Judy sat in the taxi, staring blankly at the backside of the driver's seat while hugging her duffel bag tightly. The taxi had just picked her up from the train station and was now taking her to the beach house in Seal Beach. It was going to be a weekend beach trip with Nick.

Once the taxi made a right on Ocean Drive, she dropped her bag next to her and peered out the window. She could see the palm trees dancing lightly from the gentle breeze. Behind the trees was the big, blue ocean, shining and shimmering from the sun. It was better than how she had ever imagined it.

"Wow…it's…it's beautiful," she whispered.

"This your first time seeing the ocean?" the warthog taxi driver snorted from the front.

Judy quickly sat back down, blushing slightly.

"Yeah…" she admitted sheepishly.

"She sure is a beauty ain't she? Could never get tired of her no matter how many times I drive down here."

"I can see why," Judy said quietly as she gazed out the window.

The conversation ended afterwards. The driver might've asked her a follow up question but she didn't pay much attention. She was too enthralled by the ocean and wanted to be alone with her thoughts for a while.

She had changed a lot since she first joined the ZPD. For one thing, she used to have no qualms chatting away with strangers, often much to their dismay. However, due to recent events, she has become more introspective, often preferring to be alone over being around mammals.

Her heart pounded quicker and quicker as they neared the beach house. She was nervous; this will be her first time seeing Nick after two years.

They had been partners for two years, and together they managed to crack the coldest of cases and catch the most slippery of mammals. The whole ZPD knew of them, and they regularly earned well-deserved praise. Judy had a great life and she was proud of her accomplishments in the ZPD, but that was all snatched away one day. It began with a fateful conversation between Nick and Chief Bogo.

Judy was sitting in the office that she shared with Nick. It was considered a small office by the ZPD, assuming it would belong to a large animal like a hippo or an elephant. For Nick and Judy however, it was more than enough room. It had a simple layout, only being comprised of two desks that sat on opposite sides of the room. Judy's desk could best be described as tidy and intimate. She had several pictures of her family that stood by her computer, and all of her paperwork were organized into various shelves and baskets. On the other hand, Nick's desk was best described as pure chaos. He had loads of paperwork that covered the entire surface of the desk. Judy often wondered how he managed to get any work done.

Judy sipped on her third coffee that day as she typed up her police reports.

"Hm, needs more sugar," she thought. She shrugged and continued. She felt behind, despite actually being a week early with all her work. She just couldn't bear the thought of getting them all done the last minute, like Nick normally does. Perhaps it was a little OCD, as Nick often teased her about, but she preferred to think of it as being prompt and proactive.

Nick entered their office, seeming bewildered and unsure.

Hearing his footsteps, Judy asked without looking away from her computer screen, "Hey Nick, how did the meeting go?"

He quickly put on a smirk, "It went fine, actually it was great. I've been promoted to detective!"

She immediately turned towards him, her eyes wide open, "What!? But I've been working here 9 months longer than you have! How did you get it before me!?"

Nick shook his head, snickering, "Oh man, classic Carrots. You should've seen the look on your face. I knew I would get that reaction from you!"

Judy made a pouty face before she turned back to the computer, "Ugh whatever, what was the meeting about then?"

"Well...I am getting a different position."

She turned around and said, "Oh wow, that's cool. Congratulations!"

"So...wait, I'm allowed to have any position except detective only because it's the job that you've dreamed about since forever?" Nick joked.

She shrugged, "Well of course, can't have a wily fox like you becoming detective before me. That would go against the rules of the universe, and nobody wants that."

"You don't think there's a chance that I could ever be more worthy of detective than you?"

She hopped off the chair for dramatic effect and said, "Not a chance!"

They both laughed until Judy said, "So what will you be doing?"

Nick cleared his throat, "Well, you know about the whole tension between the police officers and fox community at Happytown due to the police shootings?"

"Yeah…"

"Well given that I was born and raised there and I'm the first fox police officer, they want me to be a police officer slash consultant for them."

"Oh! Wow, that's really gr-"

"Which would require me to transfer and move to Happytown."

Her ears drooped, "Oh…that's far...almost a day's worth trip away."

"Yup," Nick said stoically.

They stayed silent for a few seconds before Judy continued, "And it also means we wouldn't be partners anymore."

"Yup."

"So we will barely get to see each other…"

He nodded solemnly, "Yup…"

"Did you accept it?"

"Not yet... I have until tomorrow."

"Are you going to?"

"Well...I don't know. Do you think I should?"

Judy felt a heaviness in her chest, but she tried her best to ignore it.

She let out a chuckle, "Heh you're going to ask a dumb bunny for advice?"

He smiled warmly, "Well, what else would I do? I'm a dumb fox."

