5:37 pm, September 13th

The main hall of the Natural History Museum thundered as mammals of all sizes made their way around to all corners of the room. Their movements made all too frantic by the bellowing cape buffalo barking orders at every single officer. He pointed and swiveled on the spot, his expression set into that of complete contempt for the situation at paw. "Rhinowitz, Fangmeyer, get down to Banyon Street ten minutes ago! Wolford, where's that ladder!" The furious buffalo stomped his foot on the ground and continued to everyone that could hear, "And for God's sake, somebody find a goddamn janitor's cart or something so we can walk Bellwether out of here without anybody taking pictures!"

Chief Bogo tore his radio off of his belt and fiddled with the dials as he kept on bellowing. "Higgins, Grizzoli, I want a team down in that tunnel to put out that car right now! I want something to be left over for forensics. When they get there, tell them to comb through every single inch of that station. I want those teeth to be fine, do you hear me?" He brought the radio up to his face and spoke in a restrained volume, still seething with rage. "Dispatch, this is Chief Bogo. 10-63."

"10-4, Chief. Go ahead." The static-laden voice responded after a short few seconds.

"Dispatch, I need an APB on three suspects. Rams, all of them. Two sandy brown, one charcoal. Stand by for further details. Last known locations are between the Savanna Central and Banyon Street stations, on the tracks. Officers Fangmeyer and Rhinowitz are en route to the Banyon Street station. I want officers on every tunnel exit between Watering Hole and Prairie, I do not want those two mammals to slip through our grasp. One ram is likely still on the bridge just west of Savanna Central station. I want a bird in the sky yesterday, do you copy?" Bogo looked up from his radio after lifting his massive hoof off of the transmitter. "Wolford! If you do not have a ladder here in five seconds-"

"10-4, Chief. Standing by for suspect descriptions."

Judy hissed in protest as Nick's attention was drawn away from the intimidating scene developing on the lip of the exhibit. His attention was again fully on the makeshift bandage he was holding around a small bunny's leg. She writhed under his firm grasp he had around her thigh. Nick peered up at Judy's face as he eased the pressure he had over her wound only slightly. Her ears were laid back completely as she took shallow breaths to control herself, amethyst eyes focused straight ahead. "If you really want to bleed out, you can just tell me," he breathed nonchalantly. Nick was now doing his best to ignore the increasingly irritated voice of Bogo as he continued to bark orders.

Judy strained a smile, looking up into Nick's eyes. The smile might have been halfway genuine, but it did little to hide how much her leg obviously hurt. "Tempting, but I still have a case to finish."

Nick scoffed, not impressed in the slightest. Instead he turned his gaze back up to the edge of the exhibit they were trapped in. "If you ask me, it looks like it's his case now."

She chuckled dryly at that. "Yeah, well he did just arrest the mayor of Zootopia and a couple other cops. He probably wants the whole thing to be court ready before anybody can even get back to the station." She sighed as she leaned back into the fake rock she was sitting on. "Even if she is dead to rights, the press is going to have a field day if we don't tie up every loose end by the press conference." Judy closed her eyes and tried to focus on anything but her injury. "The Lionheart debacle was bad enough, and they had the whole night to form a statement."

Nick, seeing his chance, took the opportunity to get another look at the cut. Sliding his paw down her thigh towards her knee, he slowly lifted the red cloth handkerchief off her leg. The cut was bad, but not life threatening. The bleeding had almost completely stopped, and it didn't look deep enough to do any real damage to the muscle. Still, stitches were a certainty, and she wasn't going to be running on it anytime soon. Satisfied, he removed his paw from her thigh completely and replace the piece of cloth. He didn't even seem to care that his handkerchief was soaked with blood, the pine tree situated at the corner of the cloth almost completely obscured. "You know," he started in a smug sort of tone. "Maybe the case will be court ready by the time we get out of this exhibit."

Judy's expression did not change. Instead, she sighed again. Nick just watched her, abandoning his attempt to provide levity for the situation. "I can't believe it was her," she breathed out in a long whisper, her nose twitching in disappointment. "Of all the mammals..."

Nick returned his attention to her leg and inspecting the cloth, forcing himself not to stare at her nose. "Never judge a book by its cover, Carrots. It goes both ways." He was kneeled in front of her, his left leg angled so that he could lay Judy's injured leg over it. Her foot twitched at every movement he made with her. "If you ask me, it's always the helpless looking ones. It's the best con in the business."

Judy clicked her tongue off of her enormous buck teeth, disapproving of his matter-of-fact tone. "I thought you just said don't judge a book by it's cover."

"She fooled me, didn't she?" He said, looking up at her still closed eyes. "I haven't gotten to the point of assuming every meek mammal is secretly one of the most ruthless animals around, but after the past half hour, I think I'm finally there."

She snorted a half laugh, half grunt of pain. "Does that mean you think I'm secretly one of the most ruthless animals around?"

"Two things wrong with that, Fluff." She lifted her head to gander at his wild posturing. He sprung one of his clawed fingers into the air dramatically. "One, you are, by far, the least meek mammal I have ever seen. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you've got a gentile side-" Nick's voice was caught as her other foot smacked him across his right side playfully. "But I just don't think 'meek' is in the cards for you. Sorry to break it to you."

Judy gave a pained giggle at that before lying back into the rock with one paw over her eyes. "Say it isn't so, Nick!" She went on in a sarcastic tone, "What will all of the other bunnies think of me? I can't go on like this! Just lift the bandage up and let me bleed out!"

Nick's indifferent smile broke into genuine amusement. "I already said you could just tell me." He had settled his other paw back onto her leg, abandoning his attempt to keep track of his two reasons. He looked back down at the bandage for no particular reason. "And two..." He started in a slow whisper. His voice low as he continued, as if he didn't want anyone but Judy to hear. "Nobody could ever call you ruthless... Not after coming back." Nick lifted his eyes towards her face and saw she was staring back at him blankly. Judy's expression tensed into a pained look, but not because of her leg. Her rich, amethyst eyes betraying her sad thoughts.

She shifted her gaze away, looking at anything other than Nick or her leg. "Yeah, well," she started indignantly. "It took me long enough." She squirmed on the false stone before lying back into it and closing her eyes again. "I still can't believe it was her."

Nick could spot someone trying to change the subject halfway across the city, and this was no different. He raised his eyebrow as he thought about what to say. He knew she felt horrible about the whole thing, but he had hoped she would be a little more joyful about cracking the case. I can't really hold it against her, though. Who knows how long she's been blaming herself for the press conference, he thought. Still, Nick would honor her attempt and drop it. "She definitely didn't seem the type," he commented disinterestedly. "Even treated me like I wasn't just a fox." Which, in hindsight, should have been the giveaway, he kept to himself. He had definitely lost his edge if being conned so easily was any indication, and he could not figure out how it happened. After two decades on the streets, it should have been clear as day. Yet it wasn't. Thinking back on it, why hadn't he noticed anything? What the hell was he doing, exactly, that he couldn't spot such a ploy? There was always tells when prey couldn't stand predators. A twitch of the eye, ears flickering, smiles just a smidgen too genuine, it's always there. Nick almost scoffed out loud at the thought that he hadn't seen it. He must have been distracted, but by what? It was lost on him.

