Author's Note

If you catch any spelling or grammatical errors, just try to ignore them D:

Warning: this chapter has a lot of Nick in it, in more ways than one.

I feel bad for Nick.

Nick's POV - Scene 1 - ? - Wednesday

I slowly croaked awake from sleep, one eyelid peeling open after the other. I coughed, producing a sharp pain in my chest. The sting-like pain didn't subside, instead remaining in my chest. I slowly lifted a paw up and slammed against my chest in the almost pitch black room. Nothing. I was still on the couch from what I could tell, and to no surprise, in my suit. The sharp pain amplified, making my breathing take an unsteady course. My deep breaths turned to gasps as I curled up in a ball, both paws over my chest. I couldn't breath for brief moments at random, and I began shaking.

"Judy!" I tried to shout, but a crooked whisper was all that came out. I rolled off the couch and fell onto my face. I mustered enough strength to put both my arms in front of me in an attempt to hoist myself upwards. I pushed up, then moved my arms to the couch and coffee table at my sides to assist me. My knees tremble as my arms are placed around my suit, furiously pulling at it. I got everything off my chest except a white tank-top, all while in trembling pain. After another moment the pain slowly began to fade, making me take a deep breath.

I sat in silence for a few moments, recollecting my thoughts. At least I didn't pass out, right? I pulled myself to my feet and turned on a nearby lamp. The orange light pulled the details of the room into sight. My dirty suit lied behind me, the couch cushions were out of place and torn open as usual. There was trash just about everywhere. Judy never comes into my apartment, with a few rare exceptions, she knows I'm lazy on my free time, but this is ridiculous. I dropped my fancy black pants to the floor, proving further how lazy I can be. A fox in boxers and a tank-top in the middle of an atrocious house. My stomach growled intensely, forcing me to stroll into the kitchen. I threw open a few cupboards until I found a quarter full box of cereal, my kitchen was the opposite of organized. I got out the last slice of leftover pizza from the fridge, and searched for even more. The fridge was close to empty, as I was barely home for the last week, never getting a chance to hit the grocery store. I peered to my microwave, it was 1:45 AM.

"Sleep is for the weak." I groaned as I got on all fours to search below the counters for more to eat. A chair and a tiny table were hidden quietly in the corner of the dark kitchen, perfect. I wanted to lean back in the chair as I stuffed my face with plain cereal, but the chair was backed against the wall, which wasn't exactly comfortable. After a few minutes, I set the box at the back end of the table, which was only about a foot long, and lifted the cold pizza from the surface.

Judy's POV - Scene 2 - 7:30 AM - Wednesday

A silent jaguar sat across from me at the ZPD cafeteria. Ivan sat quietly with both arms crossed on the table, just staring at me. I didn't mind for the first couple minutes, I didn't expect him to say anything. I'm responsible for watching him, not being his friend.

"No coffee?" He asked, raising a paw a mere inch from the table, extending his paw open. Coffee break with no coffee, sad, but true.

"No coffee." I responded simply, being as dull as possible.

"You know coffee's been around since the 15th century." He interrupted the silence once again, but why?

"Okay." I raised an eyebrow, wondering why he bothered talking at all, as he didn't have to.

"Coffee is important to every officer's morning," He said like a know-it-all, I was about to respond but he wasn't finished. "I remember my father used to give make me work for my coffee." He looked down with a pause. "He showed me how waking up has an easy way out, and a hard way." His eyes rising to face me once again.

"I'm guessing the easy way is coffee?" I said questioningly, curious as to what he meant. Ivan nodded his head slowly.

"My father made me wake up and work on his farm for two hours right out of bed, as a reward, I'd get coffee." He said, almost at a whisper.

"And the hard way is labor." No questioning that one, it was pretty obvious. Ivan shrugged one shoulder and closed his eyes, raising his eyebrows. So he didn't need to the coffee, but got it anyways.

"Yes, but anyways, my father died later that year, I was only eight." Drinking coffee and working on the farm at eight, sounds excessive. "He died in the hospital. He told me to never take the easy way out." He finished. I still don't see how that correlates to anything really.

