Chapter 2

Authors Notes: I really appreciate so much the tremendous response to my Zootopia fan fic with so many nice comments, favs, and follows! In response, here's Chapter 2 a few days early for you to enjoy!

…A month or so later…

It was the end of their daily work shift. They were tired. It was just another day filled with a lot of routine calls, and with little appreciation. They were just cops on the beat these days. Their shift started with a distraught mother cat pleading for police to help get her child free from being stuck in a tree. What made that challenging for the blue-suited duo was that neither species were natural climbers. Their string of difficulties continued to the next call. It started off as a routine assignment from the dispatcher. It should have been a simple repair to a car with a flat tire. What made it particularly difficult was that it was one of those huge out sized giraffe cars. Nick and Judy needed to stand on top of their police SUV to reach the wheels. They nearly had to call a Zootopia Automobile Association (ZAA) service vehicle to help, but Judy insisted she was a farm girl and regularly changed her dad's tractor tires all by herself. He already knew Judy was no sissy girl, but it was always impressive to watch her skills, and it made Nick smile. He thought fondly of her, but then shook his head to dismiss the thought. All he could do was help as she directed him, and he thought she was getting some secret amused satisfaction at telling Nick what to do. He was right of course.

The end of the shift ended as it always began. She dropped Nick off at his apartment in the dark, and cheerily said, "See you tomorrow partner. Any luck getting a roommate? It's been a long time."

Nick sighed, "Nah, Carrots. No takers, As soon as anyone finds out I'm a cop, especially my old friends, they don't want to have anything to do with renting a room from me."

She encouraged, "Don't worry. The right roommate will come along. You'll see."

Nick's explanation was only partially true. The real story was that Nick was not actively trying to recruit a roommate. He really wanted Judy to live in the second apartment, but he was reticent to ask her do to that, based on her insistence, months earlier, that doing so was something that should not happen.

As usual she dropped the SUV at the precinct station, got on the bus to her apartment, and some considerable time later due to bad traffic, arrived at her dreary building. The sodium vapor like flickered annoyingly as always. She fought with the creaky, sticky door with the bad lock that was the entrance to her top floor apartment. She frowned. It was nothing but an eyesore compared to where Nick lived, and she worried about him making the payments on his meager police salary. They lived far away from each other and it was really inconvenient. Being closer would be much more efficient use of their time.

Once again the thought of being roommates surfaced itself in her brain. She was finding it much harder to shake off the thought with each day of the long commutes and feeling less safe in the tiny tenement room. Logic aside, she admitted she just wanted to be closer to him, and the door was open to her, literally, if she could just get past her reluctance to accept something new that would never happen in Bunnyburrow.

As she finally forced the door open, she overhead the neighbors' noisy conversations. The brothers were at it again. They never let up on each other or her. They didn't care that she was a cop.

"Be quiet over there, Bucky and Pronk!" she shouted, and was answered by an epithet-filled rant that belittled her mother's heritage.

She was upset to see the past-due rent bill – with a ten percent automatic penalty - on her empty, meager desk. There was a hand-written note from the landlady with the bill that explained her alarm clock-radio was being held in escrow until the rent was paid. She had the money, but she just never had time to go to the landlady to pay it off.

She lay on the stiff bed, tossing and turning, and remembering what she had told Nick about partners living in the same apartment, especially different genders. But the tenement was horrible, she was always tired, and even being a cop, she never felt safe here. And now she could afford to move out.

She made a unilateral decision.

"That's it," she declared.

Rattling through the paper-thin walls one of the Oryx-Antlerson brothers remarked, "Keep it down over there, rabbit. Besides, what's 'it'?"

She snapped back, "None of your bee's wax."

"My what?" asked Pronk.

"Just never mind," she complained.

She quickly changed into more comfortable civilian clothes, packed her one luggage bag, pocketed her cell phone, and locked the door behind her. She walked with purpose straight to the landlady's door. Her ears trailed behind her head in concentration.