She giggled, but that didn't make the heaviness in her chest go away. In fact, she felt it even more. His joke reminded her of all the good times they had together. The banter, the impromptu movie nights, and the bar hopping nights followed by the hangovers they would have together. Her trip down memory lane caused tears to stain the fur around her eyes. Embarrassed, she turned around quickly, hoping Nick didn't notice.

Judy rubbed her eye and said bashfully, "Sorry there's something in my-"

She felt her body being picked up and pressed against Nick's. His arms and tail wrapped around her, in an attempt to assure her that everything will be okay. His head rested against hers, whispering apologies to her ears.

Her grief melted away with pure happiness taking its place. It was heartwarming that not only did he turn to her advice for a decision that can change his life, but he also rushed to comfort her. He made her feel like she mattered, and it was the most wonderful feeling. It was what Judy liked to call a little moment.

They were these moments in time that showed that perhaps there was something more between them than just friendship. It's like the moment where they shared a deep hug while hiding from the rain under a small tarp. Or the moment where they fell down to the ground together after she hopped onto his stomach, and they couldn't stop laughing. Or even that moment when their eyes would meet and linger just for a second too long. These little moments would confuse her. Nick was obviously just a friend, but for some reason he's the only mammal that could make her heart feel...happy. Happier than it's ever been. What did it mean? Love? Nahhhh it couldn't be. Could it? These were some of the thoughts that would ravage her mind as she reminisced these little moments.

However, no matter how much she enjoyed this moment or how much she would miss Nick, she couldn't get in the way of what could be a great opportunity for him.

Judy whispered, "You have to take it Nick."

An ear sprung up from Nick's head, alert to her voice.

A little surprised by her answer, he said, "You really think so?"

"Yeah, this job was made for you. There's no other police officer in the ZPD that cares as much as you."

Many police officers would agree with her. It was undoubtedly true. Ever since Nick joined the ZPD, he had made it his mission to help the fox community any way he could. He regularly volunteered at the community center where he taught music to troubled teenage foxes. He helped arrested foxes contact reputable lawyers to give them a fair chance in court. He also attended the funerals of unarmed foxes who were shot by police officers, something he had to do way too often.

Whenever a fellow police officer asked or accused him of his seemingly preferential treatment towards foxes, he would simply respond, "If you lived through a day as a fox, you would do the same."

His charity and dedication to the fox community didn't go unnoticed by Chief Bogo, which was why he offered him the position. Judy knew that this was his passion, and he would feel much more fulfilled doing this rather than parking or traffic duty.

"But, that would mean Carrots won't get to see his favorite fox," Nick said teasingly.

She responded playfully, "Well this Carrots wants to see her favorite fox happy and her favorite fox make the world a better place."

He let go of her and kneeled down, studying her as if he was trying to detect any signs of doubt on her. Finally, he closed his eyes and smiled while nodding slowly.

"Fine, I'll take the position."

The next day, he went to Chief Bogo's office to accept the offer. He had one month to leave.

It was late in the evening, Nick and Judy stood outside the precinct with Nick holding a box of his stuff. They had just finished cleaning out his desk, a daunting and arduous task. Though in good spirits, an air of anguish hung around them. After today, they wouldn't be partners anymore.

"I can't believe it's my last day here Carrots. I won't be seeing your cute face every day!"

"Don't call me cute!" She sighed, "But yeah…can't believe this day has come….It came way too quickly!"

"Awww, is Carrots gonna miss a little ol fox like me?"

"Don't be like that Nick! You know you're gonna miss us too!

"Maybe a little…."

She nudged him.

"Okay! I'm going to miss you all a lot," He paused for a second. His face softened as he looked down to the ground. "You guys were like a pack to me, another family.

"You'll always be a part of our pack Nick." She places her paw on his arm. "And now you get to join a new pack, and make the world a better place somewhere else."

He faced her and smiled, "Yeah… I guess you're right."

There was a pause before he said.

"You know I'm going to miss you the most Carrots."

She blushed a little. She was a little taken back by his admission. It was rare to see this side of Nick. One so genuine, honest, and heartfelt.

He continued, "You did so much for me. You…changed my life...You made me into a better mammal...You...you gave me hope for a better tomorrow."

She blushed some more, "Oh Nick, you dumb fox, I can't take all the credit, you did most of the work."

"But you were the spark that started it all."

Before she could respond, he walked over to her and gave her a hug. He gently kissed her on the space between her ears before resting his head against hers. She wrapped her arms around his back, as she buried her head into his chest. It would be their last little moment together in two years.

"I'm really going to miss you Judy."

"I'm really going to miss you too Nick."