"Tell you what," He leaned in very close to me, making me move my head back slightly. "Get us out of here, and I'll tell you the rest." He said with a slight smile before falling back into his stool. I tapped my chin for a moment, considering his offer.

"Fine." I said quickly, "let's go get coffee." I said with a devious smile, Ivan chuckled at this.

"How dare you." He joked before standing up in unison with me. "Guess I'll have to wait to kill you, because I still love coffee." He said, making it very clear that he was joking. He made me laugh, I'm never going to forgive myself for this.

Nick's POV - Scene 3 - 7:40 AM - Wednesday

I opened the rotting wood door into my bathroom, flipping on the light, which illuminated the room in a light yellow, rather than orange. I yanked off my tank-top, ready to take a shower. I looked in mirror closely, scratching my chin. Apparently my rapidly healing body includes muscle growth, as I appeared "More fit" than before. I made sure to groom well, knowing sitting in my apartment all day wasn't going to happen. No I'm not going into detail on the shower. Afterwards I was back in my boxers and tank-top doing sit ups in front of the TV, which was on the news station.

The ZPD couldn't keep it a secret forever, it was public that I'm no normal officer, that Alex is still allowed on the force, and that Ivan is allowed to leave the ZPD under super vision regardless of the fact that he is a super soldier, not to mention trained to deceive. I honestly feel bad for Chief Bogo, because he is the head of the ZPD, he is taking some heavy fire from this, and some even question his position for his job. He's perfect for the job, he can't just lock Ivan up and fire Alex, it'd ruin everything, considering they are against Dr. Harris at this point.

I tossed myself onto the couch and continue watching the news. The public insists that Ivan is locked up, regardless of his change of "Heart", or whatever is inside that chest now. The news then brought up Alex, and his involvement, claiming he saved my life, and had much less to do with the planning phase of the super soldier project. The sound of the news slowly faded as I thought about Alex, we were friends, why would he hit me? Especially so damn hard. I knew something was wrong, not just because he hit me, but because he was so calm just before. I couldn't just dwell on what could have happened, I had to know; the only way to know was to ask Alex himself. I grabbed my car keys, which sat on a small cabinet table, right where I left them over a week ago, and slipped out the front door. My car was the definition of shitty, which is why there is no complaint to riding with Judy, the paint might as well have been eating the rust. The engine started with a few hacks and coughs, better than usual to be honest. Zootopia was already bustling with action even at this time of morning, cars flowing up and down the streets, mammals of all kinds taking to the sidewalks, beginning their busy days. It was peaceful regardless.

My clunker of a car swayed left to right with every turn until I pulled into the hospital parking lot. It wasn't too busy, so I parked close to the front. I leaned back in my seat and reached for my phone. My eyes widened and my ears shot up. I didn't have my phone, I didn't even have pockets. I was still in my boxers and tank-top. My wallet wasn't present as well. I pulled my fur on the back of my head, angry at myself for being a moron. A light bulb went off in my head, and I crept out of the car and over to the trunk. I unlocked and opened it to reveal a couple of old boxes. I dug through them until I found an ancient pair of jeans. I bounced up and down lightly as I lifted one leg into the pants, I fell backwards onto my back.

"Damn it." I whispered as I finished putting the jeans on and jumping back to my feet. I looked around and saw three mammals staring at me in confusion. "Move along, I know I'm handsome." I tried to play cool, all three of them just rolling their eyes and treading away. That was awkward. I continued to the hospital, pushing past the revolving door once again. I approached the lady at the front desk, who seemed surprised at my visit.

"Can I help you?" She followed procedure. I smiled in return and placed my entwined paws on the desk.

"I'm here to see Alex Howlard." I said, hoping for the best that he was still here.

"I'm sorry sir, but he isn't allowed to visit, especially you of all mammals." She said, truly looking apologetic.

"Well you don't seem to understand, I need to ask him about last night, it's important." I pushed. She didn't seem amused.