Both of their attention was captured by a loud bang on the other side of the exhibit. Chief Bogo was staring back at them with Wolford flanking him. "Alright, Hopps," he bellowed down at them. "Let's get you to the hospital so you'll be able to testify."

His lidded eyes met Bogo's, their expressions cold and solid. Bogo's stern intensity and Nick's deceptively lazy smile fought over the air between them. Nick felt like now was an appropriate time to growl, but thought better of it. It hadn't taken him that many years on the streets to control his instinct to growl, yet he found himself fighting it now. Just more evidence that this whole debacle wasn't good for his health. Not that the rest of his life was good for his health.

They stared at each other for a long few seconds, neither of them relenting. Hesitantly, he tore his vision from the Chief of police and back at Judy. She was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and worry written all over her deep, amethyst eyes. He looked her up and down, and huffed out a breath. He removed the soaked rag and wrung it through the air to soften the congealing blood. "This is going to hurt, rabbit. Try to put on a smile so they don't shoot me in the back," he dryly pleaded, half serious. Nick snaked the fabric around her calf, and begun tying the stained red cloth over her cut. "Deep breath, now," he suggested as he pulled the knot down onto her injury. Judy shot upwards into a strained sitting position and let out a cringing breath that hitched in her throat. Despite that, Nick could see her holding a pained, toothy smile over his shoulder. No doubt directed at the two police officers staring daggers into his back.

At some point, she had grabbed onto both of his shoulders, and was inches away from his snout. Her pink plaid shirt brushing against his purple nose. It was impossible for her scent not to invade every corner of his nasal cavity. If it wasn't for her shallow breaths as he tied another knot into the makeshift tourniquet, he would have lingered just a little too long on breathing in the air coming from under her shirt. He made a point of reprimanding himself for the thought. Just another thing he would have to not dwell on today. That list was piling up. Nick inspected his work. Certainly not the best, and he was nowhere near happy with it, but it had all but stopped bleeding already. The important thing now was to get her to the hospital for the real McCoy.

Without giving her any warning, he scooped her up into his arms in one fluid motion. Hooking his left arm under her knees and pulling her out and away from the rock and into his arms as she squeaked. He brought himself up and shook the leg he had been leaning on, waking it up. Judy was grabbing at his shirt and fur around his neck in an attempt to balance herself, her ears flapping around still loose. Once she was settles into his arms he looked down at her. "You okay, Carrots?"

Judy's frantic expression softened somewhat, but she still shot Nick a narrow look. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just warn me next time."

Nick shifted his weight now that Judy was in his arms, daring to take another breath of her scent with the close proximity. She smelled like dirt, produce, synthetic leather, sweat, and blood. All tales of her particularly eventful day, but there was definitely something more. Something he hadn't saw fit to put a name to up until now. It was Judy's smell. "Hang on tight. If we fall off going up the ladder they'll skin me alive for sure. And if I'm being honest, I like having my skin attached to me."

"That's too bad," she hummed up at him as she settled her head into his chest. She reached up with one arm and flung it over his shoulder taking a firm grip on his shirt. "You would have made a very warm coat."

"Not so fast, cottontail," he blew back at her. "That's why I don't want to give it up just yet."

"Oh, yeah," she said as he turned and made his way towards the ladder. He did his best to ignore the pointed glares from the cops above him. "Does that mean you'd be willing to part with it down the line?"

"You wouldn't be able to afford it. Not on your salary."

"Oh, I'll hold you up on that, slick. I can save up," she smiled at him.

Her smiling was something Nick was trying to do, and he was glad it was working. Keep her mind off the pain in her leg was his best bet at the moment. Until they got to the hospital. Then she could get some much-needed pain medication. Then they could... What? Go their separate ways? Nick inwardly frowned, keeping his neutral lidded eyes and smug face the same. No amount of inner turmoil would write itself on him, but that didn't stop him from slowing his pace. Now that the case was over, what were they going to do? She was still a cop and he was still a conmammal. Add it to the pile, Nick, he thought. You're going to think yourself into a corner. Just focus on the task at paw.

As he reached the base of the ladder, he shimmied her weight into a single arm, cradling his arm around her tail like a seat. His large, clawed paw rested on the small of her back. Judy squirmed uncomfortably at both the pain in her leg and her newly weird position. "Hold on," he reminded her as he brought his now free paw up to grab a rung. The process was slow; having only one arm made the climb awkward, but he soon made it up to the final stretch. Lifting his paw up into the air when he finally made it almost to the top, Chief Bogo grabbed onto his wrist and pulled him up over the precipice of the exhibit and settled him on the floor in front of him. "Thank you for your service, Mr. Police Chief," Nick replied in a mocking tone. He settled Judy back into both of his arms as the Chief snorted at him.

"Shut your mouth, fox." Bogo turned to the wolf that was cautiously watching the exchange. "Wolford, go pull your cruiser up to the steps. Hopps will be out after I have a word." He turned his irritated gaze back onto the pair situated far below his towering figure. Nick could feel Judy retreat further into his arms. He could only guess what he had to say. "If you'll come with me," the massive cape buffalo gestured towards one of the rooms undergoing renovation away from the bustling mass of police officers. Nick made no quip recognizing his tone and simple started walking away from the crowd.

As they settled into their positions facing each other in the cluttered space, Bogo just crossed his arms and bored his vision through the pair. He was huffing every breath in irritation, his nostrils flaring comically. After a short time of thought, he leaned down at them, starting in a firm but quiet tone. "You will listen to what I have to say, because I will only say it once. Both of you. In any and all testimonies or conversations in or outside the public eye, you will confer to the facts that I am about to explain to you. Do you understand?" Bogo watched the apprehensive nodding of both mammals before he was satisfied enough to continue.

He turned his attention to Judy. "Hopps, earlier this morning you called me directly and requested to be reinstated to finish the case, and I accepted. You asked to come to the station and be sworn in immediately, but I told you to conduct the investigation off of any official books for the time being. It is my official opinion that you took a leave of absence, but you weren't terminated, so you didn't have to re-pledge. All of your investigations leading and up until the arrest of Dawn Bellwether was a sanctioned police investigation with full oversight from me. Get your stories straight, and stay consistent. I do not want to know about any misconduct or underhanded methods that you may or may not have used in your investigations. Do I make myself clear, Officer?" He did not wait for her to respond. "Good. If you still wish to quit, you can hand in your papers at the end of the week. As of this morning, you are once again a sworn officer of the law."

Bogo turned his attention to the fox who starred on in an air of curiosity, still maintaining his lidded expression. "You, on the other paw, are a registered police informant." Despite his mask, Nick could not stop his brow furrowing in reaction to the buffalo's almost slanderous remark. "And you have been for months now. Officer Hopps here registered you during the Missing Mammals case, but your papers were lost in records before they could make it into the database. They will find the appropriate documents, including signed papers from yourself, still sealed with my signature, dated correctly in a couple days time.

"You have been working for us in an official capacity under the direct supervision of Hopps and myself. Do not give me that look, fox. I would much rather kick your red ass to the curb and forget you exist since your presence makes this ordeal just that much more complicated. Unfortunately for us both, your friend there has made very public declarations of your involvement with the Missing Mammals case. I cannot falsify you out of the report as much as I would like to, because Bellwether's lawyers will spot the weak link before there is even any blood in the water. It'll take them maybe a few days to find 'the rabbit's fox', and when they do they will use you to tear down the case and swear 'police misconduct' up and down the courtroom. I will not have that."

