When Nick's Zuber pulled up to the curb, Judy was already waiting. The early evening light brushed up against the grungy maintenance station behind her, tucked into a remote corner of Savannah Central among old warehouses.

"Nick! Let's go!" He'd barely swung the door shut when she grabbed him by the arm and dashed into the dimly lit building, making a beeline for a hulking freight elevator and thumbing the call button.

Nick half-smiled, barely visible through the low light. "Clever bunny," he admitted. "Why fight through the crowds at Central Station when we can just sneak in through maintenance?"

Even in the dark, Nick's sensitive eyes could clearly make out the look of pride on Judy's face. "A good detective knows all the shortcuts." As they waited for the elevator, her foot starting tapping loudly against the floor.

"You know, a good detective also knows how to play it cool," Nick advised as the doors dinged open.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Judy muttered as she walked in.

The doors squeezed shut, and Nick felt his stomach shift as the elevator plunged downwards. "No, I'm serious." He crossed his arms. "I'm going to go out on a really fragile limb here and say you haven't spent much time in the Nocturnal District? I mean, in the parts of the Nocturnal District we're probably heading to?"

Judy held up a finger, then retracted it. "No," she replied quietly.

"Then I've got some advice." His tail swished behind him. "If you're a ball of nerves down there, every criminal in the district'll have sniffed you out by the time we walk out of the elevator." He grinned. "You gotta act like you belong, Carrots. Just think… what would Nick do?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, gods. What am I getting myself into?"

His grin widened. "Hey, you want to catch Bellwether, right? For once… we're doing it my way. And that means just us two." Judy started to protest, but Nick intercepted her. "We can order backup when we need it, but the last thing we need is a full blown police force storming through. Also," he gazed at her critically. "You've gotta look like you belong." Nick was in dark pants and a simple white collared shirt, which for him, was the equivalent of a tuxedo. She, however, was still in uniform. So clever, and yet… he thought to himself.

He crouched down next to her and unpinned her badge. "Not gonna need this," he said, handing it to her. He reached around her, his paws meeting high on her back.

"Hey, what are you—"

His paws fumbled briefly, then unclasped her dark protective vest. "Not gonna need this," he continued, tossing it into the corner of the elevator. His reached for her thigh holster, but she swatted his paw.

"Nick, I can get it, thank you." She pursed her lips tightly and bent over to unfasten her holster, making a heroic effort to fight the flush creeping into her fur. Nick retracted his hand awkwardly, and suddenly the freight elevator felt like entirely too small a space. Nick looked away and was grateful, not for the first time, that the shade of his fur rendered blushing nearly imperceptible.

She finished and dropped the holster, tranq-gun, and badge onto the growing pile in the corner. A few moments later, her utility belt and knee pads joined them. Without the accessories, she was left with a slim, cornflower blue top over her darker pants, the collar arching upward along the curvature of her neck. It looked, Nick thought, surprisingly elegant.

She looked down at herself doubtfully. "I look like an idiot."

"No, you don't," he said. "You look… nice."

It was quiet for a moment.

"Hey, so," Nick started.

Judy peered up at him, her eyes a pair of violet oceans. All the air was sucked out of the room.

He faltered. "Ah… so about my lead?"

Judy paused, then nodded. The unseen electric current that had run through the air flowed away, as if a breaker had been switched somewhere. Nick wondered if had she felt it too.

Get it together, Wilde, he berated himself. Not the time.

"Bellwether definitely went to the old serum cache, but she wasn't alone," he explained. "There was another set of tracks that went with. A pair of tracks that led right to hole straight into the earth." He put a finger to his mouth and pretended to think. "Now where have we seen something like that?"

Judy's whiskers twitched. "You… think it was Dom?"

Nick nodded, reaching into his pocket. His paw emerged with a tie that he snaked around his collar. "I double checked with HQ on the way. Nobody really picked up on it in the fray, but he made it out of The Pound too. Looks like he dug the both of them out." He frowned at the loose knot around his neck and started over.

A realization hit Judy. "Nick, do you think… do you think we were supposed to find Dom?" Her fur crawled. "Is… is this our fault?"

Nick shook his head vehemently. "No way we can know now, definitely no way we could've known then." He flicked one of her ears. "Head in the game, Carrots. We've got a job to do."