"Sorry, but you can't see him, come back another time." She drew a fake smile on her face. I dropped my eyebrows and smile. I began walking towards the elevators anyways, remembering the room from yesterday, 311. A rhino and a tiger blocked my path, both wearing ZPD uniforms.

"Nick, regardless that you're co-workers of ours, you can't see Alex." The tiger enforced. Great so now they have officers at the lobby too, guess they were serious about security. "He isn't stable and we don't want you or him to get hurt." The tiger smoothed over, sounding sympathetic. I pulled out my phone and called Alex. Both officers looked at each other, then back to me.

Alex's POV - Scene 4 - 8:30 AM - Wednesday

My two doctors talked quietly at the counters across the room from my bed. I had restraints on my wrists to prevent me from getting up, but nothing too serious, they were easy to undo anyways. I couldn't stop thinking about what happened last night, and how I felt I wasn't even in control of myself. In a split second a buzzing erupting in my ears, making me sit up from my slouched position.

"What's that noise?" I groaned, both doctors turning to face me. They looked perplexed, and turned to one another, then back to me.

"What noise?" The goat asked, scratching his head. They exchanged glances once again, this time ones confused frowns.

"Where is my phone?" A thought occurred, the buzzing did in fact sound familiar. I looked around the bed but couldn't spot it, not even on the night stands. The goat, Dr. Diaz, turned around and opened a drawer under the counter. He pulled out a folded sheet and placed it on the counter. He unfolded it and revealed my phone. He put on his glasses and held it close to his face. "Can I have my phone?" I asked, wanting to talk to someone I knew.

"Sorry, you shouldn't speak with this individual at this time." Diaz kept it vague, but I knew who he was talking about. He was referring to Nick.

"Can you at least answer it?" I said, almost begging. He hesitated for a moment before holding the phone up to he ear.

"Hello, this is Dr. Diaz." He greeted, turning back around to face the counters.

"Hey, I need to speak with Alex, I'm in the lobby, but security won't let me up." Nick said, I flinched as Nick's words entered my ears. He was already here?

"I'm sorry, but it's in your best interests to leave Alex alone for the time being." Dr. Diaz declined Nick's request as I slipped right out of my restraints, which I untied earlier. I slowly elevated myself onto my feet as both doctors were faced away. I was still in my hospital gown, which sucked but there wasn't anything I could do. I walked over to the hospital room's door and opened it. Perhaps they shouldn't have let both officers off on a coffee break.

"Alex, you can't leave!" Both doctors followed me into the hallway, Diaz in in front of me just backing up to match my pace, nervously laughing in the process. Eventually we all three stopped at the elevator, I pressed the button and entered the shaft. The two doctors just sat outside the door, not wanting to enter.

"If you'd please just talk to us, we could solve " The door shut in his face; I half smiled at that.

Nick's POV - Scene 4.5 - 8:35 AM - Wednesday

"If you'd please just hear me out, it'd make more sense." I insisted to the two officers, who were rather skeptical of my reasoning for seeing Alex.

"He could have killed you if those officers weren't there to stop him!" The rhino countered. I don't think he would have done that, maybe another hit, but kill me? No.

"That's what I need to talk to him about!" I shouted. The elevator next to the one I planned on using opened up, and the wolf of the hour walked out. The two officers passively took to my sides, probably just in case.

"Nick." Alex whispered. I was worried, but also scared to talk to him, not because he hit me, because he is my friend. "I would never," He choked on his own words, stopping himself. "I would never hurt you or Judy." He stammered. I could feel the pain radiating off of him. "When I meet Dr. Harris again, I'll kill him." He clutched his fist. "I'll show him how it feels," He trembled, "how it feels to be truly evil." He fell to his knees. "He tried to make me a killer, and he almost succeeded." He sniffled.I approached him with a smile to the officers surprise.

"Don't be ridiculous, I'm sure you didn't mean to "

"He would've succeeded if it wasn't for the officers." He leaned onto all fours. He was nearing the line of growling. I held a paw up to stop the two officers behind me from following me to his side.

