Wow, took me a while. I had to rewrite this chapter over 3 times (Erasing everything and writing from the very start) because I wasn't happy with how it was going. I really do hope this was worth the wait.

My life has been a mess because, guess what: I dropped college! I realized I do not want to be a vet and now I'm trying to find some kind of animation college - that's what I want to do! So yeah, things have been a mess and I feel like shit because I'm letting everyone down and I don't know what is going to happen, but I tried my best with this.

But screw my life, I hope you enjoy this!


Judy stood on the doorway of the office for a few seconds to watch Rick as he walked toward the end of the hallway. Once he had disappeared through the same doors Nick had gone through a few seconds before, she mentally wished him good luck one more time and then finally opened the door, making her way into the office.

Doctor Taylor had her back on the door as she looked down at Robin, therefore she did not notice the rabbit behind her. The little fox was sitting on a bed and looked up at the doctor with no readable expression on his eyes as he slowly rubbed his right arm. His ears twitched when he heard the door opening and he moved his head to look at it, shyly waving at Judy when he saw her approaching them.

The cheetah took notice of Robin's waving and looked over her shoulder to see a happy Judy as she waved back at the fox.

"Oh, you are officer Hopps, right?" The cheetah said as she turned and reached out for Judy, shaking paws with her.

"Yeah, I'm Officer Judy Hopps. But just Judy is fine." Judy said with a smile. She then looked at Robin again. He still held no emotion, but playfully swung his legs back and forth as he looked at Judy.

"Rick said he was going to call you." She then looked back at door, noticing that the fox she expected to see wasn't there. "Hum, where is he?"

Judy blinked in surprise when she noticed that that question got Robin to abruptly stop swinging his legs, his eyes widening before he frowned and broke eye contact with the bunny, looking up at door ahead. His chest's moves sped up, going up and down quickly as his breath shortened.

"Hum, he ran into an old friend and now they're just catching up." Judy said; looking from Robin to Taylor and forcing a smile as she tried to convince herself she wasn't exactly lying to them, she was just omitting some unnecessary information. "He might be here any time soon."

"Oh, well, ok then. Can you stay here with this little boy while I go to the laboratory? I was waiting for someone to watch him so I could go there."

"Sure, I'll stay here with him." Judy said with a smile as she looked up at Robin again, but he still had his eyes locked on the door.

"Great, I'll be back as soon as possible." Taylor said to Judy, and then turned to Robin and laid her paw on his back, smiling at him. "You were a really brave boy, do you know that?"

Robin gasped at her touch, but he took in her words nevertheless. He tried to slow down his breath and nodded, smiling for a quarter of a second at the doctor before looking down, still rubbing his arm and now rubbing his feet together in a nervous way.

"You'll be ok." She smiled at him again, mistakenly thinking it was the hospital and the exams that were making him nervous. The doctor then looked at Judy and nodded before walking to the door.

Judy nodded back and walked up to a chair. However, something caught her eye before she could sit down. Just before Taylor could leave, Judy saw that she was holding a small plastic tub that was filled with a red, thick liquid that waved inside the tub with every step she took. It wasn't until the cheetah was out of the room and out of sight that Judy turned her head to look at Robin, finally sitting down as she did so.

It was only then that she noticed the arm he had been rubbing ever since she walked in was wrapped in a bandage. She looked down and blinked, putting two and two together.

"Uh, Robin?" Judy called. He slowly turned his head to look at her with a spark of confusion in his big yellow eyes. "Did she draw blood from you?"

His tail curled up into a small ball behind him as he looked down at his arm and then looked back at Judy, nodding.

"She drew blood because of a simple stomachache? Why would she do that?" Judy pondered, hand on her chin. When she looked at Robin again he was looking at her with his head tilted to the side. She shook her head and held out her hand, smiling. "Ignore me; I'm just talking to myself here."

He gave her a sad smile and a shrug before looking back at the door, yet Judy's eyes never left the fox. She watched it as he began to lightly scratch the sheets of the bed he was sitting on; and shortly after she heard his low breath becoming unsteady.

"Robin?" She called. He did not look at her, and if he heard her he did not show any signs of doing so.

Judy's nose twitched like it did whenever she got thoughtful. "Hey, Robin?"

Once more, there was no reaction from the infant. He hardly even blinked as he looked straight ahead at the door, as if trying to conjure something only with his might. Judy was about to call him a third time when he jumped out of the bed and went to the door, so fast that it took Judy a few seconds to realize he had done so. She then jumped out of her chair and ran after him, jumping in front of him to block his way.