The female armadillo opened her door and stared down at Judy, "Ah… our late-paying bunny cop. You're here to settle up, I hope."

"Yes, I'm here to pay my bill. One last time. And move out. I am so done with this dump."

"Dearie, you owe me another month's rent now if you're leaving without the required one month advance notice. Plus $50 for losing the key once."

"That was my deposit. Keep it."

"I will."

"Grrrr," Judy fumed. She shelled out the cash, paid it all, left, slammed the door to the tenement behind her, and didn't look back.

Now she was homeless, and knew that Nick may not agree to this sudden move. In the past-midnight darkness, it was a lonely ride on the bus to his part of the neighborhood. She was riding only with a beaver family, and a tough, punk looking wolverine couple covered with tats and piercings.

The intimidating male wolverine sneered and threatened, "What are ya lookin' at, rabbit?"

Judy answered meekly, "Nothing… Sorry…"

"You'd better be," admonished the female.

Judy looked away but was wary, lest she be mugged. It was past 2 in the morning, and she was off duty, so she wasn't in uniform. She wasn't in the least bit intimidating. She climbed the stairs to Nick's apartment, and was suddenly filled with regret. She hoped this was the right decision. This would be a surprise. They'd never discussed the matter of living accomodations since that one night she slept off her first and only hangover. But she had to get out of the tenement tonight. Nick would understand. He always understood. Even if didn't feel right to room with her police partner Nick permanently, at least she knew she had a better place for a few days until she could find another apartment.

But deep down inside, she wanted to stay with him.

She muttered to herself standing at his door, "Well. It's now or never, girl."

She knocked softly, waited a good minute, and hearing no response, she knocked again, more emphatically.

"Yeah? What is it?" came a nasty, only half-awake voice that was definitely Nick's.

In a very meek response, she answered, "Hi, Nick. It's me…"

"Judy?" Nick asked in a very shocked response.

Nick couldn't get the seven locks, bolts, and chains to his door open fast enough, and peered worriedly at his partner.

"What's wrong, Carrots? Are you OK? You live clear on the other side of the borough," he asked anxiously, but then saw her bag and the anxious, nearly pleading smile.

She said meekly, "I know you're having trouble getting a roommate and you need the rent money to keep this nice place. I'm fine, I just had enough of that dive I call an apartment and checked out. I'd like to apply for the vacancy."

Nick tried to keep up with the sequence of events by asking, "You have nowhere to go?"

"Uh-huh," she shook her head tentatively.

"But this is so sudden… Us roommates, Carrots?"

Nick oddly felt like he was asking questions that a female in a relationship would be asking upon being asked to move in with her boyfriend, but then he reminded himself that he wasn't in a relationship with her beyond friendship. But that felt like a lie.

"Precisely," she answered.

"I don't know if we should, Judy. You said so yourself. We're together all day, every day. We're partners in ZPD. Even partners get cranky at each other. Besides, I'm a boy and you're a girl. Don't they have rules about that?"

She asserted strongly, "We're police partners. I know at least three other sets of partners at ZPD are roommates."

Nick scolded, "Yeah, but they're all boys."

"There's two rooms in your apartment," she responded.

"But only one bathroom," he noted. He kept wondering why he was continuing to say 'no' to having Judy be his roommate. This was a dream come true.

Judy replied smugly, "Rabbits still clean themselves."

"With rabbit spit, Carrots," Nick teased, but started to smile. Both realized this was clearly becoming another teasing game between them.

She smirked, "Shut up. Foxes clean themselves too, you know. I did the research. So the water bill will be low."

They were still standing in the doorway. He could see the determination in Judy's eyes. This was the very same rabbit who'd said she'd never be roommates with him, so he wanted to play this as 'hard to get' as he could get away with. He leaned against the door frame nonchalantly, examining his claws.

"I snore," he announced.

She was quick with a response, "So does my dad, and so do about 70 of my brothers and sisters. I can deal with it."

"And I sleep walk," he added.