"Up you go." I grunted as I placed both paws under Alex's arms and lifted him back onto his knees. He was still slightly taller than me, even though he was knelt. "Come here." I awkwardly pulled him into a hug. Yesterday was understandable, but the two officers present probably thought I was insane. I knew Alex wouldn't want to actually hurt me, and I knew Dr. Harris was behind it, but I didn't want him to sit in the hospital wondering if I hated him because of it.

"He had a fox torture me, and they kept saying your name." He croaked as I pulled away. Now I hated that damn panda even more than before.

"What do you say we get the hell out of here?" I said with a smile. Alex simply nodded.

"Letting you two see each other is one thing, but letting you leave is a joke?" The tiger said behind me.

"Try and stop me." Alex growled as he stood up. "I was injected with a syringe of whatever the hell worth more than your god damn life." He snorted. This took everyone by surprise, not only did I not know that, but he was surprisingly aggressive.

"What the hell was that?" I growled as the two of us left the hospital. Alex seemed tired an distraught like before.

"I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that." He apologized. "I should have said something before, Ivan stole this syringe, telling me to keep it from them at all costs, and the only way to keep it away from Dr. Harris was to inject myself with it." He sighed. Great, so now Alex is insane. I opened my passenger door for him and walked around to the other side. "This is your car?" He snickered, making me roll my eyes.

"Why do you think I always ride with Carrots." I answered, the engine choking up what it had left in it.

"Good point." Alex kicked back in the seat. He seemed okay now, luckily.

"I forgive you." I said, making his smile fade. He sighed, and looked out the window as we left the hospital.

Judy's POV - Scene 5 - 7:50 AM - Wednesday

I took my seat across from Ivan at the cafe. I took him here because it's public, but it was infested with other officers who could be eavesdropping. I had already gotten coffee, and so did Ivan, which was pretty funny considering our conversation at the police department.

"Okay, now I'll fulfill my part of the deal." He said, "So, where we left off, my father was dead, lying in the hospital. You've got to promise not to relay this to a soul." He cut himself off. I hesitated but figured it would be the only way to get the rest out of him.

"Yes, I promise not to relay this to a soul." I said with a paw held to my side as if I was giving an oath.

"Okay, so anyways, that fox in the interrogation room, you remember him, yes? He killed my father, some twenty years ago." He said sternly. "When I learned this, several years ago, it was too late. This fox character had already been integrated into every system there was, killing him was a death sentence, for both of us. Not only that, I worked with Dr. Harris, a close associate of his, so double that death sentence. However, I no longer work for Dr. Harris and I know where the fox is, I can get my revenge." He snarled. That was a lot to take in.

"Why not just have us arrest him?" I questioned, as his plan was obviously faulted. He chuckled in response.

"I want to do this, not the ZPD. He deserved punishment by my paws only." He squinted his eyes.

"Also, why would he kill your father?" I asked carefully, not wanting to upset him.

"My father was informed about the super soldier project, and after receiving tons of information of this classified idea, he declined. They didn't want to risk him telling anyone, not even himself." He leaned onto the table, gently pushing his coffee aside.

"That's terrible." That was all I could think of at the time.

"I later dug my way into their little system and they hired me to my surprise." He shrugged, "I took the hard way, and for that, I think I deserved to drink coffee. It was kill or be killed in that line of work." He sipped on his coffee for the first time since we sat down. "You know, I didn't just save Alex 'to be the good guy'." I looked back up from my coffee to him, he was very serious. "I saved Alex because I didn't want him to be tortured into being the bad guy, and because we hung out after work quite often." He sighed, he must've been waiting to get that off his chest. Something he said was questionable, however.

"What do you mean 'be the bad guy'?" Ivan probably saw that question coming, but maybe he thought we talked to Alex about it already.

"Alex was tortured, being broken down in order to achieve the perfect soldier, a broken mammal." Ivan paused for a moment to take a sip of coffee. "However, that's not the perfect soldier, Dr. Harris wants emotionless, ruthless, followers, and he wanted to turn Alex against you guys. That fox I mentioned, he tortured Alex's body and mind." He finished, my eyes widening. That's why Alex hit Nick!

