Judy barely registered that her alarm was still blaring. Without lifting her head, she swatted at her phone, but only succeeded in batting it off the nightstand. It clattered to the floor without missing a single cheerful note of her pop song ringtone and skittered under the bed. She groaned into her pillow. Whatever charm the song once held had been robbed by weeks of early morning shifts and too-short naps. Come to think of it, she wasn't sure which of the two this was. The sun was just rising-or just setting?- just behind the row of buildings that marred her bedroom's almost decent view. She dropped to the side of her bed, fished her phone out, and checked the time.

Setting.

Right, the nap was supposed to help her stay up for tonight.

Her uniform was still in a pile on the floor. She tossed it in the general direction of her laundry basket in a gesture of goodwill. She usually wasn't this groggy upon waking. Then again, the last few weeks were hardly usual. The department was always stretched thin during the holidays, and her first season on the force hadn't been an exception. Working Christmas Eve hadn't exactly been the highpoint of her career, but it was nothing compared to New Year's Eve. The block party was always responsible for ruining the evening of a sizeable chunk of the already weary department. She'd survived it all so far, but the early mornings and late nights were taking their toll.

With one last longing glance at her bed, she stumbled off to the bathroom sink. She took a deep breath, turned on the icy tap, and plunged her face under the stream. The frigid water immediately drove the fog to the back of her mind. She toweled off, pausing for a moment to battle with an unruly patch of fur that she must have slept on funny.

"There we go."

A sticky note still hung on her bathroom mirror. Call mom back, underlined twice. She tossed her damp towel over the shower curtain rod with a small flourish. She'd get to that tomorrow. The cold water always managed to snap her into gear, and right now she didn't have any time to waste. Nick would be here in less than an hour, and she had to get herself and her place presentable. She checked her phone.

Scratch that. Significantly less than an hour.

She started her routine in double-time. Had she really hit snooze that many times? She never snoozed. Well, maybe a bit recently, but only because work had gotten so crazy, and that wouldn't last forever. It'd settle down, and she'd get her apartment picked up and get a good night's sleep, and everything would go back to normal.

Nick would be here any minute.

She grabbed a pair of mugs off the coffee table and added them to the ever-growing pile of dishes in the sink. A small stack of folded clothes was still sitting on the couch next to a basket of clean laundry that she had meant to organize this week. She tossed the folded clothes in with the others and stowed the basket in her room.

No time to eat anything, really. There would be food there, right? Like, hors d'oeuvres? She ducked into the kitchen and grabbed a snack, just in case.

A sudden knock almost made her choke on the dry fruit and nut bar. She checked the time on her phone. He was actually a few minutes late, and here she was still wearing a baggy t-shirt and sweatpants. Late, but he was actually ready to go. She'd never hear the end of it. She took a second to survey her living room and sighed. There was no salvaging it, not right now.

Judy unlatched her door and opened it just enough peer through.

"Hey! I'll be right out. Just, uh…" She glanced backed over her shoulder. "Just finishing up a few things in here."

Her partner cocked his head, eyeing her through the crack. "So, can I come in?"

"I'll be right out!" She shut the door a little harder than she intended and tore off for her room.

Nick's muffled voice chased her down the hall. "Carrots! It's cold out here."

"Just a second!"

Judy regarded her closet for a moment, took a breath, and opened it to face her nemesis. The simple black dress hung in the center of the rack, the other hangers shoved to either side to keep it out of contact with the rest of her wardrobe. She had picked it up the other week in a particularly harrowing trip to the mall and banished it to her closet as soon as she got home. But now the time had come.

It wasn't like she disliked dresses or anything. Dresses are nice. She just never really wore them, is all. At least, not fancy ones. Going from life on a farm to city cop hadn't done much to change that. They weren't the most practical things in the world, anyway. She gingerly pulled the hanger off the rod and held the dress up at arm's length, as if it might burst into flames at the slightest provocation.

She was being silly. This would be fun, right?

Finally changed, she stopped and gave herself a last once-over in the mirror.

"Well, this is as good as it's gonna get," she said under her breath.

Judy hurried back to where she had left her partner. She shouldn't have made Nick wait outside in the cold all this time. She'd make it up to him. Compliment his tie or something. She eased the door open, already diving into her apology.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I-"

Nick wasn't there. She stuck her head out into the hallway, but there was no sign of the fox.

"You're letting in the cold."

Judy jumped at the sound of his voice. She turned and found her partner reclining on her couch in her living room.

"And you really ought to pick up the place sometime. You're getting as bad as me."

She crossed her arms. "This is an abuse of key privileges."

"It was an emergency."

"An emergency."

"Yes." Nick did his best attempt at wide-eyed innocence. "You see, it's very cold."

She had to give him that. The door was only half-open behind her, but she was already starting to shiver. And really, she had grown accustomed to Nick's liberal interpretation of their spare key policy.

