"'We're done?' What does that even mean, Nick?"

Without any words, Judy had closed the front door of her home and walked out to the middle of one of the carrot fields behind the burrow with Nick following behind. Seconds had passed before she had wheeled on him and started yelling, and it didn't take long for them to both be at full volume, in each other's faces, and saying everything that passed through their minds. It quickly became one of the worst fights the pair would ever have.

"Oh, I think you know exactly what it means, considering you said it with your actions," Nick shot back

"I needed time!"

Nick's jaw dropped in complete shock, and Judy crossed her arms indignantly at the fox.

"For two months? Do you have any idea what you put me through?" Nick shouted.

"Do you have any idea what you put me through?"

"Actually, no, because I didn't put you through anything compared to what you pulled on me!"

"That's not fair–" Judy began, but Nick held his paws up to stop her.

"'Not fair?'" he yelled. "'Not fair?' Don't even start, Judy!"

"You told me that you didn't want to try and work through things!"

"I was having a panic attack, Judy! I wasn't really thinking rationally! I needed time to breathe!"

"Well, so did I!" she retorted.

"I didn't leave for two months and end our relationship!"

"You ended our relationship, Nick!" Judy stated haughtily.

"After you ignored me for weeks! And what the hell was that, by the way? You had me worried sick!"

"I didn't ignore you, I just told you that I needed time!"

"From what? Huh? From what, Judy? From me?" Nick challenged as he gestured wildly at himself before shaking his head angrily. "No, it couldn't have been from me because I was trying to get space too. So, what did you need space from? The apartment? Your job? How about your life?"

Nick could hear Judy grinding her teeth in the back of her mouth.

"I just needed space, okay? Quit acting like you're the victim here! You run into some animals from your childhood and then you left me!" she screamed back at him.

Nick's voice dropped to a hiss as his ears glued down against his head.

"Oh, do not go there, Rabbit, because if you play that game, you will lose!"

"You know I'm right! You're being emotional!"

"You better check yourself, Bunny!"

Nick took two steps forward, now right in Judy's face, their personal "bubbles" becoming one.

"What are you going to do, Nick, attack me?" she spat back at him.

Nick clamped his jaw shut as he swallowed the first words that came to mind.

"The thought that you think I would proves how broken we were to begin with," he finally hissed back.

"Oh no, don't you put this on me!" Judy yelled. "'We' were not broken, it was you!"

"Of course, it was! It's always me!" Nick said with a hollow laugh as threw his paws in the air and turned away from her, now putting distance between them.

Judy laughed darkly.

"You're playing the victim right now!" she screamed.

"Oh, I'm the victim, what about you?" Nick asked as he rounded on her again. "Let's talk about how you purposely ignored me when you were feeling bad, just because you knew I'd worry about you until you told me you were safe! That's called fishing for pity!"

Judy let an audible gasp escape her lips.

"I do not 'fish for pity!"

"Oh, yeah you do, Carrots!" Nick stated with a nod of his head, his eyebrows raised.

"Don't call me that!"

"Oh, right! I completely forgot that you aren't my life mate anymore so I can't call you that!" Nick exclaimed.

Judy stopped and looked at him, silence falling between them for the first time in minutes.

"What?" she whispered.

Nick had begun pacing up and down the row of carrots that they had been arguing in, but he now stopped and looked at her. They were only a few inches apart.

"What did you just say?" Judy asked softly.

Nick shrugged his shoulders in an uncommitted reply; he had said a lot of things in the last few minutes.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Judy, just tell me."

"You called me your life mate…"

Nick felt his body tense. He hadn't meant to say that out loud, not now, not any time soon. Nick never had blatantly stated that they were life mates before, even though he had glossed over it in conversation, simply because it was a serious ordeal, especially to a fox.

"I-I didn't mean to, sorry," Nick replied bitterly. "And why do you even care? Not like we are even partners, much less anything more than that."

"Why didn't you tell me? I would have–"

"Would have what?" Nick asked dejectedly. "You would have stayed? You would have cared? You wouldn't have acted like this? What is it you would have done?"

"I–"

"Oh, please," Nick interrupted. "You wouldn't have done a thing. You would have still left me. You would have still put me through hell. You would have still made me feel less than I am."

"I would have tried!" Judy suddenly screamed back, tears forming in her eyes.

"You aren't even trying now!" Nick yelled back, his paws clenched into fists and his chest heaving.

"I am! I am trying now!"

"Prove it then!" he challenged.

