"There. All locked up safe and sound," Nick declared, as he looped the chain Judy had purchased earlier that day through the pair of handles of one of her kitchen cabinets and locked a heavy padlock (also bought that day) through its links. "And the only one who could possibly have a key is?"

"Me," Judy finished with a sigh.

It turned out that the "solution" Nick came up with was almost as bad as his rules. The large suitcase he had dragged into her apartment had been filled with supposedly every bottle of alcohol that he currently owned. She might have been impressed with the collection's wide variety, had the circumstances been different, but then he explained that from then on he would be going through her whenever he wanted a drink, essentially making her his personal bartender.

Judy didn't need to be told how much control this gave her over the situation. He had to come to her apartment to get drunk, so she could make sure he was at least physically safe. She would be mixing his drinks, so she could water them down as much as she liked. Finally, and most importantly, she had the only key, so she could cut him off whenever she wanted, even deny him alcohol outright. However, the proposal still gave her an uneasy feeling in her stomach that she couldn't explain.

Maybe it's just nerves.

"And that is all of your alcohol?" she asked with a just a hint of incredulity.

"And all of yours too, Carrots." he replied quickly.

"What?"

"What, what? You had a bottle of chardonnay on the counter here. I put it in there too. I mean, if you just leave out your alcohol, that's a pretty big loophole."

"Oh, right."

Maybe that's why I'm feeling uneasy. I hadn't considered any loopholes. Oh! That reminds me…

With a couple short hops, she went to her refrigerator, opened it and pulled out a bottle. She returned to the locked cupboard and quickly placed the bottle on the floor to retrieve the key from her pocket. Much to her embarrassment, however, Nick snatched up the bottle before she could hide it away and read the label aloud, " 'Grass flavored vodka'. Really, Carrots?"

"I was curious!" Judy said defensively.

"Okay, sure," he said, returning the bottle.

"Whatever," she said in annoyance as she placed it with the others. "But you are sure this is all the alcohol you have? You didn't keep any did you?"

"Feel free to search my apartment if you want to be sure," he said nonchalantly before getting excited. "Oh! Hey! We can even make a 'thing' out of it. You could come over, I'll cook you dinner as you turn my apartment upside down and after I'm tuckered out from cooking and you're tuckered out from invading my privacy, we'll settle down on the couch and watch some cheesy movie or something."

"Hmmmm? Careful, Officer Wilde. That almost sounds like a romantic evening," Judy retorted with a sultry tone before she realized what she was saying.

Whoa, where did that come from?

Hoping Nick hadn't heard the flirtation in her voice, she quickly coughed and corrected herself, "But yes. I do think I'll visit your place, just to be sure you're not hiding any liquor there."

As another thought occurred to her, she broke out into a smirk that could rival even Nick's smuggest grin and he clearly didn't care for it.

"Is it my turn to say 'what'?" he asked.

"I'll also be wanting your I.D.," she said, holding out her open paw.

She thought she had him outsmarted but surprisingly Nick just chuckled softly as he reached into his back pocket.

"You're getting a little too good at outwitting me, you know? Scary good, even," he said pulling a card from his wallet and handing it over. "Just so you know, I was going to give it to you anyway."

"Sure you were," Judy replied, heavily emphasizing her sarcasm as she looked down at the card. "Uh, Nick? I was actually thinking of your driver's license. I mean I'll obviously keep this too but-"

"I don't actually have one."

Judy raised an eyebrow incredulously.

"Do you honestly think I would have let Finnick drive us around for our scams if I had a license? He can barely see over the dashboard, Carrots."

"Well, you let me drive."

"Yeah, and I say a short prayer every time an animal crosses the road in front of us."

"As much as that sounds like you, I'm still having trouble believing you," Judy said, narrowing her eyes.

"Ask Bogo, he knows. Even told me I'm not allowed to drive the patrol car unless you're incapacitated. Or ask Clawhauser. Or Tammy. You know, the sugar glider down in records?"

"Okay, okay. I believe you, Nick. Or at least, I'll believe you until Clawhauser says otherwise when I ask him."

"It warms my heart to know we have such a trusting relationship."

Judy laughed genuinely at that and Nick soon joined her. She had to admit, it was a nice feeling, having this level of comfort back between her and Nick. She had allowed it to slowly disappear because the hopelessness in her heart from not being able to help Nick had turned into resentment of him and she supposed Nick had probably allowed it as well since it let him drink in peace.

I hope he's had a change of heart about that.

"I've missed this," she said contentedly.

"I have too, Carrots... I hope I don't make the mistake of letting this go again."

"You could just quit completely."

Nick sighed in frustration.

"I... I didn't want to tell you this, because I hate admitting it, but the thing is I've tried to, I have. Right after this all started, in fact. I set a goal to go without it for two whole weeks. I mean it's not 'cold turkey', but I thought if I could do that much, then cutting back to 'casual drinking' would be a piece of cake. Don't ask me why I failed, because I don't know, but I only made it a couple days before I found myself back at the bar, having gone through who knows how many Velvet Kilts and still going. I was so ashamed of myself, I nearly called you, to beg you to just forget everything and throw me in rehab, but I didn't."

"If you're worried about that Bogo might fire you-"

"I know he wouldn't."

"Then why?"

"When I got here, you told me that you know me, so you know how clever I am. Well, I know me too, Carrots. And I know that I'm a liar."

"Nick, I thought we were past this. You're more than just-"

"That doesn't mean I'm not a sly fox. Don't get me wrong, Carrots. This has nothing to do with being a fox and everything to do with having twenty years experience as a con artist. That is what makes me a liar, probably an even better one than you realize."

Judy had no answer for that. He had successfully tricked her, after all, and that scam had (technically) only required Nick to lie once. She had to assume that his previous cons required significantly more lying.

"After a couple weeks in rehab I would lie to get out. Not just for the alcohol, either. I would be willing to say just about anything to get out and be your partner again, but it would still be a lie. And you would believe it. And in a day or two I would be at the bar again. Then you would probably give up on me for real, not for the drinking, but for the lying-"

Okay, yes. I probably would at that point.

"-I wouldn't even blame you either! But the thought of that is even scarier to me than dying of liver failure," Nick let out another sad sigh. "So I'm not going to lie by telling you that rehab will work and I'm not going to lie by saying I'll go cold turkey. All I can honestly say is... that I don't think you're going to be able to fix me. The best you can probably hope for is to control me."

'Fix' you? 'Control' you? Oh, Nick. Is that how you see this?

"That's awful."

"I'm probably making it sound worse than it actually is," Nick said with a smile, leaning back against the counter. "Truth is, even if I could control myself, you would still be my first choice for the job."

She couldn't help but smile at that.

Searching for something to latch onto to keep the conversation going Judy asked, "Velvet Kilt?"

Author's Note:

Chapter Four is done! Yay. Sorry it's been so long since I've updated, I had some trouble reconciling Judy's character with being willing to go along with this plan once it was explained to her. Not an easy task. But we're here now and I think this chapter came out pretty good. Feel free to let me know of any errors and leave critique in the reviews. Again, I'm no pushover, so don't hold back!