Nick pulled up in front of Judy's building and tapped out a text to let her know he was there. It was the night of the ZPD party, and they were already running late so Nick was praying for Judy to be ready.

'I'll be down in 5'

Nick sighed and threw his head back against the seat.

'We're already late.' He typed out but changed it to 'OK Fluff' with a fox emoji and a smiley face.

'why are you so late anyway?' Judy text back.

'I may or may not have been blow drying my tail...' Nick replied. Knowing that even if it wasn't true it would get Judy out of her apartment in a flash. It worked a treat because a minute later Judy popped out of the buildings lobby and hopped happily towards the car. She looked absolutely stunning in her off the shoulder, short black dress with her perfectly fluffy tail poking out the back of it. Nick couldn't keep his eyes off her.

"Where's this tail at then?" Judy asked excitedly as she got into the car, Nick gazing dreamily at her the whole time.

"Slick, my face is up here." Judy said, grinning from ear to ear.

"I know fluff, but your tail's down there." Nick said with a sly smile which was soon wiped away by a swift punch in the arm.
"you keep your paws to yourself Mr Wilde." Judy said with a girly giggle.

"I'm not promising anything." Nick said with a sly smile and a quick wink before driving off towards the club on the Savannah Central strip where the party was. This was the only night off they had had for weeks and they were both determined to forget all about the case, the last couple of days had been mental. The information they had got from Doug told them that the gang would be meeting next Tuesday in a house in

"OH, EM, GOODNESS!" Judy gasped when Nick climbed out of the car, his enormously bushy tail puffing up when he got out of his seat.

"What? What is it?" Nick asked, startled by Judy's sudden outburst.

"You actually did blow dry it." Judy said, trying her best to hold in her laughter. But she couldn't resist the urge to touch it.
"It's soooo fluffy." She was almost hypnotised by it, until Nick suddenly whipped it away from her.

"If I have to keep my paws to myself so do you, now come on before Clawhouser sends a search party out for us."

The whole of their shift had already arrived when Nick and Judy walked through the door to the sound of them all cheering.

"Finally… You two have got some catching up to do, you're double parked." Wolford said handing two full drinks to Nick and another two to Judy.

"Double parked?" Judy asked.

"A drink in each paw… Double parked." Nick confirmed lifting both of his drinks up and cocking his head, only to hear aa plopping sound of more cheering. A few seconds later he heard Fangmeyer. "Washington's drowning Nick!"

"This is going to be an eventful night I see." Nick said to Judy before turning around and Downing his drink in about 20 seconds flat to another round of cheers and a hard whack on the back from Wolford.

"I'll get you back…" Nick said, "I'll wait till you find yourself a nice wolf to chat to and then plop… moment ruined."

"You wouldn't dare." Wolford gasped sarcastically.

"Oh I would, and you couldn't let Washington drown now could you." Nick said, his voice dripping with just as much sarcasm.

Wolford thumped Nick in the back again laughing with him.

"Where's Ben at anyway" I was expecting to hear him squealing when we walked in." Nick asked, looking around the dark, Smokey room, hoping to catch a glimpse of the cheetah in one of the strobe light flashes.

"He's trying to put a request in with the DJ, but I don't think it's going to well." Wolford said, pointing to the DJ booth across the dance floor.

"It's Ben, he's probably asking for gazelle or even worse Justin Beaver." Nick groaned. "I'll go save him."

Grabbing Judy to come with him Nick made his way through mammals of all sizes on the dance floor to get to Ben. As soon as they did, Nick tapped his arm with his paw and there it was, the high-pitched screech Nick was expecting when they walked in. Both of them flinched away a little. The noise must have been unbearable for Judy, it was bad enough for Nick, but her ears were so much more sensitive than his.

"You made it!" Ben shouted excitedly, squeezing both of them into a hug, almost spilling one of Judy's two drinks.
"Where did you get to?" He asked but spoke over them when they tried to answer. "Doesn't matter you're here now and this douche-bag won't play gazelle for me." Ben huffed

"Let me talk to him big guy." Judy said with a soft smile.

