A/N: Well, uh. Hi everyone. I have not abandoned this story. I love the story I have created, planned and fleshed out in many different documents and my mind, I just have issues finding the motivation and creative ability to write it all out. And now that I've moved into a university and started college once more, when I do want to write, it's not always this. BUT, thanks to the few people who've somehow found this story after months without updating and enjoyed it, and thanks to my editor and friend TheoreticallyEva, I managed to dig up enough motivation to finish this chapter. And if I'm being honest, reading the previous chapter also gave me a motivation boost cause I loved Chapter 12 XD A bit self serving perhaps but hey, it worked haha. I had actually gotten this chapter to maybe 60% before I fell off a metaphorical cliff. This chapter was surprisingly difficult because of all the Nick and Judy dialogue because I was just never satisfied with it. Still don't think it's nearly as good as some other authors portray them but it is my best attempt.

I hope whoever reads this enjoys!

Chapter 13: Life in the Fast Lane

For the love of Zootopia, Judy was bored. It was almost 9:00 and Nick agreed last night they'd meet in Snarlbucks at 8:30.

Despite the arranged time of meeting being relatively early in the morning for some, Judy had already been awake for a couple hours. So naturally when Nick finally waltzed on in, Judy just about wanted to yell, "Finally!"

But seeing the manner in which Nick walked over to her table, tail dragging on the ground, face sluggish and looking much older than he really was, she held it in. "Morning, Nick." Judy greeted happily, hoping to spread her energy to him.

Nick merely gave an "mm" in response and practically collapsed into the chair opposite her. "You morning mammals are exhausting. Why did I agree to meeting you here so early?"

"So early?" Judy echoed with a chuckle. "I've been sitting here for almost two hours. What took you so long?"

"Two hours? … Really?" He groggily asked as he lifted his head up just enough to look at her as he spoke.

"...Better part of the morning. I've usually gotten several things done already."

"Well I'm not getting anything done till I get some coffee. You want anything, Carrots?" Nick asked as he got up but before Judy could reply, he cut her off. "Oh, wait no, never mind. Never give a bunny coffee. Don't want you moving at the speed of light or something."

Judy softly chuckled at the stereotypical joke and watched him trudge over to the line with a fond smile. Her eyes idly shifted from the handsome Tod to observe everyone else in the shop. Unsurprisingly, more than a few prey were giving Nick wary glances but he wasn't the only pred they were keeping an eye on.

Following suit, even Judy couldn't help but keep a wary eye on them as well. After yesterday's savage attack, despite the comforting hours spent with Nick talking about what had happened, she couldn't deny that she felt a little more cautious of the common predator.

It didn't help that several of them looked exceptionally seedy with their matted fur, poorly kept clothes and generally disheveled look. What was more, due to The Surge's declaration of war on the ZPD, she could be a perfect target for a variety of reasons.

As Nick made his way back to their table with a large coffee in hand, he repressed a sigh when he noticed his bunny companion on high alert. He supposed he couldn't blame her, considering the trauma she went through yesterday, but he still couldn't hold back some feeling of resentment as she nervously glanced at every single predator in the building. Well, everyone except him. It was irrational that she was afraid of everyone else when he was no different.

"Yeah you definitely don't need a coffee Carrots," he said as he approached the bunny that reeked of fear, forcing himself to put those feelings under the rug. "You look wired enough already."

Judy looked away from the current predator she was giving the eye and looked up at Nick as he sat down. She felt like she should have responded with something witty like she usually did, but nothing came to her currently fearful mind. But oddly enough, once she locked eyes with Nick and saw the beginnings of a smile on his muzzle, those feelings of fear evaporated.

"So, got any big plans for your vacation?"

"We got work to do Nick. It's not going to be much of a vacation. Besides I'm only on it because Bogo wanted me out of his way."

"Mmm, yes. Chief Buffalo Butt," Nick droned as he sipped at his coffee. "Can't wait till I get to meet the mammal I've heard so much about."

Judy chuckled imagining how that meeting would go down. Even the smallest sound of amusement emanating from Judy made Nick smile. And that seemed silly to his bachelor mind but there was no point denying it anymore; he was falling hard for this bunny.

"On that note, I'll have you know, contrary to popular belief, if a bunny has some coffee they aren't suddenly able to move at the speed of light."

"Ha, are you sure about that? Did your parents ever let you guys have any?"

"If we ever wanted it, maybe. But why would we? Most of us are morning mammals and we already move fast enough as it is."

"Oh, I bet you do." Nick said as he wiggled his eyebrows.

"Oh please."

