Nick wasn't sure how to react to that. He stared blankly at the mammal in front of him, his mind, achingly slowly, coming back online as he tried to process the story.

"So, you're…"

Joshua nodded.

"Yes, my parents were Special Agents Jack Savage and Skye Winters, the first rabbit and fox to make it into the ZBI. They were partners in every sense of the word, and eventually, I came along."

He swallowed, and Nick could've sworn he saw the two-toned blue eyes glisten with tears before they were abruptly blinked away.

"But…it wasn't their jobs that killed them," he went on, his voice growing unsteady. "They were tracked down by the Prey Supremacy Guild, dragged out to the street, and shot right in front of me. I was fifteen."

Nick's mouth hung open. He'd been three when his own father had been killed, so he had almost no memory of the male, just faded pictures of a smiling vulpine with eyes as green as his. But Joshua not only had clear memories of his parents, he'd seen them die, had likely even been held close enough by PSG members for their blood to hit him when they were shot. And if his own mother's experience was anything to go by, then the legal system hadn't done much, if anything, to actually help.

"J-Josh, I…" he scrambled for words, his mind once again numb. "I-I don't know what to…"

"Then don't," the younger male responded. He leaned back against the wall and stuck his paws in his pockets. "I didn't bring you and your partner here to get your pity, I brought you here because you two are one of the most famous duos in the city. The fact you're also pred and prey is just a bonus."

He shouldered away from the wall, sitting in front of Nick and crossing his arms.

"And this is how things are gonna work. I'm going to let you two go in a few days, completely unharmed, and you're going to tell this whole damn city why Tybalt and I took you and all those kids. He's a cross-breed, too," he clarified. "His dad was a brown bear, and his mom was a black one, but don't ask me how that ends up with him being gray."

He shook his head, then cleared his throat.

"There's also something else I think you should know," he went on. "Judy's husband, Darwin, he's not the rabbit everyone thinks he is."

Nick pushed himself to his haunches, folding his ears down when they brushed the low ceiling.

"Most of the precinct could probably tell you that by now," he said, then cocked a brow. "But I'm guessing that's not quite what you mean, huh?"

"No, I wish it was," Joshua swallowed. "You know how he walks like a girl who just had sex for the first time?"

Nick couldn't help but chuckle a bit. The bowlegged stride was slight, but hard to miss once you noticed it.

"I was actually wondering how he got like that, was it some kind of farming accident? Did he fall out of a tree as a kit or something?"

Joshua shook his head again.

"Not even close. He got that during a huge fight with his last girlfriend," he blew out a breath. "I don't know exactly what happened, but she wasn't having any of it. He jumped behind her car when she tried leaving, and she ended up running him over. It fractured his pelvis and got him slapped with one hell of a restraining order."

Nick couldn't get his mouth to work, a battle starting to rage in his head. Part of him wanted, almost desperately, to believe what Joshua was telling him, but the other half was saying the mammal was a serial kidnapper, the one who'd hurt Judy, Abigail and so many others, and that he couldn't be trusted as far as thrown. Nick didn't know which one to listen to, but he didn't have long to try and ponder it.

"That was his only relationship until he married Judy, and from what I've heard, he's already starting up with his old tricks again," he sighed. "And I'm guessing she's been so distracted that she hasn't even noticed."

"I wouldn't say that's completely true," Nick put in. "But she seems to blame herself more than him for any problems they might be having. She said it had something to do with a crush she used to have on me, but I'm not so sure…"

Joshua rolled his eyes.

"Of course she'd think it was her fault, that's what she always does when things don't work out the way she wants them to," he drummed his claws on his knee. "That's always been one of her biggest flaws, in my opinion."

Nick glared at him.

"How do you know so much about them in the first place?" he asked. Joshua focused on him, his gaze unwavering.

"I know them because they're family," he said. "My adoptive sister's married to his brother."

Nick's jaw dropped again.