Judy leaned against the DJ booth and a few seconds later Gazelle's latest hit was blasting out into the club.

"What did you say." Ben asked in amazement, his hips swishing in time to the music.

"That if he played one Gazelle song, I'd keep you away from him for the night." Judy said lightheartedly although it was entirely true.

The Night was going amazingly well, everybody was having a great time, Ben had stayed away from DJ Grump and neither Nick or Judy had thought about the case once. But the club was getting a little tiring so the suggestion to move on was floated and once everyone's glasses were empty, they all staggered along to a quieter pub with a pool table and a jukebox.

Nick got him and Judy a drink and sat down in the corner of the room beside the pool table with Wolford to his left and a space for Judy on his right. Not that Judy had any intention of using it, instead she pulled a reluctant Nick to his feet and made him dance to music he'd never heard before.

Nick woke up and his head was pounding, the older he got the worse the hangovers seemed to be and the worse his memory of the night before became. The last thing he remembered was dancing with Judy, his muzzle dangerously close to hers and her paws dangerously close to the base of his tail. The memory was pushed from his mind by the thought of how much abuse they would be getting on Monday morning in the bullpen and a bad itch just above said tail. He scratched it but stopped when he realised that he had slept completely naked witch was very unusual, he always slept in his boxers or some short pyjamas unless... Nick didn't really want to turn over, he knew the wall that he was staring at didn't hold any surprises but the rest of his bed was behind him and not knowing what lay there was a thousand times better than what he thought lay there. He tried to think back. He couldn't remember talking to any vixens last night, so his mind turned to the worst possible scenario. 'how could I go crawling back to her?' Nick asked himself, assuming that the soft snoring he had just picked up on belonged to his abusive ex partner, Amber.

He lay there for a few minutes lecturing himself in his head, planning how to get rid of her before he turned over. He let out the biggest sigh of relief he ever had when he didn't see the distinctively dark crimson fur of his ex, instead whoever it was had what looked like incredibly soft grey fur, it must be a silver fox. He thought to himself. Nick used his nose to see if their scent would give him a clue, but he must have been dancing with Judy more than he remembered because her scent was still strong on him.

'Just lift the covers and have a look' his brain was telling him. So that's exactly what he did. The sight of the fluffy white tail and long ears drooping onto hiss mattress had Nick scurrying his way out of the bed and quickly pulling on some pants to cover himself.

"Judy?" Nick said quietly. He didn't want to startle her, but he needed to know what had happened. Looking around the room painted a clear picture of what had gone on, Judy's dress was discarded by the far wall, Nick shirt beside the bed with a button missing. He was just hoping that he was wrong but in a way he wanted it to be true. If it had been anybody else lying there, he would have disappeared for an hour or two until he was certain that they had left, but once the initial shock had worn off, he felt strangely comfortable with the situation.

Looking back to the bed Nick was met with Judy staring back at him with Wide eyes and a twitching nose.

"Morning." Nick said awkwardly with a forced smile.

"Nick?" Judy asked, not quiet believing what she was seeing. "Oh god." She said as the foggy memory of last night started to come back to her.

"Did we..." Nick started but Judy cut him off with a slow nod. Once again Nick was torn, this time between being terrified of losing Judy and terrified of things staying as they were before.

"Nick, I... We... I don't want things to change because of one drunken mistake." Judy said, hanging her head, she couldn't bring herself to look at Nick, and calling last night a mistake cut her to her core. She just couldn't handle losing him again, the time she had spent away from him after her first press conference ha been the hardest time of her life.

Nick visibly deflated, one word rattled around his head causing so much pain inside of him.

"Yeah... Just a stupid drunken mistake, just about sums me up doesn't it." Nick growled, he grabbed the nearest T-shirt he could, swung a coat over his shoulders and before Judy could do anything the door slammed behind him.