Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.

Judy: 27

Nick: 29

"Judy."

Judy looked up from her paperwork to see a familiar zebra standing in the entrance to her cubicle, leaning casually against the wall with her legs crossed and one arm draped over the wall. The rabbit smiled broadly.

"Hey Catarina! What's up?"

"Listen, I was keeping watch in the collar room and I just got a call, so I was wondering if you'd be willing to take over for a while."

"Oh." Judy's ears drooped slightly.

"It's not too hard," Catarina reassured her quickly. "When you see a flashing red light on the big screen, just press the button that calls a dispatch team, and direct them to whatever location the light indicated."

"Right, right." Judy nodded earnestly, trying not to let her dismay show.

Catarina suddenly started to lean in, getting closer and closer to Judy until her snout was inches from Judy's ear. The rabbit flinched slightly at the unexpected movement, but didn't try to duck away.

"Press the down arrow key twice, and it should take you to the main menu," she muttered. "Then go to the third option down, and it should take you to another menu. Press the fifth option there, and then press the right button."

Without so much as a lick of further explanation, Catarina Longmane pulled back, gave Judy a friendly nod, and slipped out of the cubicle as quickly as she had come. Judy was left blinking in confusion, but nevertheless found herself snatching up the nearest notepad and jotting down the ambiguous directions as quickly as she could.

The sound of crickets filled the night air as Judy made her way from the car to the apartment building. She glanced briefly up at the sky as she walked in the door. Entirely inky black, with no light poking through except the tiny specks of stars and the sliver of moon.

She sighed as she got on the elevator. 2:30 a.m.…another late shift. Nick was probably already asleep.

She couldn't help chuckling to herself. She remembered he always used to wait up for her when they first moved in together, but after a while he started dozing off when waiting up on an especially late shift. She hardly faulted him for it, especially when he had to get up at 6:00 a.m. the next day to work a morning shift at his own job.

(They had been searching persistently for a better job, but they hadn't found anything yet. They were a long way from giving up in their search, though.)

As Judy got to her apartment door and began unlocking it, her ears pricked up as she detected a soft whimpering and yelping coming from inside it. Body suddenly tensing with worry, she sped up her unlocking twofold.

"Nick? NICK!" She burst inside, slamming the door shut behind her and racing for the bedroom they shared.

He was tossing and turning all over the bed they took turns sleeping in, whining and growling and yelping and everything in between. Eyes widening in horror, Judy ran over to the bed and leaned over the sleeping fox, giving him a few hard shakes.

"Nick, wake up! Wake up!"

When he didn't seem to be stirred from his fitful sleep, Judy waited a few seconds and then tried again.

On the second try, his green eyes popped open, and Judy's shoulders slumped with relief. The fox let out several fast breaths, his fur starting to lie slightly flat when he seemed to process that she was looking down at him.

"J—Judy…"

"You were having nightmares again, weren't you?" She slipped into the bed beside him and reached out to give him brief, comforting touches.

"Yes," he said softly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

It was a few seconds before he answered.

"I…I was in a cage. And there were all these prey animals outside, and they kept reaching in and prodding me…over and over. Making my collar go off. Except it…it went off right away instead of after ten seconds. So I was just getting shocked…over and over…"

The fox huddled into himself, hugging his knees to his chest and curling into a tight ball. She reached out to stroke his arm, but he pulled away sharply.

"I didn't…I didn't even do anything…" he whimpered.

Judy's eyes strayed back to the collar, and her lip curled in disgust.

"You don't need this," she growled. "You've never needed this."

Quicker than Nick could process what was happening, Judy reached out and grabbed onto his collar, starting to undo the buckle. As soon as he realized what she was doing, he tugged himself out of her grasp, staring at her in horror.

"What the hell are you doing? You remember what happened the last time we tried that!"

Judy's lips curled up into a slow smirk. "I sure do. And that's why I took precautions this time."

He gave her a skeptical look. "What are you talking about?"

Judy's smirk broadened into a grin. "Well, you're never going to guess what happened to me last week."

Still looking shaken, Nick let out a resigned sigh. "Get to the point, Carrots."

"Well…Catarina comes into my cube and asks me to keep watch in the room where the monitor all the shock collars. And she leans in so no one can hear and she gives me these really cryptic instructions…and then when I went in there, I realized they were instructions about how to turn the tracking device in a specific collar off!"