Bogo turned his attention back at the stunned bunny in Nick's arms, and held out his hoof. "Nighthowler," he deadpanned. Judy ohed and shot her small paw into Nick's breast pocket. Nick's expression widened slightly at she fished her paw around the inside of his shirt pocket, brushing against his chest as she searched for the paintball filled with the deadly serum. She brought it out carefully in her padless paws and handed it up to the Chief, holding it with just barely the required force. Bogo held an evidence bag that he retrieved from his belt under the blue marble, and she slowly lowered it into the bag and carefully dropped it the rest of the way. Bogo said nothing as he sealed the plastic and put it in his own breast pocket.

"Recorder," he said in an almost bored tone. Judy scrambled for her pocket this time and handed the small carrot shaped pen over to her once again superior. Bogo snatched to out of her paws leisurely and brought out another bag from his belt. While he was sealing the bag, he did not look up from his activity before continuing. "The chain of custody is going to be very short for this thing. Is there anything else on it I should be made aware of before it goes in evidence?"

Nick and Judy both gave each other sideways glances before she spoke up, clearing her throat before beginning. "No, sir. Pressing the record button erases whatever is on it. It's not exactly high-end. I picked it up in Bunnyburrow at the checkout of a pharmacy."

Bogo snorted. "I don't know why you thought I would care where you got it, but if it's cheap then at least you can part with it."

"A-actually..." Bogo moved his bored expression up to the bunny who was straining a smile. "It's kind of - um. Sentimental?" The Chief's face fell to that of distinct irritation. "A-and if – uh – I could get that back? That would be nice?" She gave him a toothy grin, worry written all over her face.

Clicking his tongue, the Chief turned and began walking out of the cluttered work space. "You're out of luck, Hopps. This little piece is going to be staying in evidence until Bellwether's trial is over." He continued as he moved away further, "Someone will be by the hospital for your full statements. Remember, your stories need to be bulletproof. No holes. No inconsistencies. Do not dick around on this one." He stopped just at the door and turned back to the pair. His face betraying his intense tone. "And fox?" Nick straightened his back, preparing himself for whatever he had to say next. "If you don't want to be registered as an informant, that is your choice. Just be mindful that you will ruin the case against Bellwether, make the recording inadmissible, open up an IA investigation into Officer Hopps' conduct, besmirch my precinct's reputation, and I will personally levy charges on everything that will stick. For every year your fox hide knocks off of Bellwether's sentence, I will add a hundred to yours." His bored expression returned as he straightened up. "Now get yourselves to the hospital," was all he said as he turned and left the room.

The mismatched pair stood there for some time. Both staring at the empty doorway the Chief walked through. It was everything Judy could muster to let out an awkward laugh. "Oh, that's Chief Bogo for you, huh?" She looked up at Nick, noticing his pensive expression and his ears splayed backwards an almost unnoticeable amount. Even though his expression barely changed from his usual smug, lidded gaze, it spoke volumes. The only noticeable differences were his eyes being a tiny bit tighter and his ears slightly back, his permanent grin had not even changed a millimeter, yet she could piece together what he was feeling almost immediately. Her face softened as it dawned on her what this situation meant for him. She shifted her eyes downward, trying to pay more attention to her leg than Nick's steadily waning personal freedom. "I'm... I'm sorry I got you into this mess," she spoke out in a soft whisper. When she looked back up at his face, she saw that he was looking down at her, the same expression still present.

After a few short seconds, his face relaxed. He wasn't happy about the fact that he was open like a book just then. If he really was slipping, he would have to worry about that later. Right now he had more pressing matters to attend to. After that was done, he could have time to reflect on the fact that he had well and truly lost his grip. "No worries, Carrots. I knew what I was getting into when I said I would help this morning." Thankfully, his lidded eyes were back, a lazy smile creeping across his face. "Being blackmailed into working for the cops is one thing, but choosing to do it out of the goodness of my cold, fox heart is another entirely." He brushed off the small thud that Judy made against his chest when she smacked him playfully. It was about time they made it to a doctor, and he started walking towards the exit as he went on. "I filled out that form, didn't I? Wouldn't have done that if I didn't think I could go on the straight and narrow."

"Yeah," Judy trailed off. She looked down at herself curled up in his arms, one paw clutching her leg and the other holding a pawful of Nick's shirt. "I guess you're right."

Nick, recognizing Judy's unsure tone and facial features, decided it was a good idea to reassure her. His "better half" decided it was a good time to remind him that it would be a good idea to drop that subject like a bad habit. In fact, it was high time he dropped the bunny like the bad habit she was starting to become. She had poked more holes in his front of a personality than he thought was possible. She was even starting to relax him enough that she could read his thoughts by the look on his face? What the hell was that? Push it back, Wilde, he reminded himself. Focus.

"I'm serious," he began, prompting her twitching nose to be directed his way once again. He did not look down, instead he watched her out of the corner of his eye as he began to make his way through the chaotic main hall. Passing rushing officers towards the front door. He was now making a fairly laborious effort to do several thing. Keeping his mask pristine, not looking at her twitching nose, being firm but not weird in his embrace, quieting his treacherous thoughts, and trying to ignore all of the sideways glances he was getting from all of the cops in the room being among them. If just one of those things was bothering him, he wouldn't show it. "That's just the thing about it," he shrugged. "Nothing lasts forever."

He probably would have gone on, but his better half won that battle. No point in her knowing things that were none of her business. Even more so the fact that those things were ever more personal. If he could do nothing else, he would make sure the rabbit didn't get any more ideas. He had already made a point figuring out what exactly it was he was going to do after all of this, but nobody had to know he hadn't figured that out yet.

"If you ask me," he eased with the intention of seemingly effortlessly driving the conversation in all of the manageable directions. "I would say that you've struck gold here, Carrots. You got your job back, you solved the case of the century, and you got to get swept off of your feet by a dashing rogue." He peered down at her, his smug smile growing wider as he wiggled his eyebrows.

Judy could do nothing but snort in amusement, though the joke had the desired effect. She released her hold on his shirt and tried to settle into a more natural, comfortable position. That seemed to sate the death that was getting thrown at him by half the eyes in the room to some extent. Still, maybe he could have just let her walk out with a little help. It was amazing to him how the fact that she could still technically walk hadn't crossed his mind. He had instead opted to carry a wounded bunny out bridal style past the entirety of Precinct One. Boy, he started internally. You really have lost your damn mind, haven't you?

It wasn't lost on Nick that his hustling days were numbered. In Zootopia, at least. He was quite serious when he said it had effectively come to an end. Sure, he had a few loose ends to tie up before he ducked out for good, but his business ventures were now all officially dead in the water. His current activity not helping that. Having everyone in the police force know his muzzle as 'the rabbit's fox', as the Chief put it, cemented the idea that his life of skirting around the edges of the law was pretty much done in this town. No big deal. His life had taken worse.