"Wow, wow, wow!" She exclaimed at him as he suddenly stopped on his tracks, almost bumping into the bunny with a gasp. "Robin, what are you doing? You can't go outside on your own; you could get lost or even hurt yourself! What would your father think if he came here and didn't find you?"

They stared at each other for a while, Judy with a serious expression and Robin with a confused one; until Robin slowly shook his head and gave a few steps back to increase the distance between them.

Judy's eyes widened and her expression softened when she realized that he looked scared. His eyes twitched and he looked up and down; looking at her eyes and then at something beneath her. She blinked in surprise and then followed his gaze, looking down. Her eyes fell upon her uniform and realization came to her as she felt her heart sinking inside her chest.

"Oh, my, I… Robin, look, I'm sorry." She attempted to give a step toward him, but he gave a step back so that the distance remained the same. "I, I shouldn't have spoken to you that way, I have no right to, I just…"

She lowered her head in frustration. Robin had smiled at her a just few hours before and now he was backing away from her in fear. When she thought of how he must have felt to have a cop almost yelling at him after what he'd been through, her heart sank a second time.

"Hey, I understand you're scared of cops and you have a good reason to," Judy said, bending forward so that she was on Robin's eye level. "But you can't go outside, you have to wait here. I promise your dad will be back soon, and I promise he's ok. I told you, he's just outside with a friend. And you do remember that your dad said I'm a nice cop, right? He wouldn't lie to you."

Robin's eyes widened at the last sentence as he pondered. His shoulders drooped as he looked up at Judy with uneasiness and then looked at the door again.

I'll be right back, ok? Wait here; I'll just go call Judy. And don't give Doctor Taylor a hard time while I'm gone. Rick's voice echoed in Robin's head.

Judy was right; his dad wouldn't lie to him. But he also had said he would be back soon, and for Robin, he wasn't coming back soon enough. Robin frowned in frustration and turned around, going back to the bed where he previously was. It was quite high, but he managed to jump on it with some effort. Once he was there, he folded his arms and looked down, the frown never leaving his face.

Judy sighed in relief and went back to her chair as well.

"Your dad is a really nice fellow." Judy smiled. Robin didn't look at her as he still looked down bitterly; but the way his ears twitched when she spoke let her know that he was indeed listening to her. "He just wants what's best for you. And I would never, ever do anything bad to him. He's going to be back soon."

Robin raised an eyebrow as he raised his head and looked aside to look at the bunny, and her smile smoothed the apprehension inside him, yet he still didn't smile back – which Judy took as meaning he was still scared. She immediately regretted her previous outburst as she thought of something else to say, but before she could even open her mouth the door was open. Robin's head shot up at the sound, his little heart speeding up inside his chest.

As soon as Robin saw the orange fox he had been waiting for walking into the room, he did not waste a second before he jumped out of bed again and ran towards him; a huge smile quickly sprouting on his face as he did so. Rick's eyes widened for a second before he knelt down just in time to welcome the little fox in a hug as Robin jumped into him and wrapped his arms around Rick, burying his face in his father's belly.

"Well, that's what I call a warming welcome." Rick giggled as he stroked Robin's head and hugged him back. He then looked up and saw that Judy was approaching them. "You didn't give Judy a hard time, did you?"

"I don't think he's even capable of doing so." Judy giggled, still slightly nervous. "He might just be the nicest kid I've ever met."

Nobody seemed to acknowledge Nick standing behind Rick in silence. He looked down at his older brother, who was still kneeling down and hugging the little fox; so Nick still hadn't seen what he looked like. He had caught a glimpse of red when the kid ran to hug his father, but that was it. When Rick stood up holding Robin in his arms, Nick felt like running away once more; but did his best not to let his instincts get the best of him that time.

"Thank you for watching him." Rick said as he looked down at Judy. Judy smiled and shrugged it off.

"No problem, it was my pleasure. He's a really nice kid." She said, her gaze moving from Rick to Robin. He looked down at her from his father's arms and finally gave her a smile that seemed apologetic. She smiled back at him and nodded, discreetly sighing in relief.

"And, well, Robin," Rick said as he looked at his son, "There's… There's someone here who wants to meet you."

Robin tilted his head to the side in curiosity, and it took Rick a few seconds to actually feel his legs again so that he could turn around. When he did so, both he and Nick held their breaths.