Nick's eyes widened in sudden realization, and his paw strayed to his collar. "Wait…so did you…"

"Yes!" She beamed at him. "I found the controls for your collar, and I turned the tracker off! So now if you take it off…well, the signal won't have anywhere to go. And whatever happens in here…well…" She smiled mischievously. "It'll be our little secret, Nick."

Nick's ears perked up, but his expression was still skeptical. "How do you know the next person who sits watch in the shock collar room won't just turn my tracker back on?"

"Well, no one has the time to check that every single tracker is turned on each and every day," Judy explained. "The ZPD just assumes they all are, unless there's a good reason. But just for good measure, I've been checking in all week when no one's in there. And your tracker's still off!"

Nick narrowed his eyes. "How do you know Catarina wasn't trying to throw you under the bus? You know…tempt you into doing something that was super against the rules and then get you in trouble for it so she could advance her rank or something?"

Judy shrugged. "I trust her. I might not have a year ago, but I do now."

She reached for his collar, and although he ducked away again, he didn't duck away as abruptly. "Are you sure the tracker's completely turned off?" he asked her, giving her a worried look.

"Yes, I'm sure," she replied steadily. "And if for some reason it's not…well, I'll take the heat. Just like I did last time. But I'm pretty sure we managed to outsmart them. I mean, you'll still have to wear it when we go out," she added quickly, rubbing the back of her head nervously. "But so long as you're in here…"

She leaned forward and undid the buckle on his collar, gently pulling it off his neck and putting it on the bedside table. She turned back to him.

"There. Now you look like you always should have."

His eyes still fixed on her, his paws inched up his side and felt at the fur around his neck, grasping over and over at the empty space the collar had left. The worry and uncertainty that had been written all over his face earlier slowly transformed into complete and utter wonder.

And the next second he was on top of her, paws looped around her back and kissing her as hard as he could.

Judy found herself counting in her head as a force of habit, even as her paws wrapped around his neck and she made herself thoroughly at home in his arms, kissing him even harder.

She counted to 10. She felt them both tense, pause a little to pull their mouths apart slightly. They both waited, if only for a third of a second. But nothing happened. Nothing at all.

And so she counted to 20. And then 30. And then a minute. And then 2 minutes.

The kiss was getting deeper and deeper and they were pulling each other as close as they possibly could and all of the sudden they weren't two animals any longer—just one big, wriggling, euphoric ball of fur intertwined and woven into itself so completely that if you tried to break it apart, it would be like ripping open a single creature.

Eventually, Judy found she had lost count entirely. The only things in the world were Nick's lips and the press of his furry body all around hers, completely engulfing her. At that moment, there was nothing else in the entire universe but the two of them. And the only thought she could form coherently was that this—every single last piece of it—was a thousand times better than she had ever imagined.

They had been making out for what Judy estimated was a good 15 minutes before they finally pulled apart, panting for breath. Nick's face was adorned with the biggest, brightest, stupidest grin Judy had ever seen, rivaling even the ones he had given her when they played as kids and he got especially into character. He laughed—a light, airy, elated laugh, and before Judy knew it, she had joined in, the two of them snorting and guffawing at absolutely nothing in particular.

When the laughter finally died down, Judy leaned in close to him again, pressing her head into his chest. He wrapped his arms even tighter around her.

"Tampering with government equipment just so you could make out with me?" he whispered teasingly into his ear. "You dirty cop."

She smiled into his fur. "Completely worth it."

"Well, I have to give it to you," he said. "You, Judy Hopps, are the cleverest bunny I've ever met. And sometimes the dumbest. Putting your job on the line to cuddle your boyfriend?"

"Don't regret a thing!" she sang.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"You better."

There was a short silence. She turned and met his eyes.

"I'm going to hold onto you like this every night. Every night until the nightmares go away."

"Aww, but not after that?" He looked at her with mock hurt.

She smirked. "Maybe after that, if you behave."

After a few moments, she let out a deep, contented sigh. Whatever gap had always existed between them was completely annihilated now. And it was beautiful.

He was beautiful. So much more when she got to see him and smell him and feel him this close.

Then again, she supposed this was how it had always been. Nick and Judy. Judy and Nick. Completely inseparable, now literally as well as figuratively.

"I love you," Nick murmured. Words that now felt so natural that they now seemed to hover in the air around them, always being breathed in by one and out by the other.

"I love you too," Judy whispered.