Taken worse? He thought to himself. Now just what kind of thought is that? Are you forgetting that you were the one to throw two decades of honing your skills in the garbage at the whim of a rabbit? Life didn't take jack. You practically begged it to take it away. It was regrettably true. If he wasn't keeping up appearances, he would have almost sighed. He had done it this time. No stroke of bad luck or honest mistake was the cause. He chose to do it himself. It was about this time that he was seriously beginning to consider if he had lost his mind in earnest. We all have our bad day, I guess. Mine just happen to knock me on my ass harder than a freight train.

It wasn't all bad, he mused. I guess I technically helped to save the city from a deranged demagogue... I got a pretty good hustle in... And Carrots came back... He groaned inwardly at that last part as he walked through the door of the Natural History Museum, an enormous rhino holding it open for them. Focus, Nick reminded himself. Judy called over his shoulder to thank the rhino as he scanned the front steps for a familiar wolf. After spotting him leaning up against his cruiser, Nick paced himself down the steps as to not jostle Judy around too much. They were almost on their way to the hospital, but there was no need in making it worse.

"I take it you're our ride?" Nick looked up at the cop with a lazy smile.

The wolf eyed the fox for a long moment before shaking his head and motioning to the passenger door. "My cab fare is doubled if there's any blood on the seats," he mocked, obviously towards Judy as he distinctly avoided looking at the fox.

Judy giggled in his arms. "I'll try not to," she beamed up her colleague.

"Oh, shucks, Hopps," he huffed, looking away. "You need to be registered as a deadly weapon," he practically whispered as he unlatched the passenger door and held it open for them. Nick stepped up onto the edge of the cruiser and lowered Judy onto the seat sideways, keeping her leg elevated. He gave her one more look over before he was satisfied enough to hop down back onto the concrete.

"I'll take the back," he offered at the confused expression on Judy's face. Before she could protest, Wolford shut the door promptly.

"That's probably a good idea," the wolf breathed at him. Just low enough that Judy couldn't hear him, but Nick's capable ears could. Wolford still made an effort not to look at the fox as he moved towards the back and reached for the back handle. He hesitated for a moment, his brow furrowing in thought. Nick made no move but to watch him. Wolford sighed heavily, closing his eyes. When he opened them, he had turned his head to face Nick. "I just wanted to say..." he hesitated again. "Thank you."

Nick almost didn't register what the wolf had said to him. His smug grin had retracted somewhat, leaving only a slight turn to his lips. He just stood there staring at him, dumbfounded. It took him almost five seconds to formulate some kind of response. "Uh – she really did all of the work."

"Even so," he shot back. "We weren't really there for her... At the station." Nick eyed him, waiting for more to come. "We could see she had been torn up by what she said at the press conference, and we just stood there. We just expected her to get over it." The wolf looked away, staring out into nothing for a moment. When he turned back, his eyes were more purposeful, more sure. "We're – I'm glad she had a friend." With that, he opened the back door and beckoned him inside. Not wanting to dwell on the fact that he just had a heart to heart with a police officer he barely knew the name of, he jumped straight in. When the door closed, he could only think to himself that it had been a long day. And it was still getting longer.

"What was that about?" Judy called back through the metal mesh that separated the back of the cruiser from the front. Nick would be lying if he said that it hadn't been familiar to him.

"Canine stuff, you wouldn't get it," Nick deadpanned back. His sarcasm only evident in the smug expression that came back to him.

"Uh-huh," she commented. Falling silent when the driver side door opened and the wolf plopped down beside her. Nobody said anything as Wolford turned the ignition and pulled away from the museum. They all knew Judy could hear that little exchange, but it seemed everyone was fine with ignoring that fact. Nick just guessed the wolf cop was using it as a pseudo-apology to Judy, not wanting to have to endure the embarrassment of a legitimate apology.

The thought sort of irritated Nick. Especially after she had put so much effort into finding and apologizing to him. Nearly breaking down completely as she poured her heart out. It wasn't totally unexpected, he guessed. After all, what kind of wolf wanted to be seen as the sappy emotional type. A cop wolf, too. Still, Nick couldn't help but be supremely annoyed at the thought that Judy had been working for months on the force completely alone. Her friends letting her just stew in her own guilt. Shut the hell up, Nick, he thought. You've got nothing you can say about that, remember? You're angry that her –friends– let her stew in her own guilt? Don't make me laugh. Nick, for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past hour, suppressed the desire to sigh.

Most of the drive to the hospital was quiet. Nobody had any words to say. Judy had taken the time to regale the descriptions of the three rams over the radio to dispatch, and Wolford has asked if he should turn on the sirens so they would get there faster, though Judy had insisted that it wasn't serious enough to warrant disrupting traffic any. A point Nick had to argue with in the only way he knew how, being sarcastically passive-aggressive about it. Wolford had the good sense to stay out of the exchange, only passively listening in. Other than that, the air in the cruiser was silent.

It had taken them barely over ten minutes to roll to a stop outside the front doors of the Zootopia Central Hospital. The Natural History Museum was just south of downtown, and ZooCentral was on the southern edge of that, so using the sirens would have only shaved off a minute or two regardless. Nick had to wait patiently for Wolford to move around the cruiser to open his door. Nick then moved up to the front, opened Judy's door, and reached upwards with his paws. Gratefully accepting Nick's reach, Judy shimmied over to the edge of the seat and wrapped her small arms around his neck so he could pick her up again.

"I'm going back out. There's still the three suspect that we need to round up, and Bogo wants every available officer on the beat," Wolford said as he remained by his vehicle even after the other two made their way towards the door.

"Alright. Thanks for the lift, Wolford. I appreciate it," Judy called back over the scruffy neck she was holding onto for dear life.

The wolf only nodded before turning back for the driver's side door. He pulled out of the parking lot before Nick made it to the glass entrance. Having both of his arms currently occupied, he gestured for Judy to punch the wheelchair access button as they walked past. The wall of cold air was the first thing that hit him. Being in Savanna Central, early September was reasonably warm, but no matter the time of year, ZooCentral always felt like an outdoor café in Tundratown. It was a wonder to Nick how the frigid air wasn't some kind of violation.

"Cheese and crackers, it's cold in here," Judy breathed up at Nick, burying herself into his arms further to stave off the cold.

"You bunnies," Nick chuckled back. "It's not as cold as it feels. Just wait until we can get you a room, and then they'll put you up to snuff. They keep it like this because it's easier on the power bills." Nick continued as he made his way to reception, "Just pray they've got a setting for 'hick farmland', and you'll be fine."

"Oh, har har," she quipped back.

"Officer Hopps?" The pair turned their attention to a female deer walking towards them wearing a nurse uniform. "Judy Hopps?"

"That's me," she replied.

"Chief Bogo said you would be coming. If you'll follow me, we've got a room waiting."

As they followed behind the doe, Nick watched the generic hospital scenery as he passed it by. It was a wonder how they all looked almost exactly the same. You would think you lived in one with just how familiar and generic it all looked. Churches had more variety. At least in churches it was up in the air what kind of flooring they had. In hospitals, he'd double down on an all-or-nothing gamble that the floor would be bland, beige rubber tiling. And he'd win every time.

"This is the one," the nurse said as she came to a stop in front of a door that looked like any other. "We didn't know what to set it to since we didn't know what species of rabbit you are. Any preference?"

Judy made a disappointed face when Nick stepped into the plain patient room, only to find the temperature hadn't changed in the slightest. She glanced up at the underside of Nick's muzzle. "What do you think, Nick?"