The elevator slowed its descent before coming to a stop. The doors slid open into another gloomy, abandoned maintenance facility. Nick could see just fine, but Judy pulled up the flashlight app, a beam of light from her phone carving a path towards the exit. The back door opened into foul-smelling alleyway between brick buildings. Multicolored light drifted in from an opening into the street at the end. "C'mon," Nick said, striding out of the alleyway into the Nocturnal District. "I've got a good idea of where to start."

The Nocturnal District was, for diurnal mammals, an acquired taste better suited to the occasional jaunt than long-term residency. When Zootopia was in its infancy, bursting outwards in every direction, a few shrewd engineers (who happened to be shrews) wondered why downwards shouldn't be included in the expansion. An expedition was organized to see whether or not it would structurally feasible to build underground.

To the burrowers' amazement, deep underneath the metropolis, yawning caverns already stretched for miles. The largest of these would become the heart of the Nocturnal District, although matrices of dusty tunnels and grottos laced outwards in every direction, and even at present day the zoning board admitted the true sprawl of the Nocturnal District was unknown.

There was no huge sun-lamp or equivalent built into the stalactite-dripped ceiling. Instead, much of the district was coated in murky light oozing from the muted neon signs in the streets. While Savannah Central was bright and modern, the Nocturnal District was dusky and old-fashioned, its brick buildings and cast-iron streetlights seemingly lifted from an old zoo-noir film or a Jack Savage detective flick. The residents and culture of the district embraced that anachronistic persona, socializing in smoky lounges and dressing in ties and pearls at the slightest provocation.

There was little surprise, then, that organized crime had a presence in the Nocturnal District. For them, it was like stepping back into a classic gangster movie.

Nick pushed open the door to the Prancing Pony pub, holding it open for Judy behind him. Inside, well-dressed mammals of all shapes and sizes were seated around various booths, their individual conversations drowned out by the din in the confined space. Just the way they like it, Nick thought. "Stick with me, Carrots. I've got everything under control," he said out of the corner of the mouth. Judy nodded, her wide eyes taking in the scene. Nick suppressed a smile. Not exactly the kind of place country bumpkins come after work.

He approached the bar. Judy sidled up next to him, barely able to see over counter. "Vinny, buddy, how've you been?" The bartender, a black bear in a sharp suit, continued washing a glass without looking up. Nick's face fell slightly. "…How's the family? Little Joey still playing little league?" The bear glowered at him, eyes narrowed to slits. He lumbered over to Nick, leaning on the bar.

Even slouched over, he still towered over Nick. "What?" he said.

Nick put on a hurt expression. "…Was it something I said?"

Vinny's fingers drummed on the countertop, his claws making a ticking sound on the ornate wood. "Word makes its way down. You're playin' for the other team now." He growled deep in his throat. "A couple words from me, you leave this place in pieces. You and your stuffed animal down there." Judy shrank below the counter, her ears tucked behind her head. She kicked Nick in the shin.

Oh. Right. The whole 'cop' thing.

"C'mon, Vinny, buddy," he schmoozed, voice brimming with confidence he wished he felt, "I think we both know you're not going to do that." He gave a cheesy grin.

Vinny's growl dropped into his chest, doubling in volume.

Nick's grin disappeared like a rabbit down a hole and he winced, partially because Judy actually bit him on the leg this time. He glanced down and saw her stare shooting daggers. She mouthed something, but he couldn't tell if it was 'please tell me this is a terrible joke' or 'you're going to get us killed you stupid fox' or 'i don't want to die on the set of some Al Pawchino movie.' Maybe it was all three.

Nick racked his brain, feeling the blood pumping in his head. "Okay, look, I'm sorry. My bad on the whole cop thing. Really. It wasn't personal." He took a breath. "But… it's about finding Bellwether. It has to do with the whole predator thing.

Vinny's grimace shrank. Nick sensed an opening.

"One pred to another," he implored, "You know what she's capable of. I just want to find her. And to do that, I need," he reached into a pocket and slid a picture of Dom across the countertop, "to know if anybody's seen this naked mole rat. They're connected. He busted her out."

Vinny looked the picture, then back at him. Without breaking eye contact, he peeled the photo off the moist countertop, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into a trashcan. Nick's heart sank.

