Judy groaned and leaned back, wincing as she heard her back pop loudly. She looked over at the clock and gasped. How was it almost 10:00 PM? She hadn't been typing for that long. She'd finished reports and gone after everything Clawhauser had sent her and went digging for more. She hadn't been able to find much.

The wolf had been a financial advocate, and apparently both of the other two victims had been clients. He had been having a lunch to discuss some sort of business proposal when the attack happened. None of them had a background that could link them to Nick, nor anyone in his life. Other than the last name, nothing connected.

'Wilde,' she thought. Why hadn't Nick told her? This was important, and she was his friend. There was no way he wouldn't tell her. So why hadn't he? She shook her head. The bigger question was how he'd even known there was a police file on it. Speaking of Nick, he should have called her by then. She looked at her phone on the desk.

Three missed calls, all from Nick. No voicemails though, which didn't surprise her. That meant he was wanting to talk about the case. Since she wasn't officially on it, he couldn't take the chance of someone else hearing. She swiped the screen and entered her password to return the call. She lifted the phone to her ear, turning off her computer as she hopped down from her chair.

"Heya, Carrots. Took you long enough to answer."

She just stretched, almost dropping her phone in the process. "Sorry, Nick. I was busy with some files." It sounded loud on his end. "Where are you?"

"At a bar. Want me to grab you something?" She scowled at his sarcastic voice.

"You know I don't like alcohol."

"Mix it in with some berries or veggies. I could probably give you an interesting smoothie that way."

She felt her stomach turn at the thought. She realized she hadn't eaten since breakfast and an alcoholic smoothie didn't sound like a good idea. "Oh dear god, no. I've smelled a lot of them. I think I'd notice before you got me with that."

"Never hurts to try. How's the leg?"

She stopped, wanting so badly to yell at him. How could he worry about a sore leg when he'd… "It's fine. Although the Chief won't let me exercise yet. Apparently I need a doctor's clearance for that now."

"Hey, don't hate him for that. Get the doctor's note. I don't like the idea of you doing too much before you're cleared, either."

She didn't get it. He had been injured too! How could he be so, so… so irresponsible? "I'm trying to. I go in to see one of the doctors tomorrow to get their blessing."

"Don't say that in front of your parents, that's a misunderstanding waiting to happen." She giggled without meaning to. "Hey, looks like you're in a good mood finally. You've been cranky as hell the past few days; I'd of hated to see you when you got that rejection letter."

She scowled at the memory. She had been top of her class, but the police academy rejected her letter. She'd gotten angry, but decided to go to college all the same just to have more to get in. "I should never have told you about that."

"Hey, too late now. Besides, you don't mind me knowing. You love me, remember?"

Her voice caught in her throat. That was something she'd forgotten, him saying that in the car. It felt like it was so long ago. It had only been around a month, but she'd been asleep for about half of that. Plus other things had happened. A blush came to her ears as she remembered one thing in particular.

"Shush! How'd we get so far off topic, anyway? Why are you at a bar?"

"Suspect's mother," he said, his voice having turned from light to serious."Turns out she's a waitress. Although I think our lead is about to fall through."

"Why's that?" she asked as she waited for the light to turn green. It was later than she'd expected, so the roads were a bit darker than she was used to.

"Didn't know if she'd be at her job, but she was. We got the manager to let us see her."

"Us?" Judy interrupted.

"That is usually what it's called when there's more than one, Carrots. So yes, US. Asked her about her son, who was identified as the thief in two of the seven robberies we think are connected. She burst into tears and Sans is trying to calm her down."

Judy smiled. Her instincts told her she didn't like Talens, but Sans was friendly. At least, that's what her instincts told her. She'd only met the badger once. "Why isn't Talens doing that?"

Nick's exasperated voice groaned through the phone. "Carrots, let's just say that Talens isn't a mammal animal."

"Awe, is someone getting on the fox's nerves?"

"Don't even think of teasing me right now. I wanted to throw her into a car earlier. Managed to contain myself."

Judy froze on the street. She was only halfway to her apartment, so she started walking again. "Why?"

"Thought she could sass me. Took out that attitude on me. I wouldn't have minded, had I not been listening to that attitude run BB's head through the mill for the past three days."

"BB? Who's that?"

A laugh came from the phone. "I guess you missed that video. I'll show you sometimes. It's memorable, but annoying as hell. I hope Clawhauser doesn't find it."

Judy found herself laughing this time. "As long as it's not involving Gazelle, I think you're okay."

"Fair enough. Oh, looks like she's up and running. I swear, antelope and bunnies have the fastest reset timers on their emotional states. One second you cry, the next you're giggling and then the third you're horny."

"Nick!"

He coughed. "Sorry. Seems like hanging around McHorn and the rest has me a bit more crude. Plus this partnership is frustrating. I gotta say Carrots, I miss you."

Judy took a second to collect her thoughts before responding. "Believe me, I'm ready to be off desk duty myself."

"And here I was hoping to get some kind of cute response."

"Don't call me cute! You sure I'm the emotional one out of both of us?"

Another chuckle. "I think if I was as emotional as you I'd of never made it as a con fox." There was a slight pause before he continued. "Mind if I call you back later or tomorrow? This is about to be interesting if my gut is right."

"Yeah, sure. Hey, Nick?"

"Whatcha need, Fluff?"

Judy paused before she spoke. "Miss you too." Before he had a chance to respond, she'd hung up the phone. She looked around, noticing her surroundings. Somehow, that one sentence had been scarier than she'd thought. She'd focused so hard on it she hadn't realized how far she'd walked- she'd actually gone past her apartment. She hit her paw into her forehead and turned around to get home.