The first week he was gone, they texted each other like there was no tomorrow. Every few minutes, her phone would be buzzing from Nick's texts, to which she would reply right away. They made all these grandiose plans to hang out every weekend. However, life had the tendency to get in the way. Their work schedules never seemed to be compatible, and both Nick and Judy didn't want to use their holiday hours. Nick because he just started and Judy because she was Judy. The prospects of hanging out every weekend turned to every other weekend, to every month, and eventually to never. They settled for texts, calls, and Muzzletime, but even that started to occur less and less as time passed by.

The last text Judy sent to Nick for a long time was just a simple question.

How's your day going?

It was an easy enough question that any mammal could answer. A day passed, there was no response. Yet, she held onto the hope that Nick was perhaps just too busy with work to text back. She didn't want to give up on their friendship, it was too important to her. However, one day became a week without a response, leading Judy to accept that their friendship was dead.

Judy spent the weekend afterwards moping with her new best friends, Nutflix and wine. She laid on her bed with her laptop in front of her playing It's Always Sunny in Pandadelphia, occasionally taking a swig of the cheap bottle of wine from Trader Doe's. She didn't understand how their friendship fell apart like that. They were best friends, but now they were nothing, and her life seemed much emptier as a result. She had a lot more free time than she knew what to do with and when going through the photos on her phone, she noticed at least 95% of them had Nick and her. Also, she just couldn't stop thinking about him, especially the little moments. Nevertheless, by the end of the weekend, Nutflix and wine had healed her enough for Judy to decide it was time to move on. She started going to the bar with Darryl Wolford and Marissa Fangmeyer or grabbing lunch with Francine Trunkaby. And of course, on Friday nights, it was time to hit the clubs with Ben Clawhauser.

Things got even better when she was assigned to her new partner, Jack Savage. Jack Savage was one of the finest cops to have come through the precinct. Like Judy, he stood tall for a bunny and had a commanding presence. He was confident, but was by no means arrogant. He was humble as one could be, always sharing credit for his accomplishments with Judy. He was also funny and sweet, able to make the precinct laugh and brought little gifts for them from time to time. Judy and Jack became fast friends and enjoyed each other's company.

There were still times when she missed Nick and she would think about the little moments, but with her friends, life was good for Judy. Not great but good, and that was enough for her. However, things went from good to bad after that fateful case.

"It's not your fault," Jack gently said.

Judy and Jack were sitting across from each other in the break room. Jack took a sip of his coffee while Judy stared at her paws. Her coffee remained untouched.

"There's nothing more you could've done," he continued.

"I could've been faster. I could've been more careful," she whispered while still staring at her paws.

"You can't do that to yourself, you're just hurting-"

She slammed her firsts onto the table.

She looked up at him sharply, raising her voice, "Why not? I mean, it's true right? If I had caught that weasel, then he wouldn't have gone to rob that family of four, and those lemurs would still be alive today."

His tone still gentle, he replied, "You can't blame yourself for that, you're not the one who pulled the trigger."

She shook her head, "No, no I wasn't. But I'm the one who allowed him to pull the trigger."

Jack reached across the table, "Judy…"

She backed her chair out and stood straight up, "No, stop, I'm sorry, I just…I just need some time to think."

She headed out the break room, leaving behind her coffee and a worried rabbit. As she walked across the precinct, unsure where to head to, flashbacks of her day started to haunt her.

The car chase on the highway. The weasel escaping on foot with Judy following close behind. Judy chasing him into the alleyway. Judy thinking she had him cornered. The weasel grabbing a garbage can lid and swinging it at her, knocking her out for a second. Judy coming to and seeing the weasel climb over the fence. Judy hopping over the fence, with the weasel nowhere to be seen.

Feeling a heaviness in her chest, she rushed to the bathroom and locked herself in the stall. Tears started forming in her eyes. She knew what was coming next.

Judy and Jack parking at the murder scene, full of ambulances and police cars. Four gurneys laid on the ground, two of them child-sized. The weasel handcuffed at the back of a police car, his head down.

She looked at her paws and saw it stained with blood. The family's blood. She buried her head into her paws, hoping that her tears would wash away her sins. It was her fault.

Things went from bad to worse as the days went on. The nightmares. The triggers. The guilt. That case beat her down and managed to sap out the joy that she got from the job. Each day seemed longer than the previous one, chasing after criminals started to get old, and waking up got harder and harder. She tried everything to recover. Yoga, healthy eating, alcohol, comedies, exercise, everything. Nothing seemed to work. She soon stopped listening to Gazelle.

