They had just reached the truck in the ZPD headquarters parking lot when Nick noticed an overweight cheetah walking rapidly towards them pulling a hand truck. "Wait, Judy, " he called out before stopping halfway to them and bending over while raising a single digit of his paw in the air has he tried to catch his breath.

"Judy, on second thought, I may not be ZPD material." As he stared at the cheetah, "I don't think I have the physique required to be a cop."

"Shush you. Ben might hear you," as Judy smiled at the cheetah. "Clawhouser is one of the dispatchers. He drives a desk, not a cruiser. Besides, he's one of the nicest cops I know. He was willing to talk to and help me out when I first joined the force, unlike most of the other officers."

"I see, " Nick replied as he looked at the cheetah, "wait here a minute."

Nick walked over to the cheetah and took the hand truck from him. "Here, let me help you with that big guy. Where are you taking this?"

Clawhouser looked in surprise at the fox, "Oh, thanks, I was bringing those boxes to Judy." Nick glanced at the hand truck it contained several stacked cardboard boxes. Each box had 'Judy Hopps' written on it in magic marker. On top of the cardboard boxes was a metal lock box with a piece of tape also with her name handwritten on it."

"I'm Judy's friend Nick. I'm helping her out until she has a chance to recover," as he reached out and shook the cheetah's paw.

"Ben Clawhauser pleased to meet you, Nick," the cheetah wheezed.

After Clawhauser had regained his breath, Nick walked with him to where Judy was waiting. When Ben reached Judy, he immediately wrapped her in a big hug, "Oh, Judy I missed you so much."

"Hey easy there big guy, remember she is still injured," Nick admonished.

Clawhauser's eyes went wide as he quickly let her go, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking."

Judy smiled at the cheetah, "It's okay, Ben, no harm done."

Nick coughed, looking at her, "She is doing okay, considering her condition."

"Her condition?"

"If you know Judy, then you know how much she downplays things concerning herself. Her injuries are severe enough that she will be out for at least three weeks recovering. The only reason she was here today was to attend an important meeting regarding the savage attacks. Now that the meeting is over, it's straight back to her place and lots of bed rest. Isn't that right, Judy?"

She sighed, remembering the meeting. She didn't like it, but she had agreed to go along with the plan, "Yes, that's correct," as she answered in a quiet voice.

"Well Judy, Chef Bogo asked me to bring you these boxes from storage I think they are your custom ZPD uniforms and equipment. He also gave me the lock box for you. I suspect it's your gun. So does this mean you're coming back to the force?"

Nick couldn't help but smile. The cheetah was bouncing in anticipation of Judy's answer. Nick cleared his throat, making a circling motion with his hand out of Clawhouser's view as he looked into Judy's eyes.

Judy hated this. She hated lying in general, and she hated lying to a friend. She gritted her teeth, then forced a smile on her face, "Well, since it will be reported at this evening's press conference, I never left the ZPD, Ben. I was undercover working to determine the source of the savage attacks."

"Oh.. my.. god.. that is so awesome. Wait till I tell the others."

"Nick interrupted. You should probably wait until after the press conference. You wouldn't want Chief Bogo or the Mayor getting upset by this getting out too early. Besides, how badly Judy is injured should probably remain private don't you think?"

Clawhouser's face took on a somber tone, "Of course, of course, I won't tell anyone."

As Judy got into the passenger side of the truck, Nick quickly unloaded the hand truck placing the boxes in the truck's bed except for the lock box.

Nick turned back to the cheetah and shook his hand, "It was a pleasure meeting you Ben, but I need to get Judy home and tucked into bed. Remember what I said about not telling the others about her condition."

"Absolutely, not a word."

Nick smiled as the cheetah took the empty hand truck and started walking back towards the building. As Nick slid into the truck, he handed Judy the lock box. Judy grinned at him, "You sly fox, how long do you think it will take before everyone in the building knows about the undercover story and my supposed injuries?"