"Robin, this is my bro- uh, this is a friend of mine, Nick." Rick smiled; his hands shaking lightly as he finally released the air that had gotten stuck in his throat. He was looking at Nick, who was looking at Robin.

Nick felt his blood running inside his body faster than ever before, and he did not realize he wasn't breathing until he needed to. He felt like he should say something, but any words he tried to say got lost in his throat and came out as a low hiccup.

There he was, meeting his brother's son, his nephew. As he thought about it, it felt like he didn't know what that word was supposed to mean, as if he had never heard it before.

The little fox looked up at him with curiosity and something else that he didn't quite let show, his mouth slightly open; and Nick had a similar expression. That cub had unusual bright yellow eyes, an eye color Nick had never seen before; and his fur was as dark as Nick's – if not a little darker, which really contrasted with Rick's as he held him. And although Nick hadn't exactly pictured how he thought his brother's son would look like, he knew he was totally different than what he expected him to be. Weren't kids supposed to resemble their parents? Because Robin certainly did not look like his father; not even a bit. Well, the tuft of fur sitting on the top of his head was similar, but still.

"Hey, uh, Robin, is it?" Nick managed to say. He did not know why he was so nervous, but he was. He shouldn't be; it was just a kid and he had met kids before, even helped and rescued some in his job as a cop. There was no reason for him to believe that meeting Robin would be any different, but as soon as they exchanged gazes Nick found that he was wrong about that.

On the very back of his mind, it came to him that his brother and his brother's son– it still felt weird for him to say those words, as if that all was just a dream and he was expecting to wake up anytime soon to find that none of that had really happened – were the only living family he had left. Three days before he would never even think of his brother, and now there he was with him and his son. It felt like Nick had lost his ability to take in the reality that happened just around him, as if he was forever lost in a dream-like sensation.

As soon as they looked to each other, Robin shrank in his father's lap, his tail curling up in a ball again. He let out a soft whimper and tightened the grip he was giving on Rick as he closed his eyes. Nick tilted his head to the side and looked at his brother as if wanting an explanation. Rick looked down at Robin and raised an eyebrow, but once he looked back at Nick his eyes widened and he smiled in realization.

"Oh, Robin," He said as he rubbed Robin's back; the little fox opening one of his eyes to look up at his father. "Nick's a nice cop too. He's a… He's a friend of mine."

Nick's confusion remained clear on his face when Robin sighed, nodded and slowly turned his head to look at Nick, this time not as scared as he previously was. Instead, he seemed rather intrigued now.

That animal standing right in front of him reminded him greatly of his father, even if they didn't look that much alike. But it wasn't just his appearance; he looked like his father in a physical way. Their traits looked different, but they were the same traits nevertheless. They had the same ears, the same jaw, the same body, even the same face shape. It was weird. The only other animal like that that Robin had ever seen – aside from his father – was himself.

So there really were more foxes on the world. It wasn't just the two of them.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Nick questioned, raising an eyebrow at Robin and surprised at how fast his expression changed from fear to curiosity and still confused about the 'nice cop' thing. However, Robin did not answer. He just kept staring, smiled a little, and then shrugged.

"He's never seen another fox before." Rick answered, and when he said that Robin nodded, never taking his eyes off of Nick. "Aside from me and him, that is. I mean, foxes aren't very common in Zootopia; and we don't go out that much. He's surprised, I guess."

"I, I understand." Nick nodded, absent-mindedly. There was an awkward silence among the three foxes until Nick stuck his hands down his pockets and shrugged.

"It's nice to meet you, uh, Robin." Seriously, he named his son Robin? That is both unexpected and surprisingly predictable at the same time. Kind of cool, but, still. "I'm Nick."

Robin then smiled at Nick.

"Wow, would you look at that," Judy giggled, approaching Rick and looking up at Robin before glancing at Nick's uniform, "He's not scared at all, at least not anymore. He surely got over his fear quickly this time."

Nick looked at her and slightly raised an eyebrow. "Why would he be scared?"

Before either Rick or Judy could answer, Robin let out a whimper and stirred in his father's arms; catching everyone's attention. He looked up at Rick and then pointed at Nick, who tilted his head to the side at the little fox's actions. What he wanted wasn't clear until he looked back at Nick and reached out for him, grasping at the air in his hand. Nick's eyes widened and he gave a step back, as if he was scared of the cub.

"I think he wants you to hold him." Judy said and Rick nodded.