Nick turned his head and peered down at the rabbit in his arms, giving her a curious look while still maintaining his trademark smug expression. "Your room, Carrots. I have to go pick up the truck, so you're the one that's going to be stuck in here."

"Oh, the truck!" Judy slapped her forehead in dramatic exasperation before continuing. "I completely forgot about that."

"Not to worry," Nick replied as he sat her down onto the hospital bed. "I'm sure you'll have fun while I am away. Besides, there's no need for you to play musical cars when we get you out of here. Best head straight home." Nick turned to the nurse that was patiently waiting for what to set the thermostat to. "She'll take temperate, if it's not too much trouble."

"None at all," the doe shrugged before moving over to the panel on the wall.

"That reminds me," he turned back to the rabbit that was settling into the bed slightly too large for her. "Do you want me to stop by your apartment to grab some clothes?"

Judy avoided looking at him and made a strained laugh. The ears that had remained limp this whole time looked like they lowered even more. "You see," she trailed off. "I actually moved back in with my parents." She looked up at him, furrowing her brow. "In Bunnyburrow."

"Well, where are you going to go when you're cleared?"

"Um," Judy deliberated. "I was kinda hoping that – if it isn't too much trouble – that maybe I could crash at your place for a day, and some of my siblings could come pick me and the truck up in the morning?"

Nick just stared at her. Darting his piercing green eyes between Judy's amethyst ones. After a moment he turned to the nurse who was obviously trying to make it look like she wasn't paying attention to their exchange. Ignoring her question for the moment, he addressed the nurse. "Is there anything else you need before you go?"

The nurse turned, looking slightly surprised. "Uh, no. I'm going to do some tests and look at the leg, and then I'll be right back with the doctor. I'm going to need some forums signed later, but we'll look at the leg first," she hastily shot, each sentence being quicker than the last. The nurse pointed towards the door, getting the message Nick was trying to send. "I'm going to be right back with some stuff."

Nick nodded as the nurse closed the door behind her. He turned his head back to Judy, who was giving him a worried look. "I shouldn't have asked that," she started, looking away. "I have no right to just expect you to-"

She cut herself off when Nick raised his paw to stop her. "It's not that, Carrots."

Judy's expression grew even more worried as she tried to piece what it could be together. Her face contorted in horror as she thought about one possibility in particular. "If you've got someone at home, and you don't want me in the way, then I can-"

"Fluff," Nick chuckled. "I haven't had a house guest in more than twenty years."

Her face was struck with pure confusion as she registered what he said. "What?"

"I haven't had a house since I was twelve," Nick deadpanned, his usual grin losing its luster at the seriousness of his voice.

"I," she started, her face growing more concerned and confused by the second. "I don't understand."

Ignoring her, he continued with his questions. "Why don't you stay at a hotel?"

"I don't have the money – What do you mean you don't have a home?" She pestered, a mixture of apprehension for whatever answer Nick was going to give her and in incredulous sneer on her face.

"I can lend you the money. Pay me back when you get in town."

Judy crossed her arms and watched him intently. Her injury momentarily forgotten as she mustered all of her energy into contorting her face into the very picture of motherly contempt for his effort to change the subject. Nick's ears shifted slightly back at the unflinching gaze, his smile unchanged. "I think," she began. "It is time we establish a quid pro quo between the two of us."

"What?"

"A quid pro quo? You know, it's like a trade. I tell you something, and then you can tell me something in return," Judy gestured her paw between the two of them, emphasizing her speech.

Every alarm that Nick possessed to detect an incoming hustle went off, not that they really needed to. It was so clear what she was trying to do it actually threw him off. If she had a game, which she did, and she was trying to corner him or make him obligated to disclose something he didn't want to, which she did, he couldn't figure out why she thought he would go for it by virtue of reverse-psychology alone. Did she expect him to take the bait on curiosity, alone? Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't only felines that got what was coming to their nosy personalities, and Nick knew that quite well.

Did you ever stop to think that she might be being genuine right now? He wanted to shake his head, but stopped when he realized he was about to respond to his own mind. Not likely, he thought. She's shiftier than I am. And that's saying something. Nick narrowed his eyes and watched her over his long snout. If she is being genuine, his apparently divisive mind countered. Then you are making progress. But if you say no, then you would be jeopardizing the one real friendship that you've had in more years than I would like to count. If she isn't, then you either get hustled again or you both shrug it off. Which one's got more cons than pros?

Nick huffed, not even slightly amused at the rabbit's games. He still had to mull it over. It was obvious which of the two cons were worse, and only one of the pros were anything more than the absence of a loss... Making progress? He thought. His mind retraced its steps to find out where the phrase 'you're making progress' was used, hopeful that it was in the context of snuffing out her lackluster hustle. Unfortunately for him, no such luck. He huffed again. This time it was less of an amused blow of air and more of an annoyed sigh.

"Tell you what," he said, Judy's ears raising slightly from their pained state of being glued to her back. "You go first, and if you don't answer me with sincerity, I won't play your little game." She raised her paw to interject, only to be shot down with a quick, "And!" Nick brushed his tail across the floor in distrust. "I reserve the right to end this little thing any time I choose."

Judy eyed him as her brow furrowed. "That's not very fair."

"Define fair." Nick crossed his arms. "Seems to me like you're the one that is going to getting the sweet end of this deal. I'm far more interesting than you."

She scoffed at that. "Right. The first rabbit police officer ever is as plain as can be saddled up next to a street-hustling fox."

Nick leaned back into his heals and glanced down over his snout with lidded eyes, his smug smile having returned to him by now. "Oh, your many conquests make you peerless, truly, but deep down you're still a country gall with a heart for horticulture." He leaned back towards her, arms still crossed. "I mean, you showed up today smelling like a farmers' market."

"I, for one, find farmers' markets far more interesting than smelling like dead soil, cement, and booze," she retorted, pointing her paw at him.

Blowing air out of his nose, he glared down at her as she sat on the hospital bed. He watched her squirm on the spot, obviously uncomfortable with the pain in her leg. This time, he sighed in earnest. "Here," he began. "Lie back or you're just going to make it worse." He pushed her shoulders back, and she diligently followed the motion. Lying back, she twisted on the spot and setting at an appropriate angle for the bed. He looked down at her again, this time watching her amethyst eyes look up at him expectantly. He wanted to sigh again, but he'd be damned if he'd let himself do it twice in one year.

"No promises, Fluff," he stated. "You're more likely to get shot down on question one than anything else."

Judy smiled up at him, her toothy grin accentuated by her buck teeth. "Okay," she chirped. "You have the floor. Ask whatever you want," she gestured on paw around the room.

Nick stared at her, trying to come up with a way to both further their argument about where she's going after she's cleared, and make her think he wasn't. He blinked before going one, "Why no hotel?"

Judy immediately shifted her eyes away from Nick and grimaced. She looked up again with worried eyes. "It's going to sound dumb." When Nick did nothing but cock an eyebrow, she continued, "I'm a bunny."

He wish he could bark out in laughter. Focusing was starting to get harder and harder. Silky smooth, Nick, silky smooth, he reminded himself. "What tipped you off?" He sarcastically quipped.

