other than that, the apartment was accented with discarded clothes and trash that would be picked up on the weekend, no sooner.

Nick had just finished grooming when he heard a knock at his door...even though it was past midnight. "Coming, coming." He had to push his way past his chair to get to the door, and he peeked out the eyehole.

Nobody.

"Haha, really funny." He opened the door. "Listen kids, think it's fun to harass a—"

He paused and looked down at his paws, his heart leaping with shock.

Judy woke to the sound of her phone chiming on her desk. The sun hadn't risen yet, and the artificial glow of the screen lit the room on its own. With a groan, she reached for it. She was too tired to even open her eyes to check who it was. Judy just swiped at the screen and raised it to her ear. "Yuh?"

"Judy! Oh thank god I got hold of you!"

"Nick?" She growled. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Yeah, listen, I'm coming over right now. I need your help with something!"

Judy groaned. "If this about another partner you double-crossed…"

"No, no! This is much worse! You'll see when I get there, just get up!"

Judy heard a soft tone as Nick hung up. She lay there for a moment, finally forcing her eyes open to look at the ceiling. "Alright, gotta brace yourself…"

She forced her legs over the side of her bed, felt her feet on the floor. Her eyelids still sagged in protest. It took her two, three tries to finally stand up. Now her eyes felt a little more awake. The rabbit shuffled over to the fridge and grabbed one of the bottled coffee drinks she'd bought from the mart.

"Just what I bought 'em for," she scoffed to herself as she twisted the cap off and downed half the bottle in one go. "Alright caffeine, do your thing."

Ten minutes later, Judy had finally turned on her light and dressed in something presentable, namely a green top with comfortable jeans. She was just poring over some paperwork she'd brought home when she heard a knock.

"Alright Nick," she opened the door, "what's so important you woke me up at…"

The first thing she saw was his awkward half-smile. The second was the fox kit, swaddled in a bright blue blanket in his awkward grasp.

Judy stared at the baby. Then back to Nick.

"What did you do?"

"It wasn't me!" Nick shook his head as he came in. "I didn't do anything! Someone left him on my doorstep, I don't know who! Here," he held out the infant like it was a loaf of bread.

"Nick, no, hold him like this." Judy carefully took him and nestled the kit in her arms. He was certainly heftier than a rabbit kit, but she could still manage. "See? Now, calm down, tell me what happened."

"I-I was just getting ready for bed," he gestured to emphasize his words, "and I hear a knock on my door, and I open my door, and he's just there. Sitting on my doorstep. I look up and down the hall, no one. The only other thing I found was this:"

Nick pulled a folded paper from his shirt pocket. He opened it and began to read:

"'Officer Wilde, you're one of the most upstanding foxes I can think of. Please take care of my little Benny.'" He stared at Judy. "I mean, I never really thought of myself as an upstanding guy — I mean sure, I'm on the force now, but I'm not like...I can't be a dad!"

Judy listened to him, slowly nodding as he spoke. "I see what you're saying, I mean, being on the force is a big commitment."

"Not just that, I mean, I don't know the first thing about parenting! I mean, what do kits eat, how many outfits do they need—" his face blanched. "Oh my god, am I going to have to change a diaper?"

"Nick…"

"Am I going to have to take it to preschool? Or is it kindergarten? When does it start school, I don't know these things!"

"Nick."

"What if I lose it? What if it gets kidnapped? What if it gets abducted by aliens?!"

"Nick! Snap out of it! You're scaring him!"

Nick finally clamped his mouth shut, and looked down at Benny. The kit stared at him with big brown eyes, slowly sucking on its pacifier. He sighed. "Sorry, see? This is why I came to you."

"To me?" Judy nodded. "Why, because I'm a girl?"

"No no no, because you have experience!"

"Excuse me?"

"Okay okay, that came out wrong, but I mean, you have hundreds of brothers and sisters, right?"

"Yeah…"

"And," Nick progressively became more animated, "some of those brothers and sisters are younger than you, right?"

"Right."

"You watched your parents take care of them, and I'm betting you helped them out?" Judy nodded in response. "Perfect! You know what to do then!"

"Nick, I can't take care of him either." Judy bounced the kit gently in her arms as she looked up at him. "In case you forgot, I have to go to work too."

"I know, I know, but listen, in the morning we call Cub Protective Services, and we can hand him off to them. He's in good hands, and we can rest easy knowing we've done all we can. In the meantime though, I need your help, please?"

Judy looked down at the baby fox. His eyes had closed, and he slowly breathed in and out. He had fur and markings just like Nick, but with the oversized head and huge eyes of an infant. "Alright," she heard Nick sigh with relief. "Here, get a pen and jot down a list."

