A/N Welcome to another chapter:)

Idea for that one was brought by my greatest editor blueberryandhoney some weeks ago, and I'm so grateful! I hope I did good. :) Thank you for everything.:)

I'm also sending my greetings to csa-sa1.:) And the next chapter is his idea! :D

Thank you for all nice words, I really love to read your reviews!

Chapter 13

Nick was like a statue in the middle of the empty station. Judy's train left some minutes ago, but he still hadn't. He was just staring into space, paws still on his chest, expression blank. Even the night air, cooler and cooler with every minute, wasn't able to pull the fox from his stupor. Because from the moment the train disappeared into the dark tunnel, his brain was repeating Judy's words over and over again, like a broken record.

"You know you love me..."

"Do I know that..? Yes, yes I do."

...

"You know you love me..."

"Do I know that..? Yes, yes I do."

"I'm NOT dreaming." Nick thought when he finally shook off his stupefaction. "She said that."

A wide smile began creeping onto his muzzle as his tail started to wag madly.

"SHE REALLY DID SAY THAT!" Nick shouted, jumping in joy, pumping one of his fist as his body spun in exuberance while he was in the air.

Opening his eyes, which were still shining with glee, he remembered he was in public. His body flushed with embarrassment from his behavior as his ears flattened on his head. The todd quickly looked around to see if

there was anyone who could have seen him acting like a maniac. Fortunately, he was completely alone in the dark station.

Sighing, partly in relief, partly to calm himself a bit, Nick look back to where the train had vanished.

With another sigh, his eyes moved check the time his phone. His shift was starting in half an hour, so he really needed to stay sane at least to 5 A.M.

But how to do that, with those words burrowing their way into his mind?

Turning to leave, Nick made his legs to move in precinct's direction. He began to walk slowly, still high from all the emotions he felt. Humming "Try everything" under his breath, he squeezed his phone in one of his pockets - just in case she would text him.

They parted ways only minutes ago, so she probably wouldn't, but that didn't mean he couldn't be prepared.

With his fluffy tail swaying from the left to the right, Nick tried with all his might to act normal. Though his brain was far from being focused, his mind replaying images of the bunny. Judy smiling that beautiful smile of hers, Judy giggling when he said something funny, Judy bouncing happily, Judy hugging him.

And then Judy's hips swaying so appetizing, that tail of hers...

"Aaand that's how your 'staying just friends' looks like, huh?" asked that pessimistic inner voice of his.

"Come on!" Nick challenged dauntlessly, "Didn't you hear her? She said she loved me! LOVED ME!"

"Oh really? And you have already forgotten about that family portrait you were so stressed about?" Came the teasing response.

"Oh, shut up! Don't you understand?" Nick replied, his happiness overcoming his growing annoyance, "If she loves me back, it changes everything! We can adopt kits, ten of them if she wants. Or fifteen, or a thousand! I don't care, as long as she's there with me. Well, of course I should talk with Bogo about giving me a raise... Oh, and we would need the bigger flat, or a house maybe? But if she loves me back, I know we could make this all work and be a family!"

Nick finished his inner screed, clutching his chest with his paws again, amazed by the mental picture of him and her, surrounded by children.

Judy was worried about crumpling his uniform by hugging him earlier, so she definitely should see what he had been able to do to it by himself. The cloth would have to be steamed to get the creases his paws made out.

"And you are sure it wasn't a joke, prince charming?" The darker part of his brain pressed further.

That made Nick stopped mid-step. The question hit him like a bullet, his heart twisting at the implication. His eyes went wide and his smile disappeared as he answered both himself and that annoying voice in his head.

"I don't know."

A cold shiver snaked its way down his spine. As appealing as that future he fantasized about with her was, it was just that- a fantasy. A fantasy he wanted desperately.

"Damn it, I don't know! Well, we did banter all day, joking and teasing each other, but this...?" He felt the panic rising in his guts. "Jesus Christ, what if it was just a joke?" Nick screamed internally, paws squeezing the shirt of his uniform even harder.

"Oh, don't worry, she couldn't joke like that!" The annoying voice in his head sounded almost soothing, with just a hint of condensation that made it no less effective. "I'm sure she loves you! Like a really, really good friend, but still..."

