It had been ten minutes, and Nick and Judy were still at the bottom of the exhibit, and Nick was getting annoyed. He looked over at Judy, who was sitting on one of the exhibit's rocks watching the various ZPD officers moving around above them in the museum. She wasn't complaining, but as she shifted her position, Nick could see her wince in pain. He looked at her leg again and was sure that the blood stain had grown larger over the last 10 minutes.

"What's taking them so long?" he demanded.

"Nick, Bogo already explained that even though the museum is being renovated, they can't find a ladder long enough to reach down here. The emergency services should be here shortly, and then we can get out."

"You would think they would put a little more effort into rescuing an injured officer."

Judy looked down at the ground and in a quiet voice replied, "Nick, I sort of don't work for the ZPD anymore."

When she saw Nick's feet come to a stop in front of her, she kept her head down not wanting to see if Nick was disappointed in her. Nick lifted her chin with his paw and looked into her eyes. "Why not, did Chief Buffalo Butt fire you?"

"No, Nick I….. kind of quit. That press conference I gave drove a wedge into the heart of the city. I hurt so many innocent predators."

"And so you just quit? Why didn't you try to fix it?"

"I didn't know how. Then Bellwether and Bogo wanted to make me the poster kit for all of the prey in the city. I just couldn't do that."

As Judy started to cry, Nick wrapped his arms around her. "It's alright Judy, foiling Bellwether's plan should help to mend the city. You did the right thing bunny, so stop crying."

As Judy wiped the tears from her eyes, Nick straightened and started looking around the exhibit again when something caught his eye. Looking closer he was just able to make out the shape of a pipe cleverly camouflaged into one the exhibit's murals. Tracing the pipe with his eyes, Nick saw that it went from the floor right up to where the museum's main floor overhung the exhibit. Finally, he thought.

He grinned and turned to Judy while rocking back on his heels. "Carrots do you trust me?"

Judy looked at Nick, seeing him flash that charming smile of his. She didn't want to know how many mammals he had lured into giving him their hard earned money, with that damn smile. "Yes, Nick, I trust you. Heck, after today, I would trust you with my life. So what do you have in mind?"

Nick felt his heart catch with her words. He would have never survived on the streets if he couldn't tell when someone was lying to him, and he could see she had meant it.

Judy watched as Nick's usual happy-go-lucky mask melted away. His expression shifted rapidly to one of shock, then worry, and finally settled into one of sadness.

"Nick, are you alright?"

Nick forced a smile. "Of course I am."

He shook his head briefly, then replied, "I'm just tired of waiting on the mammals in blue up there. How about we show them what a couple of civilians can do?" as he flashed a genuine smile.

Judy couldn't help herself as she returned his smile while wiping away the last of her tears. "Okay, so what do we do?"

Nick walked over to her and crouched down facing away from her. "Well, your transport to freedom awaits, climb on board."

Judy chuckled and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Wincing and catching her breath as her injured leg came in contact with Nick's body. Nick glanced back in concern.

"Are you okay?"

She squeezed his neck, "Yeah, my leg's just a little sore."

As Nick stood up, he let out and over exaggerated groan. "My god, what the heck do you bunnies eat? Lead bars?"

Judy flicked his right ear in mock annoyance. "Don't you know it's not nice to comment on a lady's weight?"

"Hey, careful there Carrots, those are sensitive," as he glanced over his shoulder trying to frown at her while failing, miserably.

"So Nick, you still haven't told me what this masterful plan of yours is."

Nick started walking toward the pipe. "See that pipe ahead of us?"

It took Judy a couple of seconds of squinting to make out the thin pipe hidden in the shadows. "Yeah, sort of."

"Well, that's the plan."

Judy's jaw dropped, "Sweet cheese and crackers, I don't think I like this plan."

"Relax Judy. I've done this every day since I was twelve. Just close your eyes and make sure to hold on tight."

Nick couldn't help himself from saying, "Welcome to the Natural History Museum, next stop main lobby and gift shop, please keep your possessions with you at all times," as he took hold of the pipe and started to climb.

Chief Bogo was screaming on the phone, "There are over a half-dozen fire stations in the city center alone, there must be something you can send. I have an injured officer, I need that rescue crew and ambulance now, not in an hour."

