Chapter 2
"Why can't I sleep?" Judy thinks to herself. It's been several hours since her parents put the other children to bed, and yet, nick still hasn't shown up at her room.
"Oh no" she exclaims as she springs out of bed, throws on a jacket and races outside. "Mom, Dad! Where is nick?" she says to her parents, who are just heading to bed themselves.
"Oh, sweetie" bonnie says "he said he would much rather sleep by himself, somewhere away from everyone"
She looks at her, and by the look in her eyes, she can tell her mother is lying. "No he didn't" she hisses defiantly "nick isn't the kind of animal who would spend the night away from everybody. Now, where is he?"
Her parents look shocked. "Obviously they won't help" she thinks to herself angrily. She starts off at a jog towards the guest house. "Please be ok, dumb fox…" she says to herself, tears welling up in her eyes.
"It's cold out tonight, I hope he is alright." she thinks as she pictures of him being somewhere without any warm clothes or a blanket. She kicks it into high gear as fear starts to take over.
"NICK!" She yells into the darkness as she runs through the field.
"Carrots?" She hears in the distance "is that you?" She starts sprinting as fast as she can towards the barn. Rabbit ears may be bulky and heavy, but they do come in handy.
As she throws open the doors to the barn she sees him lying there, wrapped in probably the thinnest blanket we have, shivering like his life depended on it.
"Holy hell, we need to get you inside" she says as she helps him up and starts hobbling towards her room. As soon as they get inside, Judy throws him into the bathroom and says through the door "take a hot bath, don't come out until you can feel all of your toes, paws and the tip of your tail!" Nick listens to her, because it's not a minute later when she hears the water running.
"Why would she do something like this, she doesn't even know Nick, and yet she is making assumptions?" Judy wonders to herself as she tries piecing together what would have happened to get him into this situation.
"Hey carrots," Nick croaks from the bathroom "can you get a fox a towel?" As Nick stands up, using all of his digits, he starts to understand what happened.
"Here you go; I got you a few because all of our towels are bunny sized." Judy says, giggling. "When you're done, just throw on a shirt and come out here"
"Ok, but no funny business, fluff. I'm still recovering." Nick says cautiously as he opens the door to the bathroom.
"Alright, but I'm going to get you back for that fluff comment. Anyway," she continues, pointing across the room, "this is where you will stay for tonight. Tomorrow morning you and I will have a little chat with my mother!" She almost yells, her voice cracking a little bit.
"Hey, Judy," Nick begins. Judy knows he is talking about something serious, because he's using her actual name. "I don't want any trouble, it's enough that you guys are letting me stay here for Christmas, but to cause trouble with your folks? This fox has enough smarts to know that angry parents, they can do anything..." Nick looks out the window, lost in thought again.
"Nick, they won't be angry." Judy explains, snapping Nick away from his train of thought. "They just need to get to know you, that's what I mean. As soon as they know the real you, they will have to let you stay somewhere inside." Judy puts on the face she always does when she sets a goal, and her goals are always achieved.
"Alright then carrots, but enough talk. Time for some sleep..." Nick manages to yawn out before crashing onto the makeshift bed she constructed. She too, feels as though sleep would be the best option right now.
"Goodnight, you lovely fox." Judy whispers to herself, as she turns her head to look across the room. Nick is curled into a ball, wrapping his tail around himself. She looks at his face, mouth slightly open. She sees him snore a little bit. "Oh lord, what are you thinking Hopps" she silently yells at herself as thoughts of kissing him suddenly pop into her brain. She looks back, and decides "I'll tell him, before the end of the break, I'll tell him." And with that, she puts her head down and falls into a deep sleep.
The next morning, Judy woke up, tired. Then she remembers the night before, but Nick is absent from the bed in the corner.
"Nick?" Judy calls out quietly. She throws on a house coat, and opens the door. There, lying in the gravel is Nick. Before Judy could call out to him though, she noticed that he was doing side crunches.
"Oh Wow..." she whispers as she looks at his toned body, shirtless and slightly sweaty.
"Go back inside, and cool yourself off before you do something stupid" she thinks to herself as she goes inside and has a cold shower.
"Why do I feel this way? She wonders aloud to herself. The showers at Bunnyburrow are loud enough that her dad can sing in the shower, and anyone in the vicinity only hears this tone changing drone. No words.
"He's my partner; I can't be getting all romantic with him. That could screw with assignments." She says, scolding herself as she dunks her head into the icy jet.
She gets out of the shower, her desires under control, and sees her partner sitting cross legged on the floor.
"Morning sleepy head." He jests. He probably got up at the crack of dawn. "Are you done with the shower?"
"Yeah, it's all yours." I try to say without any quivers in my voice. "Just use the towels I gave you yesterday. Wear something nice, and then we will go talk to my parents."
"Awww, is the CUTE little bunny scared of defying her parents?" Nick jokes as he closes the door to the bathroom.
"Just have your shower already!" Judy yells at him, getting dressed. She knows what is going to happen later tonight, but she thinks she better keep that a secret from Nick, at least for now.