"Hey, you're the one who said bunnies are good at multiplying so at least that stereotype is true."

"Ok fine but out of the two of us, which one has had dozens of one-night stands?"

"I don't know about dozens but at least I've actually gotten some."

"Ohoho, you did not just go there Mr. Fox. We are not talking about my sex life."

"Or lack thereof."

Judy laughed a little too loudly and placed a paw over her mouth. "Shut up, fox." Her cheeks both ached from how widely she was smiling and burned in embarrassment.

After a beat of content silence between the two during which Nick sipped at his coffee and Judy looked anywhere but at Nick, he finally put the two of them back on topic. "So, what's the plan?"

"I've been thinking about that. I think it's time you prove to me you know everyone, Slick. We need more information so let's go talk to someone from The Surge."

Nick snorted as someone immediately came to mind. "To the surprise of everyone, I know the perfect mammal."

"Of course you do."

Standing up, they both walked towards the door and Nick tossed his empty cup perfectly into the trash can. "And if we're going to play good-cop bad-cop, by the way, I call the bad one."

"Ha, please. You may be a predator, but I doubt you'd have the guts to even stand up to my parents if you ever met them."

"Oh my naive bunny compatriot, you have so much to learn."

"Oh yeah? Then teach me, ya old fart."

As they exited, more than a handful of mammals inside the coffee shop noted the chemistry those two had. It was quite entertaining listening to the pair of them bicker, so they were sad to see them leave.

And the friendly teasing and bickering never stopped either. While Nick initially had a destination in mind, the constant distraction that was their lovely conversation made him lose his mental GPS signal a handful of times as they traversed through the city. Something that Judy of course immediately jumped upon to tease him about.

After turning them around once more, while Nick continued to talk, Judy stared at him with another one of her smug fox looks. She had hoped he'd notice right off the bat but when he kept talking and walking, she decided to keep that face on until he did. "I see you making that face out of the corner of my eye Carrots. I'm just choosing to ignore it."

"Choosing to ignore the fact that you're a horrible driver?"

"Have you ever owned a car?"

"I thought you knew this city like the back of your hand?"

"Says the bunny who's lived here almost nine months and doesn't know the difference between Snowball drive and Palm Avenue." That was an exaggeration and they both knew it, but it made her laugh and that's all that mattered to him.

Who cared how much time had passed by the time the duo arrived in the seedier region of Savannah Central? But even as they walked down streets littered with trash bags and by buildings as unkempt as the ones in HappyTown, the pair didn't stop enjoying each other's presence. In fact, they hardly registered much else apart from each other. At least not until Nick heard the infamous voice of Duke Weaselton did he try to steer the conversation back to business.

"Ha ha, that's a good movie, my friend. And I'll offer ya a deal, ya buy one, I'll give ya a second one half off. How bout dat?!" Duke said to an armadillo lady, one of a surprisingly large number of customers at his no-longer-tiny corner stand. He actually had a solid booth and tent now but still kept his trademark sign hanging below the front.

As the pair approached the sign reading "Duke's Officially Licensed Movies," Judy struggled to keep herself from bursting into laughter at its "convincing" tone and poor quality.

"Actually Carrots, why don't you let me handle this? If he sees you he might be a little more aggressive and harder to get information out of. At least he and I are old buddies." Judy saw no point in arguing so she nodded. While Nick approached, Judy blended in with the shopping crowd to keep herself out of view from Duke while remaining close enough to listen.

"Well well look what we have here. Your little corner of Zootopia has flourished lately." Nick glibly said as he leaned against the closest table to Duke and the line in front of him. "You pull out a loan or something?"

"Don't make me contact my friends to kick your sorry traitorous tail out of here Wilde. I don't want no trouble, and I bet you don't either."

"Oh please you can't still be mad about that one night, Wuzzleton. I just want to know if you're still in contact with any of our old buddies."

"You pronouncing my last name like a moron isn't gonna bother me anymore Wilde, and you ain't getting anything out of me. So get out of here, you're in the way of my customers." Duke growled, gesturing towards a small gathering of mammals off to the side keeping a polite distance but paying avid attention to what was going on.

Nick clicked his tongue and retreated to another part of the tent where Judy was actually looking at a movie in her paws. "Nice choice, Slick. He's a real pool of information."

"Well I did what you told me to, I brought us to someone from The Surge. You didn't specify someone we could strong-arm."

"Aww darn, you're right. I depended too much on you being intelligent enough to fill that in on your own," she said as she looked up at him with such a sly and arrogant expression, it was like looking in a mirror.

"Well as a certain bunny has pointed out, I am just a dumb fox."