Nick glanced at the cheetah who had stopped halfway back to the building and was furiously typing on his phone.

Nick grinned, "I give it at most another 30 seconds. Then probably less than another 30 minutes before it's leaked to all of the news services, which in this case, will be a good thing. The news services have always trusted leaked information over what's released through the official channels." He chuckled, "When the Mayor gets to the press conference, they will be demanding confirmation of it before she even gets a chance to read her statement. Once she confirms it, they won't even bother to investigate if it's true."

He glanced over at Judy, who was already opening the lock box. She looked like a kit in a candy store, "So is it in there?"

She quickly pulled out a small wooden box, opening it and grinned at its contents.

Nick smiled and wrapped his arms around her, "You know I've never seen a bunny spontaneously explode before, but I suspect it looks something like this right before it happens."

She snuggled herself back against him as she pulled the badge from the wooden box before returning it to the lock box. Her other paw reached out and gently touched the tranq gun before closing and locking the box.

She reached back and pulled Nick's head down beside hers and kissed him on the side of his muzzle. "Thank you, Nick. Being a police officer was my dream since I was a kit. When I walked away, I didn't think I would ever see this again," as she clutched the badge tightly in her paw.

"You don't need to thank me Carrots. You did most of the work. I was just along for the ride."

"Nick, you are such a terrible liar."

"That's not true. I'm an incredible liar," as he rested his muzzle on her shoulder.

They sat in silence for a while. Nick was content just to hold Judy while allowing her to revel in the moment, as she stared down at the badge in her paws. After a few minutes, she reached up and gently stroked his muzzle. Nick leaned into her paw enjoying the feel of her touch. Judy sighed, "Well, I guess we will have to delay that dinner a bit. We are going to have to take these back to the apartment. We can't just leave them in the truck."

"Sure, it's a little early for dinner anyways."

When they got back to the apartment building, Nick made several trips carrying the boxes up to the apartment while Judy waited in the truck. When he finished, he asked, "Carrots when are you planning on taking the truck back?"

"I don't know, maybe in a week. Probably not until after I get the stitches out why?"

"What do you want to do with the produce then? It won't last that long."

Judy got out and looked at the several baskets and bags of vegetables in the back that had never made it to her parents' stand, including the case of blueberries Nick had been snacking on the other day.

"I don't know, we can use some of it ourselves, but we're not going to eat all that in a week."

"Well, sort out what you want, and I will take it upstairs." It only took a few minutes for her to sort out a basket. He shook his head. The basket contained more vegetables than he would eat in 2 months, and she planned on it only lasting a week?

"So what are we going to do with the rest?" asked Judy.

"I will put it in the entryway with a sign. Trust me free food never goes to waste in this neighborhood." Nick looked at Judy, noticing she was leaning heavily against the truck and was not her usual energetic self. "You're still tired, aren't you?"

"A little, " as she yawned, "but we can still go out to dinner if you want."

"No, we can put that off for another time. Come on, let's go up to the apartment and get you into bed. You can take a nap, and I will go get some groceries and make us dinner."

"Okay."

When she didn't even attempt to argue about it, he knew she was far more than a little tired. He walked over and picked her up and started carrying her back to the apartment. She didn't protest once. When they reached the apartment, he noticed she was already asleep in his arms. He placed her on the bed and pulled her cell phone and badge from her pockets and placed them on the nightstand.

He thought for a second, then picked up her phone. He sighed when he noticed she didn't have any security settings turned on. Come on Judy you're a cop. You should know better than that. He would have to mention it to her later, but in the meantime, he went to her contacts and entered his name and phone number. As he finished, he saw her stirring, "Nick?"

"Go back to sleep. I just entered my number into your phone. Call me if you need anything. I will be back shortly." He bent down and kissed her on her forehead. He saw her smile before closing her eyes. He quietly left the bedroom, closing the door behind him.