"Oh, very original," she replied with even more sarcasm. "What I mean is, there is not a single hotel in Bunnyburrow."

"Really?"

"Yeah, everyone in Bunnyburrow is related, so there is no need for a hotel. The mammals that need to stay in the town overnight sleep in one of the many warrens. It's sort of a tradition to house and feed visitors of any relation, but it's mostly other rabbits. Outsiders just sleep on one of the coaches in town hall. It's actually very rare that someone from outside who isn't related to anybody to even be in Bunnyburrow, let alone sleep there, so it's no place to open up a bed and breakfast." Nick continued to listen, wondering where this was going.

She sighed dramatically, "I actually never left my family's warren until I was heading for the police academy. Even there, I was bunking in the same room as a bunch of other mammals, and even though they weren't bunnies, they gave me company." She tore her eyes from Nick and stared off into the distance. "The first night at my apartment alone wasn't great, but I was too tired and excited for my first day to worry about it. It's the smell. Growing up in a rabbit burrow, you just felt like you were in a living thing; the smells the sounds, it felt right to be there. In the apartment, people all lived in the same place, sure, but it wasn't alive. Nothing about the place felt like home until a couple weeks after I moved in." She paused.

She looked back at Nick. "I lied."

Nick looked at her quizzically. "What?"

"I was going to leave it at that, but quid pro quo and all..." she trailed off. "I came to Zootopia once before. I drove in to do some stuff for ZU because I attended online courses back in Bunnyburrow. I didn't think a hotel would be a big thing, and I even thought it would be..." She glared at him before returning her eyes to the floor and muttering in an almost incomprehensible level, "...exotic." She quickly quieted Nick's snickering by punching him in the arm. "Anyway!" She exclaimed. "It was the worst night I have ever spent in my entire life. Rabbits like to sleep in familiar territory, and being in that sterile room that smelt like cleaning products and scent maskers, it was hell. Especially for someone like me, who had woken up every morning of my entire life to the scent of my warren and all of my family. It was so horrible, I had to bury my head in my suitcase just to get a couple hours of sleep."

"That doesn't explain why a hotel is any different than your apartment."

"Well, that shoe-closet didn't smell like my home, that's for sure, but it didn't smell like the inside of a chemical plant either. The landlady didn't clean the place really at all, so I just pretended I was sleeping in the hayloft back home until it started to smell like rabbit." She shrugged at Nick's cocked eyebrow to the mention of her having a 'hayloft'. "What can I say? You weren't really that far off when you called it a podunk. Plus, I came prepared with a bunch of stuff that smelled like home. Pretty much the first thing I did was replace all of the bedding with authentic farmhouse décor," she said with a flair added to the end of her sentence.

Nick's smug grin grew wider before he started, "I take it you mean straw pillows and quilts made from old shirts?"

"Please," she rolled her eyes. "With how big my family is, there isn't a shirt to spare."

"I'm not hearing a tepid denial for that straw pillow."

"I will have you know that straw pillows are very comfortable."

"Right. Are you sure it's not an acquired taste? I mean, with all that time you've apparently bedded down in the hayloft, I imagine you could sleep on a rock. So long as it smelt like a family rock."

"Oh, you're very funny," she uttered with excessive sarcasm. "And I did not 'bed down' in the hayloft."

"If you weren't up there to sleep," he leaned in, his grin growing even more. "I take it you were up there for a different kind of 'bedding down'?"

Judy's face contorted into a look of both complete incredulity and disgust. She hoisted herself up to be leaning on her elbows so that she had a better angle to give him the most unamused look she could muster. "Don't be gross, Nick. We eat that hay."

"Grass? You eat grass?"

"Not the point," she waved her paw by the wrist, as she was still supported by the elbow. "You wouldn't sleep in a pile of fish would you? And I doubt you could get in the mood surrounded by beetles."

Nick shrugged. "I've slept in worse." He watched her setting back down, laying comfortably in the hospital bed again. "I think," he started. "That not liking the smell of a hotel isn't exactly a bombshell. If this is going to be a trade, then you're only going to get my favorite color."

Judy looked back to Nick and then looked away, embarrassed. "It's not just the smell," she said meekly. "It's everything. The sights, the smells, the feeling, and…" She trailed off. "...the sounds."

He couldn't help but laugh. "I took you for a prude, Carrots, but you must live in a monastery if you can't hear any back in your apartment."

"That is not what I meant," Judy shot back. "I didn't even hear anything like that, it was just the sounds of all the other mammals in the building."

"And that's different than your burrow or your apartment, how?"

"Because rabbits also have a hard time sleeping alone. If there aren't any other rabbits around, and we can hear at least twenty other enormous mammals through paper-thin walls, it's unnerving. It's an instinct thing, and it's especially bad when you can hear - uhm." She looked right into his eyes. "Promise you won't get mad?" Nick gave her a confused look before slowly nodding his head, interested in where this was going. Judy took a deep breath and continued, "When you can hear predators."

"I take it there's only prey in your old building?"

"Yeah," she breathed disappointedly. "I know how bad it sounds, but I didn't choose that place because it didn't have any predators in the building. Please trust me when I say that," she looked at him pleadingly.

"Okay, Fluff," he raised his paws in surrender. "I wasn't going to suggest you did." He lowered his paws as he watched her over his long muzzle. "You again failed to mention why it is your apartment is any different if the 'no other bunnies' thing is still a problem."

Judy avoided his eyes again, her face warming enough for Nick to notice. "That's because it's the most embarrassing thing of all."

"Oh?"

"Yeah…" She trailed off.

"Are you going to tell me, Ms. quid pro quo, or can I go get the truck now?"

"...uffed mammals," she whispered, her nose twitching uncontrollably now.

"You want to run that by me again?"

Suddenly, Judy found the tips of her feet very interesting. She took one of her ears out from behind her and draped it over her shoulder down her chest, petting it nervously. She was rubbing the dark colored tip when she finally repeated herself, "stuffed mammals."

Nick just stared at her. When she raised her quaking amethyst eyes up to meet Nick's she quickly looked away again. Her nose twitching worse than before. This time, he watched her nose intently. Stuffed mammals, he thought. She sleeps with stuffed mammals. I can see why they're so self-conscious about being called cute. He was about to say something reassuring before he realized what he had just thought. His face almost split in two at the mischievous grin that spread across it.

"That has got to be the cutest thing anyone has ever told me in confidence," he said in a mocking tone, lacing the word 'cutest' with extra flavor.

She sighed in defeat before looking at Nick with absolute serious resolve. "If you tell a soul, yours will have to find a new body," she deadpanned.

Probably only half serious, he thought, chuckling. He gave her a wide grin that was softer than before, but still playful. "I take it it's a stuffed bunny?"

"They're," she corrected. She still didn't look at Nick, but she could tell he was giving her another expectant look. He wanted her to tell him just how many she had. "They're all bunnies, yes." She was hoping he would drop it there.

"How many?"

No such luck. She sighed and met Nick's eyes. "It's some," she trailed off. She whispered the continuation as she glanced around the now very familiar room. She could probably draw it by memory by now. "Ten odd stuffed rabbits."

Nick could only scoff in disbelief. "Ten? Odd? Are you saying you have more?"

"Those were just the ones I brought with me. I have a lot more than that."

