"Oh, put that thing away, Nick!"

"No!"

"You lived in this apartment for two months after I left and now you want to go in with your gun pulled? Are you crazy?"

"What if someone is in there?"

"Why would anyone be in there?"

Nick and Judy sat crouched outside of their apartment, their voices in hushed whispers. Nick had his tranquilizer gun in his paws, his foot ready to kick down the door. Judy had stopped him immediately.

"They might have known I was going to Bunnyburrow and decided to drop by! What happened to thinking like a cop?"

"Oh, I doubt it, and don't question me as a cop – will you please get your foot off of the door? You are going to get paw prints all over it!"

"I'm getting ready to make an entrance, Rabbit!"

"You are not kicking down the front door, Nick!"

With that, Nick dropped his foot from the door and pouted, looking right at Judy, who had her arms crossed in a way that said she wasn't playing games. With a very smug attitude, Judy removed her key to the apartment from her pocket, waved it teasingly in front of Nick, and then slid it into the lock of the door.

"Foxes, always in it for the show," Judy muttered, before chuckling after noticing Nick's eyebrows rise at her comment.

Slowly, she unlocked the door and quietly nudged it open, peering inside the dark apartment. