"Thanks for picking me up, Mrs. Wilde. It's so great to finally meet you."

Judy adjusted her seat belt a tad. There was no real need to mess with it, but she couldn't help herself. She hadn't expected Nick's mom to stop by the station after work, and her heart thudded as they made their way down the side streets of Savannah Central.

The vixen in the driver's seat didn't take her eyes off the road. "Oh, it's no trouble at all, dear. It's nice to finally meet you, too. I've heard so much about you, you know."

"Oh, really?" She glanced out the window, then back at the fox.

"Only good things, of course. And Cynthia, please. 'Mrs. Wilde' sounds so formal."

"Cynthia. Right."

Judy had been dreading this day ever since Nick floated the idea of dinner with his mom. Well, 'dreading' probably wasn't a fair word for it. It's not like this was anything to actually be worried about. She'd been in a high speed pursuit just the other day, for goodness sake. This was nothing compared to that.

"So, uh, where did you say Nick went again? I thought he was picking me up." She glanced at the clock on the dashboard. "And not for another half hour."

"Oh, you know him. I asked him to pick up a few things for dinner and he completely forgot to get them. He'll meet us back at the house." Mrs. Wilde fished her phone out of her purse, glanced at it, and tucked it away again.

She didn't look nearly as old as Judy expected, but then again, Judy wasn't exactly an expert on guessing a fox's age. She managed her phone deftly enough, and her red fur was only just showing flecks of silver. From the little Nick had said about his less-than-privileged upbringing, her age wasn't all too surprising, now that Judy thought about it.

The vixen cleared her throat. "So, how long have you and Nicky been an item?"

"What?" Judy's ears burned. "Four months? Or five. No, four. Four and a few weeks." She angled the AC vent toward herself.

"Four months, how exciting."

"Yeah, it's weird to think about. I mean, it feels like longer than that. We danced around the subject for so long."

"That sounds like my Nicky alright."

Mrs. Wilde gave the car some gas, but the light ahead was already turning yellow. She braked abruptly at the intersection, and Judy barely had time to get a handhold on the door as she lurched forward, seat belt taut.

"Sorry. Thought I had it."

Judy coughed once and tugged at the strap across her chest. "It's fine."

"Well, it's good to see Nicky so happy. He hasn't always been the smartest cookie when it comes to love, you know. He never seemed to know a good thing when he had it."

"Yeah, he's mentioned that before."

"Oh? Do tell." Mrs. Wilde shot her a sidelong look.

"You know how he is. He's always joking around like, 'Carrots, you have no idea how nice it is to date someone who doesn't require a restraining order.'"

The vixen returned her focus to the road. "Well, his taste can be questionable at times, but I think he's dated some nice girls. He was just always so afraid of getting serious. But it sounds like you've finally made an honest fox out of him." She drummed her fingers on the wheel, eyes narrowed at the red light. "Wonder if it'll stick." Her voice had dropped to a murmur.

They lapsed into an uneasy silence as traffic started moving again. Judy dug her phone out of her pocket and fired a text off to Nick.

"Are your ears burning?"

After a few seconds, Nick responded with a couple question marks.

"Someone's talking about yoooou," she shot back. She stowed her phone before he could respond. Let him stew for a change.

When Judy looked up, they were on an exit ramp. She'd thought they had further to go before the bypass to the Rainforest District. She was right. The road was steadily descending, and before long, they had entered the tunnel that heralded the border of the Nocturnal District. The tunnel's fluorescent street lamps streaked past, ragged gashes of light in the quickly darkening landscape.

Mrs. Wilde noticed Judy staring out the window. "Cutting through here is much easier, dear. Trust me, the bridge is a nightmare right now. I'd rather take the long way home than sit in traffic all afternoon."

Judy turned back and gave her a shaky smile. "Oh, right. Of course." She navigated over to the GPS app on her phone, but her reception down here was too spotty to make it useful. "I guess you would know. You've lived here a lot longer than me."

The fox nodded. "Just about my whole life. The traffic between districts has always been sheer murder. Except for the Nocturnal District, for some reason. I suppose it makes some mammals uneasy."

With that last word, they left the tunnel behind, the tunnel's light shrinking to a pinprick in the rear-view mirror. The Nocturnal District stretched out before them, shrouded in darkness but for the headlights of passing cars and barely lit storefronts. Judy had been down here before, but she hadn't made a habit of it: too easy to get stepped on accidentally, she had told Nick.

"You know, Nicky almost got married once."

Judy almost jumped in her seat. She hadn't realized how quiet the car had gotten. She cleared her throat and found her voice.

"Really? No way."

"Well, he almost got engaged once. He won't admit it, but it's true. They didn't date for too long, but there was a fire between them like no other. She was so sure he was going to pop the question. I could tell he was thinking about it."

"So, what happened?"

"He never did. He broke things off with her one day out of the blue for no good reason." Mrs. Wilde frowned and shook her head. "It really wasn't kind of him."

Judy checked her phone. More question marks from Nick.

"Mom's spilling all your secrets." She typed it out as quickly as she could and stashed her phone as soon as she saw the message go through. He must be losing his mind by now. She turned her full attention back to his mother.

"But he told you he was thinking about proposing?"

Mrs. Wilde didn't turn her head, but her eyes darted toward Judy. "I said I could tell he was thinking about it. Don't you think I would know if he was thinking about it?" Her paw pads squeaked against the plastic steering wheel as she tightened her grip. After a moment, she smiled. "After all, I'm his mother, aren't I?"

Judy had her eyes fixed on the fox. "Right. Of course." They lapsed back into silence, and Judy found herself desperately wishing that Mrs. Wilde would turn on the radio.

"You know, uh, Cynthia, I would've believed you if you had told me you were Nick's sister." She chuckled half-heartedly.

Mrs. Wilde's tone was perfectly sweet again. "Oh, I used to get that all the time, dear. The secret is to find a salon with a good colorist. A little color in your fur goes a long way." She traced her fingers through a few streaks of silver on her neck. "Though I suppose you won't have to worry about going gray, will you?"

Judy made a show of holding up a gray and white-furred hand. "Hah, I guess not." A joke. She tried to contain her sigh of relief.

Getting her bearings in the Nocturnal District was proving to be impossible. Nick always did the night driving, so it had only made sense for him to take the wheel down here, too. "Best to keep the headlights low," he had said. "Mammals down here have sensitive eyes." Mrs. Wilde seemed to prescribe to the same philosophy, and Judy could scarcely see more than a few yards out. Still, they had to be getting close to the Rainforest District by now.

As if sensing her apprehension, Mrs. Wilde spoke up. "We'll be there soon, dear. No need to worry."

"Hm?"

The wheel glided under Mrs. Wilde's hand as she made a smooth left turn. "You seem so tense, honey. The dark isn't getting to you, is it?" In the dim light, it almost looked like she was smirking. Another pair of headlights sped past them, and the fox's luminous, nocturnal eyes flashed a pale blue.

Judy tugged at one of her drooping ears. "Sorry, I guess I am a little nervous. Nick's just told me so little about his family."

"Why, Nick refusing to open up? Imagine that." The vixen rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder if he remembers his past at all." Her voice had suddenly grown flat, almost terse, and she seemed lost in thought.

"I mean, he's told me a few things. He just has to be in the right mood, I think. Like this one time, back when we had only just met. Out of nowhere, he starts telling me this story. You know, about the Junior Ranger Scouts."

Mrs. Wilde blinked. "Scouts? Oh, right, the Junior Ranger Scouts." Her easy smile was back. "Oh, I'm sure he had plenty of funny stories about that."

It felt as if a small, cold stone had settled into Judy's stomach.

"Funny stories?"

"With his scout friends? Oh, sure. Nicky always had so much fun." Mrs. Wilde's eyes flitted toward the passenger seat. "You know, they used to do all sorts of fun things, they used to…" She let the sentence peter out and cleared her throat. After a second, she turned on the radio and began flipping through the stations.

Try as she may, Judy couldn't make out the fox's face, illuminated as it was by little more than the dashboard lights. Judy pulled her phone from her pocket almost without thinking, and she winced at the light from the lock screen. Her reception was still going in and out, but she had a few new notifications. Two missed calls and five texts, all from Nick.

"Very funny, Carrots. I just got off the phone with mom. See you soon."

"I'm outside. Where are you?"

"Who did you say you were talking to?"

"Carrots?"

"Judy, please pick up."

The cold, hard stone in Judy's stomach lurched and sank. She was only dimly aware that the car had slowed, then stopped completely. When Judy finally looked up, they were in a parking garage.

The fox turned the radio volume up and sighed as she stared out the windshield.

"Nicky always loved this song."

Judy unfastened her seatbelt, taking care to muffle the click of the buckle.

"Funny, he's never mentioned it."

The vixen switched off the car's headlights. With only the dim light of the radio dial left, Judy focused on the one thing she could make out in the driver's seat: a glinting pair of eyes. Pale, cold, and blue.