The paws on her back were soft and gentle, warm lips tracing butterfly kisses down her throat, pausing to lick her collarbone before following the path back up. Pressing to hers tenderly enough to make her completely melt. She couldn't see the male's face, though, or really anything about him. But she knew he was there, that he'd always protect her, always be there for her…

Just like Nick. Wait, Nick!

Judy bolted upright, quickly regretting it as her head spun, her stomach doing corkscrews. She didn't bother looking around, knowing it would be just as dark with her eyes open as it was with them shut. Just like it had been the first time she'd woken up. Swallowing only made her throat hurt, her tongue thick and useless in her mouth.

Don't panic, Jude, she told herself. You've been in worse situations than this, just stay calm and focus.

Not that she'd been too good at that lately; she was amazed she still had a job with how out of it she'd been the last few months. But it wasn't like it was all her fault: getting married and pregnant in just about two weeks, spending almost two months working a case to the point where she fell in a coma because she'd ignored her health for so long. Waking up only to find out she was full of tapeworms and had miscarried her first litter, which she hadn't even known she was going to have. She and Nick had also finally started to repair the rift that had been forming between them, only for them both to be assaulted, kidnapped and taken who knows where.

And from the lack of his scent in the room, he wasn't even there anymore.

But he was here when I first woke up, I'm sure of it, she bit her lip. I-I felt his tail, I know he was here!

Where could the perp have taken him? Why had they been separated? What was even going on anymore? She forced back the tears trying to fill her eyes; she was done crying just because things got a little hard. The precinct, if not the whole city, had to know they were missing by now, and she was sure they were doing everything they could to find them. Not just because she and Nick had such a good case record, almost flawless, if she were honest, but because they were friends, brothers and sisters in blue. And she wasn't about to just go and give up, not again.

I have to get out of here, she pushed to her feet, fighting the nausea and dizziness, pressing a paw to the wall to steady herself. I-I'm not just going to lay around and wait to be rescued!

She dragged her claws along the wall, searching for any kind of door. She could always just pick a random spot and burrow through, like she had under a hundred fences and walls by now, but she had no idea of the layout of this place, where she'd end up if she jumped in even more blindly than she already was. No, it would be better to find an actual door, try and track Nick's scent through the hallways. There had to be some, right?

But considering how this case has gone so far, it wouldn't surprise me if this was just a room, probably out in the middle of nowhere…

Her ears perked when her paw left soil, a smile growing on her face when her palm brushed against wood. Smooth, finished wood. Her heart starting to thump in her chest, she went over every inch of it, could've shouted for joy when she found a knob, only for that elation to fade just as quickly. No matter how much she twisted and prodded, the knob wouldn't budge, and a further search beneath it revealed there was no key hole, no kind of lock to pick like Nick had taught her to.

Nick…

She sunk to her knees, ears falling limp over her face as she finally sniffled, her heart breaking as she thought of him. They'd done so much to try and find those kids, and now she couldn't even get out of here, to go and find him, make sure he wasn't hurt. But that wasn't the only reason she let herself cry now. She'd been so horrible to him lately, when all he'd done was try to help her, to make her feel better, and she'd taken sore advantage of that kindness, when she hadn't just pushed him away because she couldn't get her head on straight. And just when she'd felt that she was finally starting to figure things out, something like this happened, a hundred times worse than their fight after the Night Howler press conference. And just like then, she could've prevented it, but she'd let her stubbornness, her need to solve any problem that came her way alone get in the way. She was facing her worst fear all over again, only this time, there didn't seem to be a way out of it, to get him back by her side where he belonged, where he'd always belonged.

Nick, I…I'm sorry, she sniffed, wiped her eyes on a shirt dusted with dried mud. I'm so sorry!

She leaned back against the door, tilting her head back to stare at a ceiling she couldn't see, completely unaware of the sounds slipping in through the crack beneath the door.

Nick, I…I love you…