"…Yeah, he's been through," Vinny muttered. Nick's heart soared. Judy was still ducked below the counter, but one of her ears slowly flapped back up, rising into view. "Earlier today. By himself though. No Bellwether." Vinny held up a finger, and moved across the bar to fix a patron with a drink. With deft paws, he mixed bourbon, bitters, a spit of water, and a sugar cube into a lowball and slid it towards the panther, who purred in response.

"Didn't hear much. But he did say something… strange." The bear lowered his voice. "When I fixed his drink, I splashed a little water in, cut the Scotch, like normal." He tilted his head. "And the little guy laughs and tells me, 'if I were you, I'd start mixing that without the water.' Then he leaves."

Vinny's eyes tracked a new group of patrons approaching the bar. "Now I think you should go. Before someone makes a mess." He punctuated his sentence with loud crack of his neck, followed by a number of smaller cracks of his knuckles. "

I'd say that's our cue, Nick thought, wisely foregoing any parting quips. "Thanks Vinny. You won't see me again," he said, spinning on his heels and walking briskly towards the door, Judy at his side.

Once they were out front, Judy crossed her arms and smirked. "Yeah, you're really in your element down here. You're practically family."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Everyone's a critic. Let me guess, Vinny would've just sung like a bird if you'd been the one asking the questions."

"Welllll… two of us here," Judy counted on her fingers, "But only one is actually a member of a mob family. Huh. Look at that."

"Oh, come on, godmother doesn't count." Even with his nerves shot, she drew a smile out of him. "We've got a new clue, we're both in one piece." He straightened his tie. "I believe the phrase you're searching for is, 'job well done'"?

Judy shook her head. "You're unbelievable."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"It wasn't!"

"Well, it sure sounded like one."

Judy bared her teeth. "Don't make take another chunk out of you." She clapped her hands together. "So… what now?"

Good point. Nick glanced at his watch; it was easy to lose track of time in a district with no sun. Sure enough, it was nearly midnight, and sleepiness was dragging at Nick's eyelids. He frowned. "We need somewhere to think this through. And I need a coffee."

Judy nodded, looking back the way they'd come. "I saw a café on the way here." She paused. "…Sorry about your leg, by the way."

He rubbed the spot where Judy's teeth had sunk into his knee and felt a set of indentations. "Pretty savage for a bunny." What do bunnies need teeth that sharp for anyway? Carrots? "How'd I taste?"

She thought for a moment, her nose twitching. "Actually, not as bad as I would have thought!" She giggled. "Maybe there's something to this predator thing after all."

Nick's subconscious sputtered up a litany of entirely unhelpful things to say about Judy having his permission to bite him again, or maybe how good she might taste. Nope. Nuh-uh. He punted instead, letting the conversation die and as they walked along the sidewalk, the light migrating across their faces as the streetlights came and went.

Judy slid into the booth across from Nick, handing him a steaming cup of coffee before taking a sip out of her own. He accepted it with a grateful look and took a long swig.

Judy almost never drank coffee. Bunnies brimmed with energy by nature, and Judy was a go-getter even by her species' standards. But she'd been up for nearly twenty-four hours since hearing about Bellwether's escape, and she'd been on her feet for most of them. Her legs were aching and her ears were drooping, but there was no way she could rest now. Not when they had a case to crack.

Nick, on the other hand, ran on coffee. I don't think I've ever seen Nick in the bullpen without a Snarlbucks cup . She absentmindedly noted that she should buy him a mug. It would be more sustainable, and it would be a nice thing to do.

"So… we know Bellwether came down here. We know there's something important here." Judy cupped the paper cup in her paws, savoring the feeling of warmth on her fur. "We know Dom's in on it. And… it has something to do with water?"

Nick sucked down more of his coffee. "Maybe Dom just thought Vinny mixes weak cocktails."

Judy considered it. "Then why would he have even mentioned it?"

Nick pulled an arm over the back of the booth seat, leaning backward and gazing out the window. Judy bit her lip, trying to come up with something, anything, but she was drawing blanks. We just don't have enough information. "Maybe we should call for backup," she offered.

Nick, still staring out the window, shook his head.

She sighed, rubbing her neck. Her body felt too light without the familiar weight of her sidearm and protective vest; she felt naked without them. Across the table, Nick looked… dapper. Although he wore a shirt and tie all the time, it was usually an unwashed Hawaiian and an expertly matched tie. The white tie and red patterned tie were a refreshingly clean and un-sarcastic ensemble. The pattern on the tie caught her eye, and she peered closer. Blueberries. Of course.

