Here´s another chapter! This is supposed to be the serious installment (as I´ve told before it´s up to you guys to decide). So, here´s the chapter, enjoy!

Rough Patch

It´s been one month since Nick and Judy became an official couple and everything was going perfect. They had used all their vacation days to enjoy some time together and they were so happy with one another, but they had to return to their real lives and that´s when things started to get a little bit messy.

First week after Nick and Judy´s vacation

"Hey Nick!" Judy ran over to Nick who was standing in front of Clawhauser´s desk and enveloped him in a hug, then they shared a quick kiss and broke the hug.

"Hey Carrots, looks like you´re in a very good mood today!"

"Of course I am! With you I´m always in a good mood!" She gave him a quick peck and started giggling, then they heard a squeal and turned to see Clawhauser looking at them with both of his paws under his chin.

"Oh guys, you two are amazing together! I totally knew you would end up being a couple!"

"Clawhauser! Stop it! You´re just saying stuff!" Judy blushed and then turned towards Nick "I´m going to the bullpen, catch up after you´re done Nick." She then went towards the room, Nick chuckled at the energy of the bunny and then went into the male´s locker room, but on his way he walked past some other officers and overheard their conversation. "Have you seen those two? That´s just not right!" One said while the other nodded and shared his opinion. "I know, they are not even from the same species..." They stopped talking when they saw Nick pass by them, he just shook his head and kept going. I can´t believe mammals are still so "old schooled", well, can´t let that affect me Nick thought as he went inside the locker room to get prepared for the day.

"Nick, come on, Bogo will come inside at any time." Judy was already sitting in their shared chair and was moving her paw towards the spot where Nick always sat down. While Nick was passing by he saw the glares that several fellow officers where giving him, but instead of getting angry he decided to mess with them and a simple sentence came into his mind.

"Don´t worry honey, I´m coming." With that he looked at the face that most of the officers where giving him and he just laughed. Sitting in his place he decided to extend his fun a little bit more and gave Judy a quick kiss, that only made the bunny blush and some murmuring was starting between officers, until Bogo came in and everyone went quiet.

"Good morning, now these are today´s assignments..."

Two weeks after Nick and Judy´s vacation

Nick was at the locker room, but felt uneasy. The room never had more than two mammals at the same time, but today, including him, there were five mammals and all of the other officers were giving him glares and even bumped with him while changing outfits. It was until he finished the task and was going for the door that a rhino stood in front of him and blocked his path. "What do you think you´re doing fox?"

"Excuse me?" Then a wolf was at his side and pushed Nick, only making him move a bit.

"He said, what do you think you´re doing fox? Trying to take advantage of Hopps?" Then the other two mammals were around him and he was now surrounded by the four mammals.

"You are out of your mind, all of you. Now, let me go with my girlfriend, she´s waiting for me."

"Oh you got some nerve fox, luckily you still keep some of that when we are finished with you." With that a deer punched Nick and made him fall into the ground, then the four mammals starting punching him furiously. The beating didn´t last more than a minute when Bogo and three officers started taking the mammals off Nick.

"Prey lover!" The wolf screamed while he was being pulled away, soon all four mammals where out of the locker room and in cuffs, but Nick was left unconscious in the room and Judy came in to see him barely breathing.

"NICK! NICK WAKE UP! PLEASE! CHIEF, SEND SOME MEDICS HERE! NICK IS HURT BADLY!" she started shaking the fox so that he could wake up, but he was unresponsive.

"Already done that Hopps, they´ll arrive in 2 minutes."

When the medics arrived they took Nick to a hospital immediately and treated him. A doctor came with Judy and Bogo to notify them about Nick´s condition "He´s got some broken ribs, a contusion and some slashes through his chest. He´ll be fine in a week, but needs to rest during all that time, he´ll be awake in two hours and then he´ll be able to leave."

"Chief, can I stay with Nick during that time, I don´t think he should be alone."

"Okay Hopps, take care of him so that he can be back at 100% soon."

When Nick woke up she took him to his place and started taking care of him.

Three weeks after Nick and Judy´s vacation

Nick was back at the precinct and all the other officers had seemed to lay off his back, but the mammals of Zootopia was a very different story. Because of what happened at the precinct the media quickly found out that Nick and Judy were a couple and it took less time for mammals to start making accusations and insults towards them. He paid them no attention and made sure that Judy did the same, so that they could be happy together, but one day they were walking around Sahara Square and a group of mammals intercepted them. They were throwing stuff at them, papers mostly, but one zebra decided to throw a shoe and it hit Judy right in the face. Nick broke into a fury outrage and took out his emergency taser, then shot the zebra with it and started cuffing him, all the other mammals just ran away after that. Once some other officers came to the scene and took in the zebra Nick and Judy walked quietly all the way over Judy´s apartment and once there Judy broke into tears.