What was up with him? Somehow, just through his normal teasing and comments he'd made her more flustered than normal. And he never brought up that comment. She couldn't understand what was going on in her head. She was normally calm and collected, even more so around the fox. If she showed a single sign of weakness, he dug into it. Pulled it out. Rubbed it raw to the right extent and let go. Once he'd had his fun, he'd repeat the cycle.

But something was different. His words instead confused her. Was he teasing her again? She shook her head. That kiss had just screwed up some things in her head.

'Wait.' Why had she immediately attributed it to that? That was an accident, after all! She turned the key to her apartment, her mind being on autopilot from the street until she got back. It was all that fox's fault!

He had to be teasing her. He didn't know she'd barely dated in high school, if her two month "boyfriend" even counted. Helping each other study and going to the movies once a week never really felt like dating. She'd been so busy on getting into the police academy (and college) that it wasn't ever something she focused on doing. She'd only ever kissed one boy in her life, anyway!

'Wrong,' came the voice in her head. 'Two boys.' She froze, the warm up meal in her paw shaking strangely as it neared the microwave. Why was this getting to her? He was her partner and her friend, nothing more. It was an accident. There was nothing there. Her paw shook even more.

She set it down and flopped onto her couch. "Alright," she said out loud to no one in particular, "even if we could, it wouldn't work." Sure, Zootopia was place of opportunity. Animals could live peacefully with one another. But some species were still discriminated against. It was less noticeable thanks to the Night Howler case being closed and the city having a refined sense of cohesion, but interspecies couples were frowned upon. First off, they couldn't have offspring.

'Although that's not what a relationship is about,' she thought. Ignoring that, mammals just didn't like the idea. Friends was a single matter, partners was another. But relationships? They wasn't exactly taboo, just… weird. Odd. Frowned upon. She even thought it was weird at one point. But she was 12 then, and now she was 24. Big difference.

Plus, she was a prey species. Nick was a predator. Society would definitely scrutinize them. She was all for overcoming expectations, but this was a different matter. They weren't going to be looking at her and telling her she couldn't. People would look at them and discuss what they were doing.

'When did this even become an option?' she asked herself. It wasn't. It was a hypothetical situation. She didn't need to think about this. She got up and put her steamed carrot-and-broccoli meal in the microwave. She tapped out a short warm-up time before turning to her bag and pulling out the files she had printed off.

Pictures of the animals before everything had happened. Photos of the crime scene. Nearby traffic cameras had caught the scene but it was blurry. Judy had been amazed they even still had the data. She had all the reports, the witness statements, an insert from a physician explaining the cause of death for the wolf. She looked down at the pages in front of her, trying to connect the dots. Whatever the pattern was, she was missing it. At least part of it. She reached into her bag and pulled out the last piece of paper, staring at it.

Nick's smug face stared back. The red fox in a blue uniform, standing at attention and alert. Personal information about him was listed next to his photo. He'd ignored filling out his middle name, which she laughed at. He still hadn't told her. He hadn't managed to get hers out of her yet, so she thought it was fair. She kept looking through the information, hoping to find something, anything to help her.

The microwave went off and she went to grab her dinner. Next door, she heard a muffled, "Oh look, the meter maid is cooking again!"

"That doesn't count as cooking, it's a microwave dinner!"

"So? We cook every night, why can't she?"

"You don't cook, you heat things up! I at least try to cook some dinner!"

"And you always burn it, too."

"At least I put in the effort."

This continued as Judy ate her dinner, ignoring them. She kept leafing through the papers, trying to find a clue. She couldn't find it. If they were related, Nick could find him. Unless he wasn't sure.

She nearly dropped her carrot. If Nick wasn't sure, he couldn't ask him. And the fox in question was missing. But if he didn't know, it wouldn't be hard to find out. He could always ask his mother, as long as she wasn't dead. She looked at the paper, looking for any details she could find about Nick's parents. Well, parent. The paper had nothing about a father figure, so maybe that was why he was looking. But right there on the paper was a name for his mother. No contact information was listed, but at least she had a name.

"Vivian Swift," Judy read out loud. She expected them to have the same name, but she didn't. Was she not married when Nick was born? Had she remarried? Judy wasn't sure, but she intended to find out.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Shout-out to one MalKontent and his/her story "Meet the Parents" for the idea of a name for Nick's mother. Since none was given in the movie, I needed one, and I think that Vivian has a beautiful sound. Also, please don't get mad at me for this chapter; yes, I pulled out the "woman in love worrying" cliche. It's alright though, I plan to give one to Nick too. Just be patient, he's a tad preoccupied.

Also, to one PantheraTigr- I appreciate your point of not knowing exactly what the story is about. That's the point. I don't want you coming in, figuring out if it's a love story or not, figuring out the next step of the story ahead of time. I can definitely say that I intend to explore the romance option, as well as the background and solve a few major cases by the time this story ends. So, plotwise? A slow buildup of romantic intentions that may or may not end in a way desired while dealing with everyday thoughts, cases, and values. Because being alive is boring day to day, and I'm staying real with this story.

Sorry for the plot heavy chapters, guys. I think this is the third or fourth that involves a huge bit of dialogue. Those chapters DO have to happen to further the story, and there's a lot that can occur once the cat gets out of the bag. Unless it's an ocelot, cause those things are too feisty to stick in a bag in the first place. Enjoy!

Jay AKA Pyre