She kissed him.

It was sudden and it took Nick aback, but he let her. Knowing he shouldn't, he let himself melt into her kiss, returning it with just as much effort, and he didn't know why he let himself do it. Before, Nick had started to resent her for what she had done to him, but now, he couldn't help but be paralyzed at her touch. A few seconds of bliss passed before Judy broke the kiss. Leaning back slightly, she looked up at Nick, tears still threatening to spill from her eyes.

"I-I'm sorry, I d-didn't mean to–" she fumbled.

Nick grabbed the bunny and pressed his lips to hers again, silencing her before breaking the second kiss himself.

"It's okay," he whispered to her.

"Do you really think I fish for pity?" she asked, her voice and expression soft with desperation underlying her tone.

Nick looked at her, astonished that they had been yelling at the top of their lungs a moment before and now they were holding each other and just talking.

"No, I don't… I didn't mean that, I was just mad…"

Judy burst into tears, making Nick's eyes widen in immediate surprise; the emotional rollercoaster had him hanging on for dear life.

"I'm sorry!" she bawled, her ears drooping down. "I-I shouldn't have left and I s-shouldn't have said those t-things! I'm just a h-horrible life mate!"

Nick's heart fell in his chest at the sight of the sobbing rabbit.

"Judy, no, that's not what–"

"Please don't call me J-Judy!" she sobbed harder, tearing streaming down her cheeks freely. "I j-just want you to call me Carrots and e-everything to be o-okay!"

Nick couldn't help but chuckle lightly.

"And you called me emotional," he smirked.

Judy sniffled and gave a grim smile as she attempted to wipe the tears from her face.

"You probably hate me," she stated thickly.

Nick's expression hardened as he thought of how to best respond. Taking a small step back, Nick brought his paws up to Judy's face, holding her gently.

"Look, Ju-Carrots, we aren't going to pretend like this didn't happen, because this definitely happened. You just left me…" Nick paused, struggling with the right words. "I just… I don't understand why you would do that to me."

"I was wrong, I shouldn't have left. I'm so sorry–"

"Why did you leave?" Nick asked.

"What?"

"You keep apologizing for leaving but I want to know why you left in the first place. Why didn't you return my calls or my messages? Why didn't you come back?"

"Return your calls or messages?" Judy asked, confused. "I left my phone in Zootopia, Nick."

"Stop messing with me, Rabbit," Nick said with a frustrated shake of his head. "I know you took your phone."

"No, Nick, I didn't. I left it in your apartment, in the couch. You know I have a habit of sliding it under the cushions when I sleep."

"But you just asked me what 'we're done' meant a minute ago."

"Well, that's what you wrote in the letter!"

"Letter?"

"You sent me a letter a month ago, remember?"

"I never sent you a letter."

Nick and Judy stared at one another as they realized that they hadn't been talking to each other at all. Nick's jaw fell open slightly as the puzzle pieces fell into place.

"You're working a case, right? The Chief told me to come and check on you; he said he hasn't heard from you in a week."

"I've had to keep in touch using my parents' phones, but it's hard when they're so busy. I was going to try and call him today."

"And you couldn't have called me?" Nick asked with a raise of his eyebrows.

"I was trying to bury myself in my work," Judy stated apologetically. "Mom said she had spoken to you."

"Why were you out here for so long?" Nick asked as he tried to remember the events of the last night the two had seen each other. "You just took some random case and took off?"

"This wasn't a random case, Nick," Judy reasoned. "I was telling you about this case a few weeks ago. The crops that were stolen a few months ago, remember? The case opened up to be bigger than I thought. There are over ten animals having their crops stolen on a regular basis."

Nick inhaled deeply at her words.

"We have been completely backwards the entire time."

"What do you mean?" Judy inquired, her amethyst eyes wide as she remained completely confused on what was going on.

"I forgot about this case. I thought you chose some random case in Bunnyburrow to get away from me. Then you never returned my calls or my texts, so I assumed you were ignoring me, but your phone was sitting in the couch the entire time."

Nick could see the realization in Judy's face, and could sense the gears in her brain start turning.

"Wait, so that letter I got-?"

"It wasn't from me, Carrots. Someone is messing with us."

"Wait, then how did you know that we were done if you didn't know I got that letter?"

"I sent you a text message saying the same thing, and the only way someone could have known what I had sent you is if they had your phone, and I never heard it go off when I was calling you, which means–"

"My phone isn't in the couch," Judy breathed.

"Someone has been in our apartment."