"I don't even want to know how many," Nick waved. "Are you really telling me that you hate hotels because it doesn't smell like home and you don't have your plethora of rabbit facsimiles to cuddle? What are you, eight?"

Judy huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, closing herself off. It almost even looked like her ears got more limp than they were. "I knew you wouldn't understand," she muttered, looking fraught.

Smooth move, slick, he thought to himself. She opened up to you, and you proved to her that you can't trust a fox. What's the next step in this plan of yours? Bring up the press conference and rub it in her face? Why don't you just call the police station and tell all of her coworkers about it.

"Hey," he began in a soft tone. He moved closer to her and put his paw on the bed next to her leg. Not touching her, god no, he was trying to be reassuring not invasive. "You're right, I don't understand." Smooth. Right about now is when you should be having some dessert to go along with that foot. "But I don't think it's weird or anything."

Judy looked up at him hopefully. "Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, I'm a fox so having a stuffed mammal never really crossed my mind. We're more of the solitary variety, you see. I'm sure it's a different story with you guys, though? So, I think it's alright for you to do it." Do you plan on not tripping all over your words? I know what you sound like, you know what you sound like, and while that might have sounded serviceably collected to the uninitiated, we know full well you're panicking. Stop talking before you screw this up again. Nick's jaw snapped shut a little louder than he would have liked.

He ran his tongue over the sharp tips of his teeth while he collected himself, noting with pride that he has still yet to drop his neutrally smug smile. He could salvage this. It wasn't hard. Nick was just a little irritated that he got caught off guard by his own conscience. He had gone off on that tangent because he thought that was his voice of reason, of the grizzled conmammal that has survived for decades with no help from anyone, only to find out his conscience had made a triumphant return from his prolonged absence. Now just when had that happened?

"It's still the cutest thing I have ever heard," he stated smugly. "Doesn't change that."

Judy suppressed a giggle to smack his paw away from her leg. She glared at him with mock incredulity. "Stop it. How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?"

"At least once more," he chucked back dishonestly. Now, it was back to thinking. He studied her features as he mulled over this proposal of hers. He really had no interest in talking to her about anything of the personal variety, but he couldn't deny he wanted to know more about her. If only because of curiosity, if nothing else. You know how curiosity works, he reminded himself.

He hummed in thought, grabbing Judy's attention. "Alright, Cottontail," he chirped, making up his mind. "You can ask your quid pro quo, but remember the deal: I reserve the right to not incriminate myself."

She beamed up at him, overjoyed. Nick immediately felt like something was off. "Nah, I'm fine."

This time, Nick's face fell completely. His lidded eyes became narrow, and his smile falling off wholesale. "What?"

"I said I'm fine right now, I'll think of something later." She was beaming brighter still, but her eyes slightly closed with a mischievous glint.

You stupid fox, he thought. She is playing you for a fool. You knew something was wrong the minute she suggested this little game, and you walked your ass right into it anyway. I should just end it right now. Still, I wonder what her question will be. Maybe that's what she's betting on. 'Curiosity kills more than just cats', Nick, don't start now; you're gambling with eight lives you don't have. His eyes narrowed even more as he continued thinking, That look of devastation when I made fun of her stuffed rabbits… I, Nicholas Wilde, just fell for the sympathy play hook, line, and sinker. I have well and truly lost my goddamn mind. Forget never hustling in this town again, I can never show my face in this town again.

Judy giggled outwardly at his expression. "Don't look so disappointed. I'll come up with something when the time is right," she sassily egged on.

Nick scoffed loudly at her. "You know what," he said irritably. "I'm going to go grab the truck before it gets towed."

"Yeah," she smiled at him. "That's a good idea. My parents would be pretty upset if it got impounded."

"Uh-huh," he forced out as he turned to leave.

"Oh!" Judy cried in urgency.

"What is it?"

"I'd rather not wear the pants any longer than I have to," she gestured down at her blood-soaked jeans. "There's a pair of overalls in the truck. Could you bring them up when you get back?"

"Sure, sure. So long as I get to take pictures."

"Ack!" Judy retched out, looking like she just tasted a saltlick. Her smile returned to her as she playfully called out to him as he left the room, "Not on your life, Wilde!"

Now that Nick was on his own, he made quick work of evacuating from the building. Skulking is not a word he liked using, but that is what he did. He had become somewhat of an expert of making it in and out unseen. He figured that since he had half the mammals in the city watch him like a hawk as he carried the bunny around, he had some stealth to make up for, and make up for it he did.

He passed the nurse first. He slid next to a gurney that was backed up against the wall. After he watched her walk into Judy's room with arms full of various medical supplies, he ducked down to the front of the nurses station and followed it all the way to the elevator, out of sight from the mammals mulling about behind it. After he was on the main floor, he just made his way past a number of hospital employees and walked out like he owned the place.

Once outside, Nick fished out a pawful of change from his pocket and made his way over to one of the payphones situated against the building's external wall. He was going to need a cab because he had to retrieve his license first, and didn't feel like riding the train all over town. He got comfortable under one of the many awnings in front of ZooCentral's main entrance and waited.

I better use my time wisely, he thought. Might as well try to think of some career paths I could look into. Nick knew he was being dramatic about thinking he would never be able to hustle again. Truth be told, he was thinking of it as more of an excuse than anything else. He hadn't done a single hustle since the press conference. Eating through savings, lounging around his bridge, and feeling sorry for himself had been the chores for the past two months, and it had worked out fine enough.

Nick couldn't shake the feeling that he was partially to blame for the press conference. At the time, he didn't think about the fact that police officers were trained to the point of unconscious instinct, and had 'failure to react' drilled into their minds as a death sentence. He didn't think about the fact that he was twice her size, and had enough natural ability to tear her to pieces if his stunt in that exhibit was anything to go by. He didn't think about the fact that he had known her for all but two days, and his first impression wasn't exactly a shining example of good nature. He didn't giver her a chance to apologize, or explain, or even to tell him what she really thought without trying to intimidate her into a reaction. He had just taken what she said to heart like he hadn't spent two decades learning how to live with it, and then spat in her face as soon as she walked down from that podium.

His mask was down. Not his emotional mask, but his physical one. Nick saw no point in keeping his cocky grin on at all times, and chose to just look tired when there was no one around. His lidded eyes stared vacantly in thought, his face turned downward, he just didn't care that much anymore. Used to, when he was alone he'd just look bored. When we wasn't trying to swindle or con or trick someone, he kept predatory vigilance. Being aware of the situation, and everyone in it. All the exits, alleyways, manholes, the best places to hide or run off. After two decades of being alone on the streets, you start to forget what it's like not to be looking over your shoulder.

Which is what he did. And he could see a zebra nurse looking out at him from inside the hospital. She was pushing a groundhog on a wheelchair towards the entrance, but had stopped just short when she saw the fox. Looking Nick up and down, she turned on her hooves and wheeled the groundhog further down the entrance. It didn't bother him anymore. Not after a long time. Which is why he was so bothered about the fact that what Judy said had bothered him. She didn't see him and immediately change where she was going to avoid him. If anything, she charged right into his way. Literally. She said some pretty innocuous stuff, looking back on it, and it still bothered him to no end.