Judy softly laughed and shook her head amusedly at the callback. The reverse of the original call-outs was never going to get old. "So getting back on topic, we could ask Mr. Big to get the weasel to talk. He did-"

"Nooo no no, nope, just no on that, Carrots. He doesn't owe us any favors and it's bad to get involved with crime lords. Trust me on that."

"Right, ok. So how do we get him to talk?" she quietly inquired as she set the movie back. It was a copy of Wrangled. She loved the romance in it).

"Hey I brought us here. Your turn to do some work, bunny. It takes two to tango."

Judy scoffed in good humor. Then her eyes brightened as a solution came to mind. "... Maybe that's all we need him to do... Come with me this time. And play along."

Following her lead curiously, Nick let her lead them to the entrance of the tent and then she looked up at him and began whispering a little too loud to be genuine. "So you got everything you needed from him right? You know exactly what they're up to?"

"Ahhh, yup. It was all in the way he avoided eye contact. I don't think we should be concerned, though. I'm thinking they're just planning to-"

As they not so subtly whispered, Duke's ears caught on to their conversation and his mouth dropped open, the toothpick within it nearly falling out.

Quickly apologizing to his customer, the weasel scurried over to the duo. "What're you on about, Wilde? I didn't tell you nothing! You have no idea what we're planning."

"Sure we do, Weasel." Judy barged in. "We just needed a final confirmation that The Surge is of no threat to the public. And whaddaya know? Nick's favorite informant pulled through."

"Ha!" Duke barked. "What do you know, you stupid carrot farming bunny? None of us knew what the stupid copper wire was for so least of all you or the ZPD would be able to figure it out." Nick's fur visibly bristled at the accusation. His muzzle even twitched into a tiny snarl, showing off the smallest amount of fang before he quickly got himself under control. "Heck I didn't even know there was copper wire in train tracks."

Pretending Duke didn't just give away a vital piece of information, Judy shrugged and turned away. "Well, I'm convinced." She said as she walked away. Nick followed and even pulled out his phone for emphasis. "Yup, no threat at all," he agreed.

"Heh, yeah you just wait. The entire city will be at The Hood's mercy once he finally gets his plan in motion. You'll finally what's coming to you, pelt!" Duke spat as he went back to his business, feeling rather good about himself.

Completely ignoring the insult, the pair looked at each other with smiles as they walked away and simultaneously said, "well that went well."

"...But why in Zootopia would they steal a whole bunch of copper wire from train tracks? Sell it for money, just to cause problems?" Judy tried.

"No... Knowing The Hood, there must be some kind of super-secret plan beneath it all. Copper wire is a common conductor, and -heh, train tracks, conductor? Eh, Carrots?" Nick nudged her with an elbow and she rolled her eyes at the pun.

Because Duke hadn't specified where they were stealing copper wire from, once again, Nick had to utilize his knowledge of everyone in Zootopia and they went to talk to a mammal who would know about the functionality of the subway and train tracks.

As it so happened, when they asked said mammal if there'd been anything unusual reported, the old wolf conductor told them, "Oh yeah, all sorts, and a team of technicians have been working on them for the past week. Thankfully it's not a major railway but flow in the CanyonLands has been significantly-"

"Right right, ok, is there any way we could talk to those technicians?" Judy excitedly pressed.

"Well they have today off but I'd be willing to tell you all you need to know about what they're doing. Want me to come with you?"

"Actually if you could just tell us where they're working, we'll investigate ourselves if you don't mind."

So there they were, walking through the arid and incredibly hot Canyonlands. Their destination was a rather remote train track that ran through the center.

"Sheesh it is hot out here," Judy whined as she trudged along beside Nick, whose orange fur almost made him blend into their surroundings.

"Oh, sorry Carrots," said fox quipped with a wicked grin.

"Ha, oh shut up, Fox. You're not that hot."

"Ah, but you admit that I'm hot."

"Well you must be since your coat is a lot thicker than mine."

"You're right. I should take off my shirt." Nick said with a wink as he began unbuttoning his green Pawaiian shirt.

"Er... wait whu-what're you-" Judy stuttered as Nick fully took off his shirt and slung it over his shoulder

For a red fox that, at least to her knowledge, didn't work out, his torso looked admittedly... Oh who was she kidding? He looked freaking hot! And not just because of the blistering heat here. And speaking of, there was no denying that the heat in her cheeks and entire body was not solely due to the temperature in this district.

"Feel free to take yours off too, Carrots."

"Psh. In your dreams, Nick."

"Possibly."