Nick was ready to punch himself, but stopped realizing that it wouldn't work like he wanted it to. So he just shook his head to clear his mind.

Of course trying to guess what Judy had meant by saying those words was totally pointless. Too little hints and too few clues to find the meaning behind it. And she could really mean anything.

So despite his heart twisting her words and actions, altering them to what he wanted to hear, his mind told him to hold back for now. Because, as he had established before, whatever she felt, he would be by her side. And if he wanted to know what was in that beautiful mind of hers, he needed to press pause on his interpretations until he heard it from her.

All he could do now was to wait.

Calmly.

Patiently and composedly.

And he decided to act like an adult and do just like that.

He almost tripped over his own feet when he felt his phone vibrating. The todd made a super quick move to shove the device from his pocket, trying not to rip his pants doing so. His heart was beating so fast, he felt the blood soughing in his ears. Fishing the phone out of

his pocket, he unlocked it with one shaking finger, smiling like maniac.

When the screen lit up and blinded him by its sudden light, he reined in all his willpower to not squint so he could read the message.

The message from his cheetah friend, as it turned out.

A little white speech bubble, blinking and waiting to be opened. With the name "Spots" right above it.

Nick's smile dropped as he felt his heart sank, disappointment hitting him in his guts like a wrecking ball. He tapped the message with one finger, only to stop the stupid icon from blinking and blinding his naturally nocturnal eyes even more.

"NCk!; I hobe evrthik is ok wih U! Gośh thus prty is gteat, i wsh U wer her. Rmber U gut shuft tnught. Low ya!;;" - Spots

Poor Ben probably put all of his drunk mind into writing it properly, without success.

Nick really wanted to appreciate the effort- it looked like Benjamin remembered about the fox even when he had more alcohol than blood in his veins. But the anticlimax was still hurting like hell, and he couldn't find the message anything but annoying.

"Damn it!" Nick cursed out loud, since he was still alone on the dark street and it wouldn't stain his exemplary officer's image. "Damn it, damn it, damn it! What did she do to me!?"

It was a rhetorical question.

He put his phone back to his pocket so hard, it was close he would look like a member Spring Oasis. Readjusting his pants back onto his hips, he growled in frustration before continuing his walk.

His anger brought him back to his senses a little bit. He even started to feel some fatigue after such a long, emotional day.

That, and hunger.

"Did I eat anything today?" he asked himself, trying to remember anything that wasn't the rabbit. "Cookies? Yeah, we ate cookies. And a lot of chocolate earlier." Nick shook his head. "No wonder I'm starving."

Then he thought about Judy, who was with him all that time.

"And she didn't eat anything other than junk, either. Dang, I'm so stupid I made her go to work hungry and sleepy." Nick felt like beating himself up, again. "I hope she's able to grab some food at work."

Remembering that Precinct One's cafeteria was far from being a suitable dinner spot, he looked around and spotted Snarlbucks logo nearby. It was only few steps up from the precinct, but then again, Nick really needed something other than sugar in his stomach.

"So that's dinner tonight." He sighed, heading to the cafe before it closed.

Looking at the menu inside, he decided to take two croissants. It sounded almost like first and second course, or he wanted to think about it that way.

Knowing he has got all night at work ahead, he knew he needed to order another coffee this day. And seeing that the only barista was an elderly gray goat with big glasses on her muzzle and name "Mabel" presented on the tag pinned to her chest, he wasn't too abashed to order his latte.

With carrot topping on it.

/

Nick was some meters away from the precinct, sipping his latte and chewing the caramelized carrots from the top, when his phone vibrated for a second time that evening. Feeling the incoming message, the fox choked on with the drink.

With the coffee in his right paw, he quickly put the bag of food to his muzzle to free up his left. Since he was still coughing and choking, it was really quite the feat, but he didn't care. If he was about to suffocate, at least he would know what Judy wrote to him.

His paw fished the phone from his pocket and tried its best to unlock it between the fits of coughing.

"Has da Bunny tasted Ur carrot already? Ya so quiet 2night, did she make U busy?" - Big Guy

The message was from Finnick.

Nosey, over involved Finnick, insinuating the girl of Nick's dreams had him tangled in her sheets.