He sighed outwardly when he saw the cab pulling into the hospital parking lot. He opened and closed his jaw a few times before having it return to his trademark smug grin. Patient for the driver, he waited for him to stop in front of him, as he was the only one out here. Which he did not. The cab pulled several meters up the to the right of him. He probably either doesn't think a fox would call a cab or doesn't want one to, he thought. Nick shrugged as he walked over to the cab.

The driver rolled down his window, and a middle-aged male whitetail looked out at the fox suspiciously. "You th'one that called?" He beckoned in a thick inner-city accent.

"I am," Nick replied with no hint of a smile in his voice, despite his usual expression.

He snorted. "'ight . Get in."

Nick climbed into the cab that felt very big for his moderate disposition. When he had called, he had given them the ballpark of what size he was by a simple 'medium' classification. The most common type of cab, it catered to anyone from Judy's size all the way up to lions. The deer eyed him from the rear-view as he settled into the seat and closed the door.

"Where we headin'?"

"First stop is going to be on the corner of Grass and Verdure"

"First stop?"

"Yeah, after that it's going to be down near Banyon."

The deer just stared at him and gripped the steering wheel uncomfortably. He continued watched Nick for a short few seconds before piping up. "Look, fox," he started. Nick just rolled his eyes and started to get out his wallet, already prepared for what the deer had to say. "I'm gonna need to know you got some on you before I drive you 'round some. You skip out on the first stop before payin', and my boss'll make me eat my antlers."

Nick held up three $20 bills so that the driver could see them in the mirror. "That enough?"

The whitetail turned his attention back to the road and pulled out. "Sure is," he called back, not even slightly apologetic.

Nick settled in, expecting pretty heavy traffic this late in the day. The day I work retail is the day I clock out for good, so that's a no, he thought to himself, still rifling through his possibilities. Maybe just lowkey hustles. The pawpsicles gig isn't bad, but not much in the way of profit. Reselling the sticks and the price we're charging only does so much for having to buy the sticks and the jumbo-pop in the first place. Even then, we split what we make, so we're barely pulling the minimum there. It might me easier to get an in. If we can triple our production and only pay them a sixth of the earning, I'll still be making more than twice what I am now.

That wasn't a bad idea. I mean, Nick would have to talk Finnick into going back at it, as he had moved on after he got stuck in a rut, but it was a lot safer than what Finnick moved onto. After Nick had patched things up with Mr. Big, the fennec wasn't so adverse to heading over for a "winter getaway," and seeking freelance employment at the behest of certain characters. He stayed away after the thing with the rug to maintain decent standing with the mob while still hustling with Nick. If he had been going around to both, the shrew wouldn't have taken too kindly to the show of allegiance. 'Outta sight, outta mind' Finnick would always reply when Nick asked what the difference was in the show of "allegiance".

As it concerned the situation at paw, he would have to formulate a new hustle or an improved pawpsicle gig before taking it to Finnick. Nick's rut wasn't the only thing that halted the hustle. As it turns out, when mammals think predators could go savage at any time, most prey take to not interacting with them at all, and as such make it incredibly difficult to step foot into prey establishments with any confidence of success. It would have to be concrete as to not insult him. They had taken breaks from hustling together many times, and most of them were Nick's idea, but none of them were because he had shut down after getting a stick up his ass about a certain bunny cop.

That is, if Nick could still even hustle. Not in the capable sense, but in the willing. What Judy had said really stung, and it stung deep. 'No one tells me what I can or can't be. Especially some jerk who never had the guts to try to be anything more than a popsicle hustler,' she said, and it barely even made it past the moat. It fell flat on deaf ears, and bounced right off the walls of the fort. Unfortunately for him, those seeds rooted deep, and now it threatened to tear the whole fortification asunder. In the months since the press conference, he had thought about those words a lot, and it stung even deeper when he paired that thought with her giving him the police academy application. It just wasn't fair. What she did to him. After twenty long years. It just wasn't fair.

Author's Notes:

First things first, I am not a writer. In fact, I had almost no interest in writing whatsoever before watching Zootopia. A theme I am starting to pick up on being pretty common. If I wasn't as sane as I think I am, I would assume it's some kind of Disney MKUltra type shit to make us all burn in hell for thoughtcrime. Regardless, I am not a writer. My last fanfiction (of the same series), I burned in effigy at how badly it was written. Not really in spelling and grammar, but in how boring it was. Nobody cares what the color of the damned pattern on the window curtain in the next room is, or how many ways I can call the grass green. So, I decided to write this in a conscious effort to cut as much environmental detail as humanly possible, and focusing more on dialogue (something severely lacking in my last story). Unfortunately, I think I overcorrected, and now I am going to have to think of ways to cut the fat out of the dialogue and subtly/intuitively integrate environmental detail. I am not sure how I'm going to do that. Finding a balance between believable and realistic dialogue sounds a little too advanced for someone who has written about as many words in his entire life as a blind person who can't touch-type.

Secondly, I feel one of the hardest things about fanfiction is just how easy it is to lose site of the character you are writing, and end up writing a completely different person. I didn't make Nick Wilde. Someone else did. That means I have to go by the person they made first and build whatever additions I make on pre-existing canon. I can't just go around making up shit that flies in the face of the character from the movie. Not in a straight continuation, anyway. So that means I have to go by a handful of scenes from a fast paced movie, where 96% of all his lines are sarcastic and don't tell you jack about what he's really thinking. This means I have to constantly ask myself questions like: "would Nick say this," "would Nick do that," "would Nick act the way he does if his backstory was this," "what would Nick say to this," "how would Nick react to this situation," all of this shit. And it's not what would I do, it's what would the character of Nick Wilde do. This line of thinking has made me delete large portions of dialogue, and it has certainly made me throw several plots out the window very easily. This leads me to the worst thing of all: OC. Original content. I have to write characters and events that fill in the gaps left by the film, and I have to do that in the most authentic and beholden to canon way possible. Certainly not as easy as it sounds. Especially when you are trying to do as above, and not lose site of the real Nick Wilde. And to the best of my ability, I have. I'm not going to tell you any of it in this story, most likely, but it is all written out in loose notes. It's more of a personal reference to help me inform on all of those questions above. If I write a backstory that conforms to the canon, then surely the actions and thoughts that stem from it do to, right?

Oh, and I know this story isn't very original at the moment. There's only so many ways you can write the scenes that occur directly after the events of the film, and it should open up more later on. And it's not a romance, either. I'll hint it until I'm blue in the face, but this is more of a 'budding friendship' type piece. That is, now that the thing that binds two completely different people together is over, what remain to keep them from walking away? This story is about Nick accepting Judy's request for a partner, not about yiffing in the bed of a rusting farm truck. God help me, do I have notes for those types of stories in the same universe as this one, but that's a tale for another time. Or never. Depending on whether I stick with it this time.

And about timing, I'm saying the events of the movie was mostly in late June and Judy left in early August. I haven't done a single bit of fact checking to see if a calendar was in the background of any of the scenes or if Disney said anything, and I'm not going to. Because I don't care. It's specific because it ties in with other stories I've got in the early planning phases. I'm probably not going to write any of them, but no harm in assuming I'm not going to just give up (even though I probably will).

Leave a review, tell me if you want short and sweet dialogue, or long, exhausting "realistic" tirades. I'm more partial to tirades. At least then I have a practical excuse for the distinct lack of pacing.