"That's why there's bedroom doors. That lock. And besides I don't believe you."

They both laughed.

This was all very clearly in jest, so she asked, "So… do you have any other unpleasant bodily functions I should be aware of Nick?"

"Hmm. None that I can think of right now. How about you, Carrots?"

She immediately answered, "I have restless paws. But we won't be sleeping together. So that is no matter but mine."

Nick mulled it over, still dragging out his decision. He did notice she was beginning to fidget impatiently like the encounter at the Department of Mammal Vehicles. Trading barbs and insults needed to end, because he could see her exhaustion and stress. But he also could see the hopefulness in those beautiful big lavender eyes.

He rolled his eyes and said with a dismissive gesture, "OK, Carrots. I guess we can be roommates. At least I know you have a steady income."

"Yippee!" She dropped her bag and leaped into his arms, wrapped her arms around him and without thinking, kissed him squarely on his snout.

Both sets of eyes flew open wide, they broke the kiss and immediately pulled back, her ears went rigidly upright, and flushed deep red.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" she interjected and covered her mouth and her ears drooped in embarrassment. She pulled on one nervously.

But that apology couldn't stop the thought in either of them that had been nice. Both felt a tingle that they couldn't explain, or deny, or ever want to forget.

Judy looked positively mortified as she explained, "I apologize, Nick. I was just so happy that we could help each other out – a place for me and I get to help you pay the bills. That was just a 'friends' kiss. Or a brother and sister kiss. You know… brotherly and sisterly love."

Nick wanted to prolong her sense of awkwardness for some fun, "Well… you know what they say about kissing your sister…"

"Uh… no I don't. I have 179 sisters," and then she decided it was her turn to tease him back, "Besides, you did agree that you loved me the day we caught Flash after I told you I loved you."

Nick retracted his words, "I didn't exactly admit I loved you, Carrots."

She challenged him with her arms crossed, "Yes you did. I heard what you said or at least what you meant. One thing that you should know about me is that with these ears, I can hear very, very well, Nick Wilde."

"Me too," he countered, looking up at his own big red ears, "and I don't remember hearing myself say that."

She asserted, "In your case, it's a matter of selective hearing, Nick. Explain yourself, fox."

Nick rationalized, "Well… all right, I guess I meant that was just 'friends' love. Or brother and sister love. Just like you said."

Judy backpedaled too, "Yeah, yeah… That's right. I meant brother and sister love too, Nick. What did you think I meant?"

"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all…" he trailed off.

Judy gave him a very inquisitive look, "Seriously, Nick. What did you think I meant?"

He shrugged, "I dunno, Carrots. I never understand rabbit logic."

She held her balled fists straight along the sides of her body and fumed, with her ears reflexively pinned behind her head. But she didn't say anything else.

"That was a lot more than nothing," was all she could think, and silently, so did Nick.

Nick quickly changed the subject, and welcomed her in with an open gesture, "Well… now that that's settled. Let's get you settled in, roommate. If we don't go to bed soon, there won't be any time left to sleep when the sun comes up."

Judy complimented her friend, "As usual, you are the smart guy in this team."

They chuckled.

Leaving her at the empty bedroom door, "Well good night, Carrots. We'll talk about rent sharing and chores in the morning."

"Thanks partner. You're a sweetheart and a friend," she smiled and kissed his cheek.

"You too, partner… and friend," he confirmed.

Judy continued to rationalize for them, "Of course. Just partners who are friends too. That's hard to beat for a successful police team."

Each animal closed their bedroom doors, but both noticed each look back with lingering glances that they tried to pretend weren't exchanged. Judy donned her pajamas and stretched out in the big bed as far as she could, and wiggled her big feet and toes.

"Wonderful… I'm home," she sighed happily.

Judy and Nick were pleased with this decision, and no longer worried about the well-being of the other. They hoped that they would be compatible as roommates, and vowed to make it happen. But that was about it. They were dog tired and quickly fell asleep with pleasant dreams of the other.