She tried to use her acting chops to maintain the façade of her usual happiness at work, but she's no Nick. It turned out her acting skills only comprised of dramatically dying. Her friends quickly noticed the change in her mood and grew concerned for her. They would ask if anything was wrong and she always replied with a "Thanks, I'm fine," and scurried off. Jack was a little more determined to help her feel better. He would get her coffee every day and invited her to potlucks or bar nights with the other police officers. She appreciated their efforts, but she felt there was no point helping a lost cause. One by one, her friendships started to fall apart as she continued to decline any offer for help or hangouts. By the end of the year, her relationships were reduced to exchanging pleasantries and nothing more.

There were two things that kept her going. The first thing was her ambition. She never stopped wanting to become a detective and continued to work hard. Granted, she had become more complacent with her job, only giving out a maximum of 100 tickets per day or finishing her police reports 2 days early. Regardless, she was still seen as one of the most hard-working of the police officers. The second thing were the little moments. When life just seemed too hard, her mind would wander back to the little moments she had with Nick. They reminded her of the joy she used to have when Nick was still around. It gave her a little inkling of hope. Perhaps, she could find her joy again when she reaches her goal of becoming a detective.

Just a few days before the beach trip, she was called into Chief Bogo's office.

"Sir?" she said as she slowly opened the door.

"Sit down Hopps," Bogo gently said.

She walked down the room and hopped onto her chair. Despite her five years of service and the increase in number of small mammals in the ZPD, Chief Bogo had never bothered to get chairs more suited to animals her size.

She studied the chief carefully, hoping to get a hint of the reason for this meeting. She saw a face hard as stone with an intensity to him that struck fear even into the bravest of lions. However, his expression softened as he spoke.

"I'll cut to the chase Hopps, because of your exemplary performance and your extraordinary talents, I believe your service would be better suited as a detective.

A gasp escaped her throat. A detective. A role that she's longed for years and years. All the training and studying, it had all led up to this moment. She should've felt pure ecstasy for this moment. Yet, she felt none of that.

"I feel the same," she whispered.

"Hopps?"

"Oh!" Judy said. "I mean, thank you! This is quite an honor sir. I was just in total shock, that's all."

Chief Bogo raised an eyebrow, surprised by her subdued reaction to the good news.

He shrugged it off and said, "Orientation and training will start in three weeks. We expect great things from you." He let out a slight grin.

"Thank you sir, I won't let you down."

"I'm sure you won't. You may be dismissed."

She laid on her bed, facedown into her pillow.

"What the fuck is wrong with me…" she shakily whispered to herself.

She finally got the job she dreamed of all her life yet she felt nothing. Nothing. Nothing at all. She wondered what was wrong with her. Was this all because of that case? Is this the guilt causing all of this? Did she think she didn't deserve it at the time?

No, that wasn't it. She knew what guilt felt like, and what she felt at Bogo's office wasn't guilt. It was something much worse, and much more insidious. It was numbness.

Everything from the nightmares, the triggers, to the guilt. She let it worn her down and exhaust almost every part of her mind and body. Now she was an empty shell.

She heard her phone buzzing on her beside dresser. She rolled her eyes.

"Goddammit, is it Jack trying to invite me to another hangout? I thought he stopped with that shit a long time ago." Judy thought.

She grabbed her phone, it was Nick. A smile escaped her. She quickly opened her phone and read his text.

"Carrots! Long time no talk! Or text. Whatever. Anyways, I finally to get a few days off and I haven't been to the beach for a while. I know this is kinda random, but wanna go on a beach trip with your favorite fox? You know you want to!"

Spending a few days at the beach with Nick Wilde. The fox she hasn't seen for two years, and hasn't talked to for months. Now he suddenly wants to hang out. She thought this was crazy. What if Nick changed? What if they don't get along anymore? Yet, this was the happiest that she's felt in a long time. She could even hear her heart jumping for joy, all for just a text from Nick. Thinking about the little moments, she realized that perhaps he was the key to her happiness.

"You know what," she told herself. "Fuck it, I'm doing it."

"Nick, do I want to join you in this beach trip? Yes, yes I do."

"We're here," the taxi driver said.

"Huh?" she muttered.

She looked out the window and she saw a beach house with a red fox, resting on the bench at its porch. It was a quaint, little beach house, with a countryside feel to it. She wondered how Nick managed to find such a cozy beach house so cheap on Harebnb.

The taxi driver said, "You're a quiet one aren't ya? You didn't say a word for the whole trip after seeing the ocean."

"Oh…haha sorry, I was just thinking..."

"Well don't matter." He points at the fare meter, "That'll be $40.25."

She handed him the cash and stepped out the taxi with her bag. She saw Nick Wilde sit up from the bench. He had the biggest smile on his muzzle. She couldn't help but respond with a smile of her own.

"I'm happy," she rejoiced in her head.