Nick smirked down at her with the impishness she had become so accustomed to. "Why don't you prove it, then?"

"Gladly."

She leaned in and kissed him again, and soon they were completely enveloped in each other once again.

And as they lay there, in one giant mass of fur completely blended and tangled together, Judy smiled into Nick's lips, her entire body trembling with joy. Because, she realized, they had triumphed. The whole world was against them, and they had won.

They had found a way to turn ten seconds into an eternity.

WHOOO! Last chapter, guys! We made it! Although I'm going to be relieved to have the stress of submitting this behind me and return my full attention to my other projects, I'm a little sad to end this bi-monthly ritual :( I always loved submitting a new part of the story and being able to look forward to all sorts of wonderful feedback from you guys! I've said it a million times already, but your reviews really do mean so much to me 3 This story ended up getting a much better turnout than I expected, and that makes me so happy :D

By and large, I'm actually impressed with how much effort past!me actually put into this chapter, considering I was pretty much mentally done with the story by the time I got to this chapter and more than ready to move on to other things. Like I so easily could've seen myself just shitting it out in my rush to work on Hiccanna fanfiction XD But I actually bothered to take the time to make it a good, strong, ending, I think. Lol way to go, past!me! Damn, I was so ready to be done, you guys nearly got stuck with a rushed, crappy ending XD

Well, for those of you who predicted Catarina was going to help Judy do some sketchy collar-disabling, you were RIGHT! And for those of you going like "You OOC-perpetuating fiend! Judy would NEVER break the law to cuddle her boyfriend!"…wouldn't she, though? Like I mentioned in the author's note of chapter 3, Judy seems to be the type of gal who has no issues breaking a few rules if she doesn't agree with them and is doing what she believes is best. And we've established many times how much she hates the shock collars, so I think she'd have 0 issue with doing some shady backhanded stuff in order to give Nick whatever relief she could from his collar. Also because, ya know, she loves him and stuff.

And, because I am an absolute sucker for the one-member-of-the-OTP-comforting-the-other-after-a-nightmare, I had to throw that in! It's especially fun in Zootopia because there's just so many ways predators can have angsty nightmares :D But no worries, it's Judy to the rescue! With emotional support AND physical affection this time!

Fun fact: This story was originally set to have a much more depressing ending. Basically, before I decided to bring Catarina back and have her help with some meddling, Judy was just gonna get really fed up with Nick's collar and take it off. And he's like "what no, you'll lose your job and go to jail" and she's like "well at least I'm doing it for something I believe in" or something along those lines. And then the story ends with you hearing the sirens outside their house and you kinda know what's gonna happen D: BUT then I was like "Wtf, self? What is fanfiction if not a means of fantastical escapism in which you get to see your OTP go through many trial and tribulations but ultimately end up living happily ever after to compensate for the failure rate of most real-life relationships? And also, you're gonna string these poor people along for 13 chapters just to give them a depressing-ass ending? You bastard!" So I refrained XD Meh, after all the crap I already put them through, I wasn't much feeling a depressing ending by the time I got to the end, either. But given the setting, I knew I wouldn't be able to realistically resolve the entire issue in one chapter. And as I mentioned before, I was really super ready to be done with some story and write some goddamn Hiccanna, so I wasn't about to drag the plot out for another 10 chapters and have some big political scandal about the collars and Nick and Judy starting a campaign to ban them and all that XD

So I settled for a more realistic, if bittersweet, ending: The collars don't go away and anti-predator prejudice is still very much an issue, but Nick and Judy have found a way to work around the collar and have found a way to eliminate it as an obstacle in their own relationship. And the implication is indeed that other predator/prey couples, with the right resources or connections, could do the same thing! It may not be all up in the government's face like "these collars are bad!" but it is one quiet way of rebelling.

One final not for anyone who actually bothers reading these long-winded things XD If you liked this fanfiction, I would strongly encourage you to check out some of my other fanfics! They're not Zootopia, but they ARE CGI crossovers, so…that's kind of in the same vein, right? ^^; Ah, who am I kidding, I'm just trying to get more reviews for my Jackunzel and Hiccanna fanfics since those are the fanfics I care the most about XD But I mean hey, if you like CGI crossovers, give my other fanfics a try! I probably won't be writing any more Zootopia fics, but there are many more to come in other fandoms.

And with that, I bid you all adieu! I hope everyone liked my angsty slice-of-life shock collar fic, and thank you all again for all of your reviews and support!