Judy couldn't even begin to think of a response to that and resolutely pushed forward, ignoring Nick's chuckles behind her. Soon enough (and all too soon for Nick) they came within eyeshot of the tracks they were looking for.

Upon thorough inspection, using pictures supplied by the kind conductor of what things should look like, Judy and Nick both concluded that those technicians were, in fact, not fixing the problem, but making it. They must instead be working for The Surge and were stealing copper wire from the tracks.

After taking an abundance of photos with their phones, they trudged back through the heat. Nick still kept his shirt off for whatever reason, and Judy just could not resist stealing glances every now and then. He only finally put it back on once they arrived at the post office. Needless to say, Judy was a little saddened.

After they got an envelope big enough from the front desk mammal in the office, their anonymous tip was forged. Inside the envelope were photos of the ruined train tracks along with printed out images of how they should look, and a note explaining that The Surge is stealing copper wire for an unknown purpose.

When they went around the corner to put the large envelope into the correct slot, they saw that it was well above even Nick's head. With only one look between them, a plan was made. Nick knelt down and Judy climbed up onto his shoulders.

"Y'know," Nick piped up after too many minutes of silence for his liking, "isn't this exactly what serial killers do?"

"Or vigilantes," Judy supplied with a snicker from above him as she stood up on his shoulders, putting the envelope in.

"Are we vigilantes now?"

"Well it's not like the ZPD is going to get anything done against The Surge without someone intervening."

"Kcchhht, this is Officer Wilde, shots fired, shots fired, kcchhttt."

Judy giggled as she got down with Nick's help. In hindsight, it was astonishing how seamlessly they created a plan of action. All it took was that one look between them and volumes were spoken. Such an ability reminded her of the connection between close siblings. She herself never experienced much of that but she knew of it quite well from stories. But she didn't think of Nick as a sibling, nor of their connection as such. It was long past that now. At least on her side...

"Well, I had a ball. And now that we got that squared away, what's your next idea on how to cause trouble for our dear friends?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I've always had a goal in mind, but now..." Now that she wasn't an official part of the ZPD, she wasn't exactly sure what to do. She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to continue spending time with Nick. But she couldn't find the strength to just ask him to continue hanging out with her. That sounded too... too lame. Too desperate.

Nick was having similar problems. He'd never had nearly as much trouble asking an attractive vixen out for dinner as he was now. Just ask her! Do you really think she'd say no?

"Well perhaps while you figure out how to continue abusing the poor mammals within The Surge, you'd like to come over and have dinner?" Nick suggested with an uncharacteristically apprehensive voice.

Despite having thought about becoming more than friends with the lovable fox a dozen times over already, Judy still looked up at him in moderate surprise. Did he really just ask me out?!

In the moment it took her to gather her bearings, Nick's ears folded back. He struggled (and failed) to keep his facial features neutral in the face of possible rejection. Realizing this for himself, he came up with a way out of the awkward situation for both of them. "Unless you'd like to go back to your place and have microwavable carrots, that's perfectly fine with-"

"No, I'd love to come over, Nick. But..."

There's always a "but." Nick sourly thought.

Judy continued. "That'd probably mean the end of the day, wouldn't it?"

Nick tilted his head in confusion and Judy stifled a giggle at how cu- er, how great he looked like that. "I-I…" she stammered, "I just mean, it can't even be five yet. There's still so much time left in the day. I just feel like we should be doing something more with our day until then."

"Can't always live life in the fast lane. If you always feel like you should be doing something else or something more important, you're never going to enjoy anything in life, Carrots."

Judy had the urge to quip but for a moment his words really echoed in her mind. It wasn't until she saw Nick cross his arms and don that incredibly smug and handsome smile of his that she decided to go with it.

"Oh so the dumb fox is giving me life advice now?"

"Had to give you some of your own medicine eventually. You made me question my life choices. Time I did the same for you."

Judy wasn't sure if she should be flattered or not by that comment so she decided to get back on topic. "Well, we should probably go grocery shopping then, don't ya think? I doubt you could cook for a prey with your current ingredients..." A pause. "If you even can cook."

"OHO! Challenge accepted, farm girl!"

"Any ideas on what to make though?"

"Nope."

Judy laughed hysterically at the sudden turn. "Ok, we'll figure that out too while we're shopping. Oh this is gonna be fun!"

Nick couldn't agree more.

As always, please review! Tell me what you think. Did I do ok? Looking forward to the next chapter? Which, by the way, I'll give a bit of a teaser. In the next Chapter we'll reunite with John, Bellwether's ugly mug will be shown, and Nick and Judy have a rather important conversation. Tune in next time!