"Speaking of foxes, I wanted to talk about Nick." Ivan began, "I'm glad I didn't end up killing him, not only because then you would have killed me, but because he doesn't deserve it. He may not be perfect, but he has a lot going for him. I'm honestly surprised he doesn't have a significant other." I furrowed my eyebrows when he finished.

"Yeah." I faked a small laugh. Ivan took one big sip of his coffee and placed it down.

"Well, if you plan on taking me back to the ZPD, I wouldn't be upset." He shrugged his shoulders.

"I do, but not to have you placed in an interrogation room." I grinned back deviously, making his raise an eyebrow.

Alex's POV - Scene 6 - 2:00 PM - Wednesday

I picked up a dumbbell in each paw and began doing a set of curls. Nick and I decided to pass the time by working out at his place, and it gave us something else to do other than talk, as his apartment wasn't exactly the most exciting. Nick was only working with one arm at a time, the other looking at his phone.

"Judy is going to be surprised when she shows up." He chuckled. I raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"She's coming here? Now?" In all honesty I didn't want to talk to her right now, I barely wanted to even think about what I did to Nick, I just wanted it to go away.

"Nope, but she will, trust me, she always comes back." He laughed, obviously joking. I joined in with a smile.

"Can I tell you something?" The fox asked carefully, sounding rather serious.

"You can tell me anything." I answered with the most generic response to that ever.

"It's about Judy." He looked away from me, staring at the ceiling. "DAMN!" Nick dropped his weight on his foot, falling to the floor.

"Shake it off." I held back from smiling. Nick rolled over onto all fours, and stayed there. His arms began shaking, and starting panting. "Nick?" I dropped my weights and jogged over to his side. Instantly I remembered what was happening. He dropped his arms to his side and collapsed on the floor. He rolled to his side and clutched his chest with one paw. He was breathing so quick he might as well just sprinted a mile. I placed a paw on his shoulder and waited, there was nothing else I could do. An entire two minutes passed, and I was growing increasingly worried, he didn't pass out but was still trembling in pain. His tongue was hanging out of his mouth as his breathing slowed down, instead taking large, slow breaths. "Is it over?" I asked him.

"Yeah I think so." He sighed heavily. Without warning I picked him up off the floor and laid him on the couch.

"I'll be right back, stay there." I instructed and headed into the kitchen. I threw open each and every cupboard, including the fridge, and only found a few items worth taking. Two water bottles, a can of peas, tuna, a can of pringles, two apples, and a unopened container of cockroaches, not favorite, but Nick apparently likes them. I prepared the peas and the tuna and carried all the food to the living room, where Nick was now sitting up groggily. I didn't even have to tell Nick to start eating as he already was. "Hungry, eh?" I smiled and sat down next to him. He nodded his head as he unscrewed a water bottle as he tore into an apple.

"Thank you." He muttered through a mouth full of apple before taking a swig of water.

"Remember, an apple a day keeps Dr. Harris away." I lightly elbowed his shoulder. He spit up a small bit of water as he held in laughter.

Author's Note

Hooray! Two chapters in three days, what?! Hope you enjoyed, don't forget to leave a review with your criticism, opinion, or general thoughts on this chapter. It may be a bit longer for another chapter, but we will see.

Fun facts about this chapter!

1. In my first plan, Judy and Nick were going to go to the hospital together in the morning.

2. Ivan and Judy were originally going to go to Nick's apartment and find him watching TV in his boxers.

3. Ivan's dad was never originally going to be mentioned, or anything about 'taking the easy way out'.

4. I realized that the officers would've stopped Alex from leaving his hospital room after writing the scene, so I had to make up an excuse for them to not be in the room.

5. I didn't mention that the front desk lady at the hospital was a pig again because it feels like an insult, and because you already know that.

6. The four main characters at this point, Judy, Nick, Ivan, and Alex, have all been paired up in every combination possible. (Ivan Alex) (Nick Judy) (Nick Alex) (Judy Ivan) (Nick Ivan) (Judy Alex)

Stay patient, my fellow readers...