Nick stood and brushed off his black suit jacket. "You would've done the same thing. No jury would convict me."

"Fine, sentence commuted." She watched the fox adjust, then readjust his tie. She'd never seen him in a suit before.

He gave one last tug at the half-windsor knot and looked up at her. "You look nice, by the way."

Judy blinked. "Oh! Thanks! You too." She smoothed the front of her dress. "I can't remember the last time I had to get this dressed up."

"Same." He looked down at his outfit. "I was just gonna rent something, but it turns out my dad cleaned up pretty nice."

For a second, neither of them spoke. Nick cleared his throat and broke the silence.

"So, should we get going? The train's will be packed heading to this part of town tonight. Big concert or something."

"Oh, right. Yeah, give me a second." She ducked back into her room and reappeared wearing an enormous ZPD winter uniform coat over her dress.

Nick was waiting by the entrance, doing his best impression of a concierge. A smile crept across his face as soon as he saw her.

"Look, it's the warmest thing I own and it's a ten minute walk without the snow."

"Hey, I didn't say anything." He held the front door open and gave her an 'after you' gesture. "Shall we?"

They stepped out into the frozen evening, making their way through ankle-deep snow. The property manager still hadn't gotten someone to shovel the path from her building to the sidewalk, short as it was. She'd meant to call him about it today.

Her apartment complex was reasonably close to the train station, but the wind turned it into a hike. Still, mammals of every shape and size were out and about, and the air hummed with a sense of shared excitement. As Nick had predicted, the train was packed. They managed to find standing room squeezed between an ibex and a group of particularly chatty otters. Judy sighed in relief as soon as the doors slid shut, shutting her eyes for a moment and basking in the warmth of the train car.

"Cozy?"

"I can almost feel my ears again."

"I don't know how you survive in this weather with those things." He poked one of her black-tipped ears gingerly. "It's like ice."

"Stop that," she laughed, shooing his hand away with a swat.

She noticed the ibex glance down at them, then out the window.

Nick glanced at the rowdy otters from the corner of his eye. "I think we're a bit overdressed here. It feels like we're going to prom or something."

"They said to wear something nice." He was right, though. They stuck out. She was used to it by now, but she still noticed it. They always got looks when together out of uniform. Different looks than tonight, but looks. "Anyway, I never went to prom."

"Me either. You'll have to promise me a dance."

"I don't think there's going to be dancing at this thing."

"You know, you could just say no. You don't have to make excuses."

She rolled her eyes. "Your poor broken heart."

"Anyway, who is this guy again? Someone from Arson, right?"

"The captain from Arson. Fournier."

Nick looked at her blankly.

"Come on, you know him. He caught the Tundra Town Strangler back when he was a detective. It was all over the news when I was a kid."

Nick nodded slowly. "Right, the Strangler. That detective."

"The moose. He's the moose."

He snapped his fingers. "There we go. Moose cop, got it."

She tried to shoot him a withering look. "Anyway, he's a big deal."

"No, I get it. But you have to admit, it's kind of weird that they're going to all this trouble. Don't they usually just get you a cake or something?"

"They actually did get him a cake at the office. He didn't show up for it. Anyway, this is a city-organized thing to 'Honor his years of dedicated service to Zootopia'."

Nick nodded. "There we go. Patting ourselves on the back, huh? Hard for a new mayor to pass up good press."

"I mean with everything that's happened last year, yeah. Bogo actually pitched the idea, though."

"Well, how about that. The Chief never struck me as the sentimental type."

She shrugged. "His old partner's retiring. If anything's going to make him sentimental, it's that."

"Hm." Nicked seemed to mull something over for a moment. "Say, Carrots."

Her ears perked up, still tingling as warmth returned to them.

"When I'm old and grey and you're promoted to Chief Carrots, will you send me out with a special retirement party?" He settled back into his usual smirk.

"I'd send you packing the second they pinned on my stars."

Nick clutched his chest, wounded. "You know what, I believe you would."

The train rumbled on. The lights danced like candlelight off the faces of the larger mammals. From where Judy stood, it was the only evidence that the city was out there at all. She couldn't see it, crowded as the train was, but she knew the nighttime view well. It was one of the few perks of those late, coffee-fueled work nights. Now, the scrolling destination sign above the door was the only indication that their destination was near. She fiddled with the zipper of her coat.

Nick tucked his phone in his pocket and glanced at her over his shoulder. "I think this is us."

"Hm? Yeah, I think so." She stared up at the glowing marquee and felt Nick scrutinize her for a second.

"Hey." He nudged her shoulder. "This is gonna be fun, Fluff."

The train slowed to a halt, and the scrum of mammals in the car started pressing toward the exit.

"Yeah." She nodded, stumbling a bit as one of the otters beside them bumped her. "It'll be fun."

The doors parted with an dull electronic chime, and as the crowd filed out, the cold swept in.