It was around an hour later when he returned. He saw the door to the bedroom was still closed so he tried to be as quiet as possible as he went about making dinner. While he had no illusions about being a great cook, he had learned enough from Finnick that he was at least competent.

While he had cooked this meal many times in the past, he was a little unsure of how to prepare Judy's portion. He looked in the basket of vegetables and pulled out what he needed. Next, he pulled out his phone and typed in a search and watched a quick video before getting to work.

Judy's nose twitched. She stretched as she woke up breathing in deeply. Something smelled good. She sniffed again, no something smelled really good, as her stomach growled at her. She got out of the bed being careful of her leg and limped out to the bathroom.

Before leaving the bathroom, she looked in the mirror and frowned. She took several minutes straightening out her fur. She sighed, looking at her shirt in the mirror, it was a wrinkled mess. She exited the bathroom and went back into the bedroom and changed her shirt. She noticed her badge and cell phone on the end table and picked up her phone vaguely remembering Nick saying something about putting his number into her phone. She checked and saw the new entry. She and smiled as she moved it to the top of her favorites list.

As she exited the bedroom, she noticed for the first time the apartment was only dimly lit. The blinds had been drawn, so there wasn't much light coming in from outside. Nick was sitting on the couch with his eyes glued to his phone's screen. She gasped as the flicker from the dining area drew her attention. The table was set up with a white tablecloth. Plates and silverware were already laid out, and wine glasses were already filled sitting in front of each plate. Multiple candles lit the table, and a vase held fresh flowers.

Noticing her, Nick got up and walked over and wrapping his arms around her, "So, I hope you are hungry."

"Nick, you didn't need to do this."

"My girlfriend gets her dream job back, and you think I'm not going to do something special for her? Just what kind of boyfriend do you think I am?" as he kissed the top of her head.

She smiled up at him as she tried not to cry, "So what's for dinner?"

"We will be starting with salads directly from the Hopp's family farm. Then I will be having chicken parmesan, while you will be having my first attempt at making eggplant parmesan. That will be served with a side of fresh green beans. I also picked up some freshly baked bread from a local bakery and for dessert an apple pie from the same bakery and of course an excellent Merlot wine."

Judy couldn't help it as several tears dropped down her cheeks.

"Come on Carrots, none of that," has he wiped away her tears. "You will get the bread soggy, and nobody wants soggy bread for dinner."

They had just finished dessert, and Judy was reminiscing about her days at the Academy when her phone rang. She glanced at it seeing it was her parents. She was having such a good time with Nick, that for the first time, she considered just ignoring their call. Her finger hovered over the 'ignore' icon for several seconds before finally moving over and pressing the 'accept' icon.

She immediately regretted that decision, as her parent's frantic voices spilled out from the phone stumbling over each other. "Judy what happened? What hospital are you at? We are packing now. We will be there in a couple of hours. Didn't we say going to Zootopia was a mistake?"

Judy's jaw dropped, not sure what was going on as her parent continued to demand answers and make comments on why they should have never let her leave BunnyBurrow.

Nick looked at Judy and reached across the table, taking her free paw in his and squeezing it. With his other paw, he turned her phone, so it was facing him them, then barked out harshly, "Quiet." He saw the look of shock on her parent's faces, then in his normal voice said, "Judy is fine. Now everyone, take a deep cleansing breath and let it out slowly. Now, one mammal at a time." As he turned the phone back to Judy seeing that she had an expression somewhere between shock and horror on her face at what he had just done.

Judy quickly recovered and looked at her parent's worried faces. At least they weren't shouting into the phone anymore. "Mom, slowly what's wrong?"

"What do you mean what's wrong? The news is reporting that you were seriously injured working on some case for the ZPD."

Judy winced, remembering the cover story and feeling terrible for not having informed her parents, she had been so tired when they had gotten home she had completely forgotten about it. "Mom, I'm fine. I just got a small cut on my leg yesterday morning that required some stitches. I have had far worse injuries working on the farm."