Nick let out a humorless laugh. "Oh, no. No, no, no. I don't think that's a good idea." He said, holding out his hands and shaking his head. "I'm not good with children, and I could let him fall or something."

Judy rolled her eyes at Nick, putting her hands on her waist with a sly smile. "Well Nick, you never let Finnick fall; I don't see how different it could be from holding him."

Rick raised an eyebrow and looked at Judy, confused as to what they were talking about. Nick scowled at the rabbit as she kept a grin on her face. After a few seconds of staring, she shook her head and walked towards Nick, standing between him and Rick.

"Come on, Nick. He wants you to hold him!" She said, trying to hold back the spark of jealousy she felt by guilt-tripping Nick. In all the times they had dealt with children, they had liked Judy better than Nick because of her kinder nature and because she knew how to get to them – after all, she was the oldest of over two hundred siblings and had helped her mother take care of them all. The fact that Robin wasn't afraid of Nick like he was of her when they met slightly hurt her pride; even if she knew it was probably because he was a fox.

"But I..." Nick started to say. As much as he knew it wasn't Robin's fault to be Rick's son, he could not help feeling uncomfortable with the thought of getting close to someone who was related to Rick. He frowned as he looked back at Robin, his eyes widening when he saw the disappointment in the younger one's face. Robin was pouting and had his head down, yet he was looking up at Nick as Rick rubbed his back.

"Fine, maybe, I guess holding him just a little would cause no harm, if he wants me to…" Nick said as he shrugged and gave a step toward Rick.

Both Rick and Robin smiled when Nick opened his arms, while Judy smiled as well and watched the scene expectantly. Robin still had his hand stretched out and reaching out for Nick when Rick gave him the infant. Nick raised an eyebrow, but could not help but smile at his nephew.

Robin's eyes looked up and down, analyzing Nick as much as he could. His eyes twitched as he did so and for a few seconds his smile seemed unsure and his breath was sped up. He looked over his shoulder to look at Rick behind him, and Rick nodded encouragingly. Soon enough, he was looking back at Nick and smiling wild again.

Nick still found some of the cub's actions weird, but as Nick held him against his chest and felt his heart beating against his own; his mind was flooded with memories of his childhood. That child, somehow, reminded him of himself. He was innocent and happy; and if Nick had understood it correctly, he really loved Rick.

Robin and little Nick certainly had a lot in common.

After smiling at Nick for a while, Robin wrapped his arms around Nick's neck and made himself comfortable in his lap.

"He's… He's great." Nick said, raising his head to look at Rick for a while before looking down at Robin again and playfully rubbing his head, ruffling his tuft of fur. "You're a great kid."

Robin let out a giggle as Rick smiled at Nick and Judy sighed in relief, smiling as well as her worries that Nick was going to put up a scene washed away.


Although the sun had already been up and high in the sky for a few hours now, Rick still slept heavily and didn't show any signs to be waking up anytime soon. His pillow was wet from the string of slobber that ran down from his open mouth as he snored loudly, the air hardly finding its way through his nostrils because of his awkward position. He would have stayed like that for the rest of the day had his phone not rang and disturbed his grog slumber.

He did not open his eyes; instead he clenched them closed once he was awake and threw a pillow over his head with a groan, trying to muffle the ear piercing sound of his phone ringing as he waited for it to stop, not willing to wake up and pick it up, no matter who it was. Soon enough, it was over. He relaxed with a sigh and smiled; but just a few seconds later his phone rang again, once more ripping through the previously peaceful air and hurting his ears.

Rick hissed and covered his ears again, letting out another groan. His head hurt from the lack of his sleep and his back hurt from passing out on the couch in a bad position, but his headache was definitely worse.

When his phone stopped ringing and began again for the third time, he was convinced that whoever it was, they were not giving up until they talked to him. Rick raised his head from his pillow and opened his eyes, seeing nothing but dark blurs for several seconds until his sight adjusted to the light. He rubbed his eyes and rolled over to get on his side, looking around. His eyes wandered around the room until they fell upon the watch on the wall and Rick saw that it was almost 3pm.

Feeling like all his limbs had gone numb, Rick had to use all of his strength to sit up on the couch, rubbing his eyes again and resting his head on his hands as he tried to control his headache that kept getting worse because of his ringtone that seemed to be pounding its way through his ears. Just when it was about to get something close to unbearable he stood up and trudged toward the table where his phone was, not even bothering to check who it was as he picked it up.