He cursed as the rescue dispatcher replied curtly, "Unless your officer is dying, we simply have nothing to send. We will send a unit over as soon as one is available, but that won't be for at least an hour, goodbye," and hung up on him.

It was frustrating. In 15 years of service, Bogo had never seen it this bad. Due to the aggressive nature of predators, they were perfect for and had always made up the majority of the response services in Zootopia. Since no one had determined the cause of the savage attacks, and with the growing hostilities towards predators, a majority of the responders had either called in sick or just refused to work, electing instead to stay home and guard their families.

He was about to call and vent his anger to the fire marshal when he was interrupted as Wolford tapped his arm. "Uh. Chief should they be doing that?" pointing into the exhibit. Bogo looked in the indicated direction. He froze, not quite believing what he was seeing. Judy was clinging to the fox's back while the fox was rapidly climbing the enclosure's wall. It took only seconds till the fox reached the top of the exhibit and stretched his paw over the lip, trying to find something to grab onto while calling out, "a little help here?"

Bogo yelled, "Pennington pull them up," the elephant had been facing away from the exhibit and turned in confusion, but on seeing the fox's paw flailing around rushed over to pull them up.

Wolford could just make out the pipe the fox had used to climb out of the exhibit and shivered. Canids hated climbing and avoided it whenever possible. Their bodies just were not designed for it. The wall at the academy had washed out more canid candidates than anything else. That fox had to be insane to be willing to climb that pipe while carrying someone on his back.

When Nick's paws touched the ground, he felt Judy sliding down his back. Then he heard her yelp. Nick spun and just managed to catch her before she could fall to the floor. He crouched down and pulled her arm over his neck so she could put her weight on him instead of her injured leg.

"Are you okay carrots?"

She smiled back at him, "I'm fine Nick." Nick very much doubted that. Nearly all of the color had drained from her ears, and her fur was matted with sweat.

"Come on Carrots. It's time to get you to the hospital."

Judy squeezed Nick's neck, "In a couple of minutes Nick, first we need to report to Chief Bogo."

"No, we don't. You don't work for Bogo anymore. We can talk to him after we get your leg patched up."

He looked down at Judy and frowned. She had dropped her ears to the sides of her face. Her lavender eyes were wide open, staring innocently into his, while her lower lip trembled as she whimpered, "Please Nick, for me?"

Nick groaned, he knew there was no way he was going to win this argument, "Fine, but just a quick briefing and then you're going straight to the hospital." Judy's face instantly returned to normal with a big grin on it, "Too easy."

"I didn't know bunnies can be that evil." Nick complained, "That look should be registered as a lethal weapon."

"Oh shush, you know you love it, come on, let's get this over with."

Judy's thoughts were thrown out the window as Bogo stormed over to the two mammals.

"What the hell do you think you were doing? You could have gotten yourselves killed pulling that stupid stunt!"

Nick couldn't help himself and in his sweetest voice said, "Oh, it's so touching to know that you truly care, I had no idea."

Nick grinned as Bogo clenched his fists and growled.

Nick opened his mouth to make another comment but was interrupted as he felt Judy squeeze his neck. He glanced down seeing her shake her head, sighing and closed his mouth. Bogo's eyes pinned the fox for a several seconds before turning to Judy.

"Judy, I need a rundown of everything that happened." Judy quickly ran through the events of the last several hours. When the Night Howler pellet came up, Bogo had Nick carefully remove it from his shirt pocket and drop it into an evidence bag. He also had Judy play Bellwether's confession several times while he made a copy of it with his phone. Once done, he had her drop it into another evidence bag. Then he started grilling them.

Nick was tired, what was supposed to be a quick briefing had already lasted for over 20 minutes, and there seemed to be no end to Bogo's questions. He glanced down at Judy and was startled when he realized her entire lower pant leg was covered in blood.

"Dammit Carrots, why didn't you tell me you were still bleeding?"

"Nick, I'm all right."

Nick replied tersely, "No, you're not," glaring at her.

Nick looked Bogo straight in the eyes stating flatly, "That's it, we're done here. You should have plenty of information for now, and I need to get Carrots to the hospital".