"Wait, you got hurt yesterday morning, and you didn't tell us when we talked to you last night?"

Judy groaned, pulling one of her ears down over her eyes, "I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry and overreact."

"Well, that worked out well didn't it?" Her mom huffed, "You scared your father and me half to death. Well, we are coming to get you."

"Mom, there's no need, I'm perfectly safe. I'm staying off my leg, so it should be better in no time."

"Nick, tell my mother that I'm okay." Judy saw the twinkle in Nick's eye and quickly hit the mute icon and pulled the phone to her body blocking the camera. "So help me God, Nick, if you tell them anything other than I'm okay you are going to be sleeping alone on the couch for the rest of your life."

Nick continued to hold her paw while defensively waving the other one while acting completely innocent, "I didn't say anything."

"No, but I know that look, and you were about to. So try and control yourself and reassure my parents."

"Fine. Don't antagonize your parents. Got it," as he grinned at her.

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him before turning off the mute control and turning the phone to face him.

Bonnie noticed the audio and video went dead for several seconds and then the camera was facing Nick. Her eyes widened as she looked at the fox not quite believing it was the same one from the previous night. Last night he had been wearing a torn, battered odd shirt and tie and all of his fur had been in disarray. At the time, she had wondered if he had been in a fight or an accident. Now he was neatly dressed, his fur shown and was perfectly combed, and his piercing green eyes practically glowed in the flickering candle light. Wait candle light? She moved her face closer to the screen, studying the image noting the tablecloth, candles, flowers, and half-filled wine glass in front of the fox. At the bottom of the image, she could just make out that the foxes arm was stretched across the table and his paw was holding a familiar gray and white paw in it. Bonnie sighed, thinking, oh Judy why do you always have to choose the most difficult path for everything.

".. so really, it's nothing bad, and she will be back to her usual spry self in no time." Bonnie blushed, realizing she had been so busy examining the image on the phone that she had missed most of what Nick had said.

The camera turned back to Judy. "See Mom, it's like I said, I'm okay."

"So, where are you?"

Bonnie watched as Judy's face broke into a smile, "We are at Nick's place. We were just celebrating. Mom it so great, I just got my job back with the ZPD and Nick has been accepted into the ZPD Academy. I'm hoping that since we will be the only two small mammals on the force, that we will be partners when he graduates.

"Judy a candle lit dinner? So just when were you planning on telling us that you two are a couple?" She watched as her daughter's ear dropped down over her shoulders as she avoided looking at the screen, "Um, maybe next week when we brought the truck back."

"Maybe? Judy, you don't think your parents would want to know about these things?"

"I kind of wanted you two to meet him before I told you."

Bonnie sighed, "Okay Judy, we will meet him next week. In the meantime, take it easy and get better. Let us know if you need anything. Even if we're not available, we can always send one of your brothers to get you."

"Thanks, Mom. Don't worry. Nick is looking after me. We will see you next week. Bye Mom, bye Dad, I love you both".

Nick looked at Judy as she ended the call, "So, I suppose I don't have any say on this trip to meet your family?"

"Don't be ridiculous Nick. You get a say in it. Of course, you're going regardless, but don't let that stop you from speaking your mind," as she smirked at him from across the table.

Nick and Judy were sitting on the couch, Nick with his arm around her as she leaned against him as the romantic comedy they had rented ended. Nick stretched and looked at the time. It was getting late. He leaned over and kissed Judy's neck, "So what did you think of our first date? Any chance a particular bunny will return my call if I ask for a second date?"

"I don't know. I'll consider it. But you are kind of a shifty, low life scoundrel and a bunny has to have some standards."

"That's odd," as he slowly planted kisses along her neck on his way to her mouth. "I was pretty sure that it was because I'm a shifty, low life scoundrel that I got the first date," as he kissed her deeply on the mouth.