"What?" He said as he took his phone to his ear, humor terrible from being awaken earlier than he meant to.

"Rick?" A familiar voice called from the other end.

Rick blinked in confusion, his annoyance slowly being replaced by confusion and doubt when he recognized whose voice that was. Over the past week he had gotten the impression that he'd never hear it again, but apparently he was wrong.

"Uh, Lydia? Is that you?" He asked even though he already knew the answer as he let himself fall onto a chair.

"Your voice seems raspy," She stated, ignoring his question, "Are you ok?"

Rick raised an eyebrow but shrugged it off as he rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, yeah; I am. Just... I haven't been able to get much sleep lately..." His voice got lower and slower with each word until he stopped speaking to let out a yawn. "I have been... I have been working late these past few days, you know."

Rick could almost see Lydia rolling her eyes when she sighed. "You know these 'late night shifts' are going to kill you someday, right?"

He scoffed at her. "Oh, because you clearly are much safer than I am. Need I remind you of how we met in the first place?"

"Well, need I remind you that I'm actually good at what I do? I mean, I wasn't the one who once began crying in the middle of a shift because I got scared and panicked." She retorted and he blushed at the embarrassing memories.

"Why are you calling anyway?" He shook his head and tried to change the subject, his voice suddenly becoming bitter as he had to control himself not to hang up on her.

Lydia scoffed at him with a fake dramatic voice. "Wow, rude much?"

He stood in silence for a while, raising his eyebrow even if he knew she couldn't see him.

"You're calling me rude? Unless you don't recall what you said to me one week ago I really hope you're being sarcastic now." Although he meant it to be a humorous saying, he could not help the bitterness in his voice as he said it.

Rick didn't realize what he had said until it was out, and he regretted it immediately, but didn't care enough to apologize as he felt like she didn't deserve any apologies. Still, there was an unspoken agreement between them never to just get over that and never talk about what happened; and now he had done just that.

Lydia went silence for a while, and if it wasn't for the low sound of her breath on the other end Rick would have thought that she had ended the call without warning.

"Look," She said at last with a sign and with a voice that seemed both sad and annoyed, "I wouldn't be calling you if I didn't need to talk to you about something serious, ok?"

"Well, you're talking to me now." He said as he sat down and tapped his fingers on the table. "Spill it out, what is it?"

She went silent again for a few more seconds, which actually got him to replace some of his bitterness for concern.

"Lydia?"

"Can you meet me at the park like, hum, now?" She stammered. "I, I really do think this is one of those things that need to be said in person… You know, I did mean it when I said I wouldn't call you if it wasn't something serious. Well, it is kind of serious."

Rick's eyes widened as he straightened himself up. Never once had she stuttered like that, not even when her own life was at risk; and now she sounded sincere with a hint of desperation on her voice. "Now you got me worried, what happened?"

She sighed again and once more he pictured her rolling her eyes. "I just told you, this is something that needs to be told face to face. Man, are you deaf or something?"

Just like that, his concern was replaced by annoyance as he frowned. "Wow, sorry if I'm worried about you… Even if you don't really deserve it…" He rolled his eyes, the last sentence being said in a whisper. "Fine, fine. I'm on my way."

"Thank you." She said and hung up before he could answer her.

He took his phone away from his ear and just looked at the default screen lock image he had for a while, wrapping his brain around what had just happened. As much as he tried to think of what she could possibly want with him, nothing came up on his mind. At least not anything bad enough that would make someone like Lydia stutter.

With a sigh, he let his head fall back before he stood up from the chair, regretting many of his past actions – some which had to do with her. He stuck his phone down his pocket and shook his head as he grabbed his jacket from the floor and threw it over his shoulder, walking to the door with his sight still slightly blurry. Rick almost missed the door handle because of his aching head, but soon enough he was out of his apartment and into the dark green hallways that smelled so awful that he made it a habit to hold his breath until he was out of the building.

As Rick walked down the stairs, his mind was filled with possibilities of what that vixen could possibly want with him, especially after making it so clear that she was not exactly thrilled to see him again just a week before. He seriously considered just leave her hanging and not go to that meeting at all, but he would feel too guilty – not to mention he was curious to death.

But whatever it was she wanted with him, it could not be anything good.


Yep, I keep dropping these flashbacks to make you all curious and confused :) But we're starting to get into Rick's past now.

Hope you enjoyed! Thank you for reading!