She reached for her case notes journal at her waist to document the investigation thus far, only to come away empty-handed. The small, carrot-covered moleskin notebook was safely stashed in her utility belt, back in the corner of the maintenance elevator. She exhaled in frustration.

Nick glanced over. "What?"

"It's nothing," Judy muttered. "I don't have my case notes journal."

Nick finished his coffee, spinning the empty cup on the stained tabletop. "Do you think there's something in there we could use?"

I was just going to take notes… I hadn't even thought of that. Judy's mind wandered back to her recent cases, trying to think of where Bellwether could possibly fit in. She dwelled on Dom's arrest for a while, but she couldn't think of a way that catnip could fit into water and the Nocturnal District. Eventually, her mental travels took her back to the water-contamination case she'd cracked with Sampson in the Meadowland District. Halfway there… it's got everything to do with water but nothing to do with… wait!

She grabbed his paw, making him leap in his chair. "Nick! I've got it!"

"Got whuuh!" His sentence trailed off as she dragged him out of the booth towards the door.

"When I worked on the water contamination case we had to send a case file to the Zootopia waterworks main hub!" She said breathlessly. "I remember looking through the public works directory! The main hub's in Savannah Central, but there's a filtering station down here, by the old construction projects!"

Judy's fitbit read a quarter past one AM when the pair stepped out of another Zuber on the outskirts of the Nocturnal District. Before them, past a waist-length chainlink fence, stood a graveyard of abandoned structures in varying states of decay, the remnants of an overly ambitious developer that bit off more than they could chew. Scaffolding still crept up the walls of some of the buildings, and exposed metal latticeworks stretched up out of crumbling walls to support floors that would never be built. The ground was unpaved, the dry earth littered debris. The whole compound seemed like it was waiting for a slight breeze to crumble into a cloud of dust.

Nick dusted off a sign pinned to the fence fence.


ZOOTOPIA PUBLIC WORKS SITE 0017A


"Translation?" Nick asked.

Judy pointed to her right. "This way."

The pair proceeded along the perimeter of the area in the direction of the arrow. Without streetlights, it was eerily dark. At the edge of the fence, a fully finished stone building came into view; the structure was in better condition than its neighbors, but only barely. Lights shined through a scattering of windows. Judy's pulse quickened. "This has to be the place," she said.

Nick looked around. "Um… notice anything missing here?"

"What?"

"Lights are on. But," he gestured at the surrounding area with a paw, "who's home? I don't see any cars parked anywhere."

She furrowed her brow, tugging at a sleeve. "The only people who would be here are maintenance workers… but you're right, I don't see any trucks."

"Maybe they just forgot to turn them off when they left?" Nick offered weakly. From their expressions, it was clear that neither of them were buying it. The pair hopped over the fence (well, one of them hopped and one of them just clambered) and cautiously approached the door to the building. It was silent except for their footsteps, muted by the soft ground.

Judy's paw went reflexively for her thigh holster. "Oooh, cheese and crackers, I hate being unarmed."

Nick couldn't help himself. "Unarmed?" He motioned at her mouth. "Carrots, those teeth are deadly weapons."

Even in the middle of a mission… She muttered something about foxes under her breath.

"I mean, do they even let you take those things on airplanes?"

"Nick!" she whispered, stifling a laugh. "Focus!"

His grin subsided as she tested the door. Surprisingly, it was unlocked. She started to pull it open, but Nick grabbed her hand. "Wait!" he hissed. Her hand retracted from the handle. He pushed her back a step, and grabbed it himself. "Me first."

He peeled the door open inch by inch, revealing a small, mostly empty first floor. A few desks were scattered around, and a handful of lockers lined one wall. Cobwebs hung in the corners. At the back, light poured up from a stairwell leading downwards.

The pair exchanged a look and crept towards the stairwell. Step by step, they descended to the basement.

The stairs opened onto a long catwalk that stretched the length of the cavernous sub-level. It dwarfed the footprint building's first floor by orders of magnitude. The catwalk, made of corrugated metal, was suspended from the ceiling by wires. Perhaps twenty feet below, a maze of pumps and pipes curled in and out of the floor like tunneling earthworms. The sound of rushing water, echoing off the stone walls, was deafening. Huge industrial lights in the ceiling were decades past their replacement date, casting a pallid half-light over the space.