Nick grabbed a sheet from her desk and prepared to write.

"Alright, go down to the corner mart, it should be open, and grab some basics: kit formula; baby food; some fresh—"

"Wait wait!" Nick blurted out. "The pen's not writing!" He tried to draw wide circles with it. "It's out of ink, do you have another one around here some—oh," the ink suddenly worked again. "Okay, there we go. Now, formula, food?"

"Fresh diapers," Judy continued. "Wipes, baby powder. A bottle, doesn't need to be expensive but get a nice one. I think that's all we really need for now."

"Alright, got it." Nick stood up and tucked the paper into his pocket. "Be right back!" With that he zipped out the door, nearly shutting it on his tail, leaving Judy with Benny. She looked down at him.

"Ohh," her heart melted as he slept in her arms. "You're a big boy, yes you are." She sat in her chair and crossed her leg, making it easier to support his weight. "Now don't you worry, we're gonna take good care of you, yes we are!"

Benny must have heard, because he opened his eyes. He had deep brown irises that darted around the room, and looked up at the rabbit's face.

"Hi!" She cooed, gently waving her paw. "How's it going Benny?"

He answered by crumpling his face, and crying.

"What, no!" Her wonder and awe dissolved into panic. "No no, it's okay, don't cry, shhh shhh, happy fox, happy fox…"

Benny only wailed louder.

"Come on, it'll be okay! No, don't be sad, be happy for Judy? Uh…" she tried to remember what her parents would do. "Do you need to be changed?"

A quick check answered negatively.

"Okay, well, are you hungry? I have yogurt! You're old enough to have yogurt, right?" Judy tried to remember, was it six months old that babies could have yogurt? And Benny was six months old...or was it five? Could he turn his head, what were those signs of development…

Benny kept crying.

"Come on now! Let's be quiet, okay? How about some old nursery rhymes? 'One little bunny sleeping in a bush, eating a soup of carroty mush. Out goes the rabbit in daylight sun, and here comes the fox to cook him well-' Oh wait…"

The rhyme did nothing to help Benny feel better.

"Okay okay, new rhyme! Uh, 'Carrots and peas grow in the yard, so many vegetables stretching so far. Berries and melons grow on the vine, when summertime comes they'll be just fine!'"

Still no effect. The kit only wailed louder, and now there was a knock on the wall.

"Hey bunny, you didn't tell us you had a kid!"

"No, it's not mine," she yelled back at her neighbors. "You see, I—"

"I don't care, just make it be quiet!"

Judy tried to bounce Benny more. "Come on Benny, be good for Judy, please?" She tried her best to grin, but she couldn't make the baby stop crying. "Please? Please be good, please be happy, please…"

Nick could hear the crying from down the hallway, as well as the angry shouts of the neighbors. He quickened his pace and opened Judy's door to find both her and the kit crying.

"Judy!" He dropped the bag on the bed as he came up to her. "What's going on?"

"I don't know!" she sobbed. "I was just, trying to cheer him up...and they keep yelling...and I don't know what to do! I'm trying everything possible!"

Nick looked from her to Benny, then at the wall where the voices still badgered on and on. He came over and slammed his fist.

"That's enough!" He said. "I don't want one more quip about the noise, got it?" The neighbors fell silent, and he came over to Judy. "There, one problem solved."

"But what about…" She held up Benny.

"Here, let me take him and you get the food out."

"You sure?"

Nick hesitated, but he held out his paws. Despite her teary face, Judy smirked at him.

"That's still not how you hold a baby. Here," she stood up with the bawling kit. "Put your arm like that, make a little nook, then he goes here, and your other paw holds there." Now Nick successfully cradled Benny in his arms. "There, now let me get the food ready, and hopefully this will make him...stop…"

But Benny's cries were already dying away. As Nick stared down at him, the kit gazed up into his eyes. The baby lightly cooed.

"Nick...look, he likes you."

"Yeah?" He weakly chuckled. "He...you really think so?"

"Look at him! Listen to him!"

Benny gave a wide yawn, revealing little baby fangs, then smacked his lips as his eyes began to close again. "Wow, I didn't realize that I could even do that."

"'Don't know the first thing about parenting', yeah right."

Nick sat on Judy's bed and stared at the little bundle in his arms. "Babies like rhymes, right?"

Judy paused. "He might like your rhymes a little better."

Nick didn't think to ask what she meant. Instead he just started to lightly hum:

"You're Ben, and you're a fox. Your fur is bright orange locks. Your paws have nice brown socks, and you're up at two o'clock."

That would work.

Special thanks to Silver261 on Tumblr for being an excellent beta reader.