They kissed for several minutes before Judy finally broke off the kiss. She smiled at him, "So, in answer to your original question. Tonight was the best date I've ever had," as she hugged him.

Nick grinned at her, "Me too. I especially liked the expressions on you and your parents faces when I yelled at them."

Judy laughed, "Of course you did." She got up off the couch and held her paw out to him, "Come on Nick, let's get ready for bed."

They took turns using the bathroom. Judy was just exiting it when she saw Nick remove a pillow and one of the blankets from the bed and start walking towards the living room.

"Nick, what are you doing?"

"What does is look like I'm doing? I'm going to sleep on the couch."

"Nick, stop being a dumb fox. You are not sleeping out there. There is plenty of room in the bed for both of us," as she climbed into the bed. "I slept better last night than I have since I left for the Academy. So get in here, I want to sleep next to my fox."

"Next to?" Nick chuckled, "Judy, last night you ended up using me as a mattress."

Judy grinned, "Well, I have to admit you were a little lumpy but I got used to it."

Nick came back replacing the pillow and blanket. He turned off the light and slid under the sheets. Judy immediately moved over to him, pulling him into a deep kiss. She broke it off after a minute, "So, Nick two questions: Just how tired are you? And more importantly, do you have any protection?"

Nick sighed, "Judy, aren't you rushing things a bit?"

Judy chuckled, "Nick you're the only male I know who would try to talk his way out of getting lucky on a first date."

"Judy, I like you. I just don't want to mess things up with you."

"Nick, I have been waiting a long time for the right male and the right time to do this and tonight is that night, now stop trying to spoil it."

"Oh great, not like there isn't any pressure after dropping that on me. Judy, there are significant physical differences between foxes and rabbits we don't even know if we can…," he was cut off as Judy kissed him again as her paw started moving slowly down his body.

She broke the kiss off after several seconds, "So yes or no, do you have protection?"

"Yes," Nick gasped as her paw slipped beneath his boxers.

"Good, because we are going to spend all night thoroughly investigating those differences," as she pulled him into another passionate kiss.

It was early morning, and Cheif Bogo was sitting in front of the Mayor's desk. She was frowning, and the sound of her claws tapping on the desk echoed through the large office, "So what's missing?"

"Two sets of the uniforms, utility belts, and tranq pistols."

"How?"

"I don't know. The evidence was checked into the evidence room, but now it's missing. Surveillance footage shows nothing. No alarms were set off, and there is no indication of any unauthorized access."

"What about the other evidence?"

"It's safe for now. Luckily, Officer Wolford, who is running the case, had all of it locked up in his desk. The only reason the missing items were in the evidence room was that he didn't need them at the time and it's standard practice to place items not being actively investigated there."

"So what you're telling me is it's like Mr. Wilde speculated and that ZPD headquarters may be entirely compromised."

"I wouldn't go that far. But somehow our internal security has been breached. Most likely by one or more mammals working for Bellwether."

"So what do we do? Have only predators guard the evidence and make sure they are in charge of the investigation?"

"It's not that simple. It's always possible predators could be involved. Any mammal can be bribed or blackmailed, at this point, it could be anyone. The only thing I can think of is to lock down the prescient and pull in an outside security company to determine what's wrong with the system and fix it."

"If we do that, what are our chances of finding those responsible?"

"Slim, as soon as we institute a lockdown or pull in a security company, those responsible will know about it, and they will just continue to hide in plain sight. If they don't try anything again, we will probably never find them. But if we don't do something now we risk losing the remaining evidence or having it compromised."

"Even if we do as you suggest, how do we know that whoever's responsible won't do anything drastic to destroy the evidence such as starting a fire or planting a bomb?"

Bogo sighed, "We don't, all we can do is try to secure the building and evidence as best as we can."

"This is unacceptable Chief. While we may have two eye witnesses, that is never going to be enough at the trial of a public figure like Bellwether. We have to have that original recording, case, and pellet gun with her hoof prints on them at the trial. We need all of the evidence that has been collected no matter how trivial it may seem."