"Woah," Nick said, leaning over the railing as they walked. "That's… a lot of water."

Judy's eyes fixed on one area that was sealed off from the rest by a grated steel cage, about half the size of the ZPD bullpen. "C'mon," she said, pointing a finger. Nick nodded, moving towards a stairway that stretched down to the ground floor. Their footsteps clinked on the metal as they descended.

On the ground, the noise was even louder. Judy read a sign on the cage exterior. "Primary control hub. Authorized personnel only."

Nick slid an old deadbolt and pulled open the door. "Well, look at that. I'd say we're authorized."

Inside, a sprawling control panel littered with switches and valves hulked next to a massive pipe that ran parallel to the floor. Judy, looking closer, tilted her head in confusion. "Nick…" He looked over from the control panel. "Is this… supposed to be like this?"

A footlong section of the iron pipe had been sawed open, exposing furiously flowing water inside. "I don't know," Nick said, hesitating. "I don't think so. Why isn't there anybody here?" He itched at his arm. "I feel like there should be people here."

Judy looked from the the pipe to the fox next to her. You're right. Something's wrong. Her instincts were screaming at her, and her muscles were tensing up. "I don't like it. Let's get out of here, come back with backup, and somebody who works here, and—"

The metallic slam of a door and the horrible, grating sound of a rusted deadbolt sliding shut cut her off.

"Well, would you look at that! Fancy seeing you two here!"

Judy's heart nearly exploded out of her chest. Bellwether was on the other side of the cage, behind the locked entrance. Nick's lips curled in instinctive ferocity and he leapt forward, clawing at the door. It didn't budge, and Bellwether didn't flinch. Judy eyes raced across the interior of the cage, looking for another door. It was no use. They were trapped.

"Just what I'd expect from a savage predator," she hissed at Nick. There was only a foot of space between them, but it may as well have been a canyon. "But you, Judy…" her eyes narrowed to slits. "You were supposed to be one of us. You sent me to prison for trying to stick up for us! For the little guy!"

Judy balled up her fists. "'Stick up for the little guy'? Is that what you call turning half the city's mammals insane? Turning them against their friends? Their family?"

Bellwether rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Jude, keep up. It's only 10% of the city, not half. Sheesh," she clucked. "But otherwise… yes! That's exactly what I mean by 'up for the little guy.'"

Nick was still right up against the door, his claws dragging along the metallic cage. "Well, newsflash," he growled, "you can hate me as bad as you want, but you blew your chance."

"Oh, did I?" Bellwether put a paw over her mouth in mock horror. "Oh, gosh, you're right! I… I think I'll turn myself in. Take me away!" she finished with a dramatic flourish, holding her hands out as if to be cuffed. She snorted. "By the time I'm finished," her visage darkened, "every predator in this city will be exposed for the savages they are." She pointed a paw at Nick. "And you're going to be first."

Judy bristled. "You're not doing anything to Ni—"

"Shut up!" Bellwether screeched. "If I hear one more insipid word out of your cute little mouth, I'll go insane." She was breathing heavily. "This beast," she gestured at Nick, "should have killed you back in the natural history museum."

"But you know something Judy?" Her mouth twisted into a sinister grin. "Sooner or later, I always get what I want." Her paw dug into her jacket and emerged with a tranq gun. Judy heard Nick's breath hitch, and he backed away from Bellwether. Her other paw lazily loaded a full clip of blue, gumball sized orbs into it and trained it on him. It was the Nighthowler serum.

Judy gripped his arm tightly. It was shaking.

She sneered at Bellwether, too angry and full of adrenaline to be afraid. "That won't work," she spat. "You failed, Bellwether. Nick's got the vaccine. Everyone has the vaccine. It's over. There's nowhere for you to go except back to prison, where you belong."

Bellwether laughed, a tinkling, sickly-sweet sound that pierced the clamor of flowing water. "Oh, yes, the treatment. Yes, I read all about the vaccination."

Crack.

Inky blue liquid splattered across Nick's chest. Judy's body recoiled as if she herself had been hit.

Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack.

"Vaccinate that," Bellwether snarled.

Suddenly, everything went silent for Judy. The roaring water, Bellwether's laughter, the pumping of blood in her temples, it felt ten feet, then a hundred feet, then a mile away. Her brain tried to process the image in front of her: cobalt stains dripping from Nick's dapper white shirt, seeping into his fur. His eyes staring into hers in terror, in pleading.