Bogo glared at the fox then looked at Judy's leg, and his face softened, "You're right, we will pick this up at another time. I would appreciate it if you two would not discuss the details of this case with anyone yet. We still need to interrogate Bellwether and those rams we arrested to determine if anyone else was involved. Not to mention we need to notify the head of the city council that she's now the acting mayor. We probably won't have enough information together to hold a press conference until at least tomorrow."

Judy looked at Nick, who nodded his assent. "Okay, Chief we won't tell anyone, just make sure you get everyone that was involved."

"You have my word on it." Bogo then sighed "Unfortunately, it appears that the ambulance I requested still hasn't arrived. Officer Greyclaw is outside. I will have her drive you to the emergency room."

Bogo's was surprised when the fox responded with a curt, "Thanks." Then immediately picked Judy up in his arms and started carrying her towards the museum's front doors.

As the two walked away, Wolford glanced at the Chief, "Isn't he the same fox that helped her crack the missing mammal case?"

"I believe so," Bogo replied with a hint of a smile on his face.

"She said he risked his life to save her, I've never heard of a fox risking his life to save a rabbit before. Do you think those two are? I mean they're a bunny and a fox, that wouldn't happen would it?"

Bogo turned his glare on the wolf, "Wolford stop wasting my time. We have still work to do here. Make sure the museum has been cordoned off. Then check with the lab boys and see what they have found out about that pellet gun. I need to get back to the office and start the interrogations."

Wolford stiffened, "Yes, sir," and hurried to get back to work.

Bogo took one more look at Judy and Nick, who were both so deep in conversion that they didn't even notice that the museum's front doors were being held open for them by officers Snarloff and Grizzoli.

Judy blushed when Nick picked her up and started carrying her towards the front of the museum.

"Nick, I can walk on my own. My leg's not that bad."

"Don't give me that Carrots, you nearly collapsed back there when you got off my back, or do you think I didn't notice that?"

Judy sighed, "I guess not, it's just kind of embarrassing, I used to work with these guys, and they are all staring at us."

"Let them stare. You were, heck you still are, a better cop than any of them. You just solved the biggest case this city has ever seen."

Judy looked at Nick frowning, "You mean we solved the case. Nick, I'm not going to let your involvement get brushed aside this time like it did with the missing mammal case."

Nick sighed, hoping Judy would just forget about, "Don't worry about it Carrots. We can talk about that after we get your leg taken care of."

Judy stared up at Nick knowing he was trying to change the subject, though not sure why. What surprised her was the look of concern she saw in his eyes each time he glanced down at her. She reached up and touched his cheek, "Nick, I'm going to be fine, it's just a small cut."

He smiled down at her, "Of course you are, " though his pace didn't slow.

Judy let her head fall against Nick's chest. It made her feel good knowing that he was concerned for her. It had been so long since she had a real friend. She had been lonely for so long she had almost forgotten what it was like not be lonely. The last time she had felt this way was before leaving for the academy. "God, I'm pathetic," she thought. "Has it really taken me seven months to make a friend? What the hell is wrong with me?" Nick glanced down at her. She didn't know what he may have seen on her face, but it must have been something because he frowned and quickened his pace.

As they were exiting the museum, she noticed his musky scent for the first time. Without thinking, she breathed it in deeply and smiled. God, he smells good. It was strange, even though her leg felt like it was on fire, she didn't want to leave his arms and scent behind as they approached the patrol cars. Her eyes popped open, "Wait a minute, am I falling for Nick?"

Before she could consider it further, Officer Greyclaw came over, interrupting her thoughts.

"Well, it looks like I will be your chauffeur. My cruiser is right over here," as Greyclaw clicked her heels together and tipped her hat to the two mammals with a smile.

Nick and Judy couldn't help but laugh. Judy grinned at the tigress, "Thanks, we appreciate it."

"Are you kidding? If only half the rumors flying around here are real, then it's the least the ZPD can do for you two."

When they reached the cruiser, Officer Greyclaw reached down and gently took Judy from Nick and placed her in the passenger's seat. Nick quickly scrambled up to join her, pulling the passenger seatbelt over both of them. Judy leaned against Nick resting her head on his shoulder. She glanced up, and their eyes met briefly and then she felt them, the butterflies in her stomach. As the car pulled out towards the hospital, she sighed, "So I guess that answers that question. So now what am I going to do about it?"