"There is no way I'm going to risk having that psycho Bellwether get off due to the lack of evidence. What's worse, if we lose that evidence, then the prosecutors will have no choice but to drop the case. Then that psycho will be right back in this office plotting to tear the city apart again."

The Mayor continued tapping her claws on the desk mulling over the problem. Bogo did not like the smile that suddenly came to her muzzle. "Well, there is always the second option."

"And what would that be?" Bogo asked, dreading the answer.

"I know of two mammals that we know for sure are not compromised. I also know that one of them has an extensive knowledge of security systems. The best part is that both are already on the city's payroll."

"You know they won't do it. I'm certain Mr. Wilde won't allow Judy to work while she's injured and he will probably just resign, it's not like he was hired to do a real job."

"Oh, I think Officer Hopps can probably convince him to help."

"It won't work. We will be throwing the agreement we made with Wilde and Hopps, less than 24 hours ago, out the window. There's no way his identity won't be revealed if he does this."

"Chief, the requirement that the Academy didn't know of his involvement was yours not mine. This is more important. So we are going to write a binding contract that will allow Mr. Wilde to attend the Academy even if his identity is exposed."

"But, Ma'am."

"You feel that strongly, that it will comprise his training?"

"I do."

The Mayor smiled ruthlessly at Bogo, "Fine if you are that concerned about it, and his identity is exposed, then it will be up to you to determine a way for him to receive the proper training. If you can't, then I guess I will have no choice but to temporarily assign you to the Academy for the duration of his training. That way you can personally train Mr. Wilde to meet your lofty standards no matter how long that may take."

The Mayor studied Bogo's stunned expression, "I take it from that look that we are in complete agreement? Good, I'm glad you see it my way.

The Mayor sighed after several seconds regretting making the threat. "Relax, Chief, he's not compromised yet, and unlike you, I'm not convinced that his identity will be exposed doing this. From my discussion with him, I have a pretty good idea of just how resourceful Mr. Wilde can be. There's a good chance he will come up with something so that his identity isn't compromised. In fact, he will probably take it as a personal challenge."

The Mayor had lifted several papers from her desk, changing the subject, "So I was reading Officer Hopp's reports of the two cases and in truth those two mammals kind of scare me. If they had only solved the missing mammal's case, I might have considered it a fluke. But there is no disputing that in less than four hours after returning to the city, those two tracked down the source of the savage attacks, destroyed Bellwether's lab, and then got a recorded confession out of her. That is something the entire ZPD had failed to do, while concentrating all of its resources on it, for weeks."

"I also have a report here from one of my investigators who overheard them talking about the possibility of opening a private investigation service. God only knows what kind of damage those two could cause if not pointed in the right direction. There is no way I'm going to risk them quitting and going off on their own."

"Let me make it clear Chief. The city needs those two. So I will be placing orders into Mr. Wilde's folder the first day he attends the Academy, assigning him to Precinct One to be officer Hopp's partner upon his graduation. That way, even if I lose the upcoming election, that will happen unless the new mayor countermands it."

"But ma'am, even if he graduates, he should not be assigned to work with Officer Hopp's. There's a possibility they are in a personal relationship. The fraternization regulations clearly state that..."

The Mayor interrupted him, "Chief, do you think I'm blind? If those two aren't in a relationship now, then it's only a matter of time. Let me be blunt, I don't care if you catch them screwing in the middle of the ZPD breakroom while the whole precinct is in attendance. They are currently the most effective team, we have, and Mr. Wilde isn't even an officer yet. We can and will overlook their personal relationship unless it directly affects their performance. From what I have witnessed so far, their personal relationship may be why they make such a great team. Your job is simply to keep those two focused and on target.

"So Chief, as soon as we finish putting together this document I expect you to personally go ask for their aid because God help the city if we lose that remaining evidence."