And even if the mental image of them in that position made his tail wag like crazy, Nick made a quick judgement call on whether it would be a good idea to just smash his phone on the ground right now.

No, of course he couldn't. She could text him, and he would never know.

So he just ignored the message, just like the previous one.

He came into to the entrance of Precinct One, shuffling his feet one after the other, already feeling exhausted despite his shift not even starting yet.

"Bon appetit!" called out Officer Bojack, Ben's night substitute at the reception desk. The horse officer's big brown eyes lingered on the fox, a grin growing on his long muzzle.

Nick waved to him, a quizzical look forming at Bojack's growing amusement. Meeting the larger officer's even bigger smile, the fox quickly analyzed his situation, realizing that he forgot to take the bag out from his muzzle. His teeth still squeezing the brown paper, decorating it with a few little dribbles of saliva.

Quickly taking it in his paws, and looking at the horse, he took a deep breath so he explain himself, but found he didn't have the energy to do so.

Smiling instead, he just pointed his finger in the direction of the bull pen, and headed there without saying a word.

With his current state of mind, Nick was afraid to even open his mouth; it would probably end with, "Hey, sorry for FOALING around, MANE event starts in a minute now so I need to HOOF it to a roll colt..." And so on, and so forth... Better to just shut up. Nick had his fill of puns for now.

When he was sitting on his chair safe and sound (and sleepy), he decided to try to get back to normal for the last time by giving himself a serious speech.

"Ok. Listen, fox. You're head over heels for her, yes. She's amazing, oh, she TOTALLY is. And you both had great time today, so it's understandable that you act like you overdosed on drugs. But she's gone... for now. And she promised to text you. Promised! So get your shit together and act like the damn cop on duty you currently are."

It worked, and he did. He really did.

For about five minutes, before his brain shut off from exhaustion.

/

Nick came back home looking like a zombie fox. He didn't even bother to clean himself up; undressing on the way from the door to the bed was enough for now. Groaning, he fell onto his pillows, his body dead weight at this point.

He wasn't waiting for the text from Judy anymore.

Not after the tenth message from everyone else but her. It was like the whole world decided to text him in the last few hours, except the one he was longing for.

His mom asking if he was asleep.

Finnick with congratulations for banging a bunny.

Benjamin and other pals with their drunk messages, which looked like the letters were hit on the keyboard randomly.

Mom asking why he was still awake so late at night.

More congrats from Finnick.

And, in the early morning hours, an ad from a local department store about twenty percent off all maternity clothes.

He lost all hope for getting a message from Judy. She probably asked for his number, because she didn't know how to politely end their hang out yesterday.

Or acquaintance in general.

That must have been the reason, he thought slowly falling asleep.

And then his phone buzzed.

Nick was sure he was already dreaming, his sleep deprived mind balancing on the edge between conscious and sleep, still wired from his current text receiving obsession. But the phone buzzed for real, causing some quick, quiet noises on his bedside table.

Abruptly opening his eyes, Nick stared at the device for a few seconds, making sure that the phone really existed, feeling his heart speeding up again in hope.
Then he remembered that the chances of getting text from Judy were smaller than the mice in Little Rodentia, and his enthusiasm started to fade. But he reached for the device anyway and move it closer to his muzzle, the sleep weakened paw barley able to stand the phone's

weight. Almost falling asleep again, he tapped the screen with his nose to wake the phone up without unlocking it, just to check who wanted to bother him this time.

And he jumped in the air like he was electrocuted when he saw the text message from an unknown number.

Nearly dropping his phone doing so, he caught it before it hit the ground. Then he tried to unlock it, but his paws were shaking enough to make the task quite difficult.

"Dang!" he growled, frustrated with his own behavior. He stopped moving for a moment, taking a deep breath to calm himself, then carefully slid his finger across the screen, finally unlocking the phone. With his breath caught in his throat (and suddenly wide awake), he opened the message, his eyes quickly scanning the text.

"Hey Slick! Our ZooTubing killed my phone right after saving your number, and I didn't have a charger at work. Are you busy tonight?"

In a moment, all the unease and anxiety from the last few hours faded away. Nick felt like all that fucking waiting was worth receiving a message like that.

He smiled to himself, his grin wider than ever before.

"Well, it looks that I am now..."