"Come here Judy" Nick then enveloped Judy in a hug and started soothing her. He was as sad as she was, but he couldn´t let her see that they got to him, he needed to stay strong for her "There there, it´ll be fine, we´ll be fine. Calm down Judy, calm down, you´re safe here with me, nobody will hurt you here."

"I-I just don´t get why they can´t leave us alone. Can´t they see we are happy together? That we love each other? That we don´t care about those ideas? I can´t understand why they would do this, but it just makes me so sad." Nick was going to say something more but then a knock on Judy´s door interrupted him. He growled a bit and then spoke with a rash tone.

"Who is it? What do you want?"

"We are Judy´s parents, we came to see how Judy is, please let us come in." He broke the hug and then looked at Judy for approval, when she nodded he then went for the door and opened it.

"Hi, I´m Nick, I´m-" he was cut short by Bonnie who bolted towards Judy and then by Stu speaking harshly to him.

"Oh we know who you are. Now, how did you let that mammal hurt Judy?"

"Well sir, I wasn´t expecting a zebra to throw a shoe at her, if I would have known nothing of this would´ve happened." Judy was being hugged by her mother and looked up to see the dialogue between the two mammals, she was about to say something when Stu started yelling at Nick.

"And none of this would have happened if she wasn´t dating you! What do you want with her fox? You want to take advantage of her?! Use her to ascend in your job?! What do you want with her?!" Nick looked at Judy and saw how she was getting angry by the look she was giving her father and before she could say something he gave the buck what he was looking for.

"I want to spend my life with her. That´s what I want from her, to be my life mate, to be my wife, but if she needs to go through all this suffering because of me, then I only want her happiness and her safety. Judy, I´ll go and we can talk later, you need to talk to your family." Before she could say something he was already out of the apartment and the door was closed, leaving Judy to confront her parents.

"Dad, I´m going to tell you something you will not like, but I couldn´t care less, because I love Nick, so..." she told her parents everything that had happened between her and Nick since the NightHowler case two years ago, to the incident at the precinct and the events of this morning. After that she left her parents in her apartment and went looking for Nick into his place, when she arrived she could hear sobs coming out of his room and felt the need to go in and cuddle with her fox.

"Nick? Are you in here?" When she opened the door she was greeted with the image of Nick on his knees and crying like a madmammal. He had a box in his paws and it contained a ring, Judy felt the tears welling up in her eyes and ran towards him, enveloping him in a hug. When she didn´t feel his arms around her she broke the hug and stared into Nick´s eyes. She saw just how destroyed he was, but what he said destroyed her.

"I think we should break up Judy."

"W-w-why would you say that?" now she was crying uncontrollably and took a step back to see him completely "you even have an engagement ring in your paws Nick, you told my father you wanted me to be your life mate, your wife. Where those lies?"

"No Judy, absolutely not. There´s nothing I would like more in this world than having you by my side forever, but I can´t watch you suffer like today because of me. I can´t stand there and see how I become the reason for your sadness and I think you could be safer and happier without me."

Judy placed her paw on his cheek and then moved forward to give him a kiss, she felt how he calmed down and returned the gesture, but he was still shaking a bit, so she started talking to him in a caring and loving voice.

"Nick, I can´t be happy with no one else but you. I also want us to be together for all our lives and I don´t mind going through all of that if I do it with you by my side. And don´t even make me mention what happened to you at the precinct, that was way worse than what happened to me today Nick, so I think I´m capable of enduring it for you. Besides, this only makes my love for you grow stronger, I love you Nick and I would never let anyone or anything get in our way." She gave him another reassuring kiss and then felt him get on one of his knees. She put her paws on her mouth and started crying.

"Then, Judith Laverne Hopps, would you marry me?" He held the box open so she could see the ring, a silver circle with a carrot jewel at the top of it, made out of topaz and emerald.

"YES! YES! YES! Of course I´ll marry you Nicholas Piberius Wilde!" She pulled him into another tight hug and started marking him, soon he joined the process and when they finished Nick slid the ring in one of Judy´s fingers and grabbed her paw.

"Well, this is the beginning of the rest of our lives Judy, we´ll deal with a lot, but while we´re together nothing will never break us apart."

"That´s right Nick, I love you with all my heart."

"So do I Judy."

Surprisingly the day after Nick´s proposal mammals where giving them smiles, thumbs up and congratulations, they didn´t understand until Bogo explained it to them.

"People thought you were just trying something immoral, that you were not serious, but know that everyone knows that you two are going for the long ride, they respect your decision."

Now that everything had stopped and they relaxed again, Nick and Judy returned to that moment that they had almost two months ago, being happy with just themselves and not caring if someone still had a grudge against them, showing each other how much they loved each other, they started their life as fiancés with nothing but happiness and smiles.

THE END

This chapter was difficult because I´m not used to write Judy and Nick involved in such hard situations, but I hope you guys liked it (please tell me if you considered this serious or not) and that would be all for today! Have a nice day everyone! (I´ll need to put a trademark to that phrase)