She saw the muscles in his neck strain as he tried with every fiber of his being to resist what was coming over him. The vaccine toiled inside him, but it was no match for the sheer amount of Nighthowler swimming in his veins. His body convulsed, he fell to the ground, writhing in pain, and when he was finally still, his emerald eyes left no hint of the Nick she knew.

She was paralyzed with fear. Not even for herself, but… for everything. For Nick, who was so good and finally had a chance to be happy only to have it torn from his grasp just like it had been so many times before. And for them: she realized she truly couldn't begin to imagine her life without her closest companion, the fox that teased her and infuriated her and knew her better than her own parents and could make her laugh until her stomach hurt on the worst day of her life. The thought, the primal terror of losing what she knew deep down was the best thing in her life, the thing that she held closer than her badge or even the city of Zootopia itself, clawed hotly at her gut. She barely felt it as Nick knocked her to the ground, her head slamming against the concrete.

Snap out of it! She berated herself. She tried, but she couldn't move a muscle. Nick slowly padded towards her. It felt like her limbs were coated in lead. He crawled on top of her, his snarling maw inches away from her face. She felt his saliva dripping on her shirt. Come on, Judy! She felt his hot breath on her cheeks. Do something! She squeezed her eyes shut. Do anything!

So she leaned up and kissed him.

It wasn't perfect. It was extremely sloppy, actually, and a bit gross; her lips sort of brushed up against the slimy top row of his teeth and barely caught his upper lip. But it didn't matter. It moved mountains, it carved continents, and she felt a pure, shimmering note leap from the finest gossamers of her heart.

For a second, everything was still. She pulled back.

He rolled off her, his shuddering limbs splayed out on the cold ground and beads of sweat forming all over his body. Judy rushed to his side, but as soon as she hovered over him, his eyes flashed the he swiped a claw at her, inches from raking her cheek.

Come on. I know you're in there! With a struggle, she seized his shaking arms and managed to pin them to the ground on either side of his head. His jaw snapped shut, keening like wounded animal, confused and afraid. "Nick!" she said, almost a prayer. She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. "Come back. Please."

She felt the heat and the gritty dirt on his fur. The shivers racking his body slowed and then disappeared, and he went limp beneath her. Judy's breath caught in her chest. Then his eyes opened, mere inches from hers. In an instant, she knew he was back.

"Mmph," he said as she hovered over him. "Hey there, stranger."

Judy's face scrunched up, and tears were already streaming down her face before she collapsed onto him, pinned him to the ground in an exhausted hug. "Oh… you… bunnies," he wheezed, her weight crushing his windpipe. "So… emo…tional…"

"Oh shut up," she sniffed, her face buried in the crooked of his neck, tears flowing down his collarbone. "For once."

Outside the cage, Bellwether looked in disgust until a cacophony of shouting echoed through the sub-level. She whipped her head around to see Bogo leading a SWAT squad onto the metal catwalk above. Hissing to herself, Bellwether slithered away, unseen by Nick and Judy.

A few moments later, Judy slipped back into the real world and noticed the tactical team above them. "Hey!" she shouted. "Down here!" She stood up and started to walk towards the edge of the container.

"Wait! Carrots!" Nick hopped up and grabbed her by the arm. "I… I think I feel it coming on again."

Her ears twitched in confusion. "What?!"

He rubbed his forehead. "Errr… Okay, that was lame. Sorry. Here goes."

He wrapped an arm around her neck, swept her up off her feet, and pulled her into a kiss. Judy didn't even have time to close her eyes.

"OH YEAH! BABY'S GETTIN' A NEW PAIR OF SHOES!" howled McRoary in the background, pumping his fists in full SWAT gear.

She dangled up there in his arms, feet brushing against the ground, for a long moment before he set her down. He smacked his lips, his eyes twinkling playfully. "Much better." He turned to the ZPD SWAT contingent up on the catwalk. "Well, come on! What are you waiting for? We've got a criminal mastermind to catch! Chop chop, let's go!"


A/N: The drama, the pathos... the sappy romance. Nick and Judy finally getting together has kind of been my white whale, at least managing it in a way that wasn't too cheesy. It's tough. Let me know how I did!

A/N 2: Early reviewers were on point, and I edited that bit. The no beta life is a bumpy road sometimes.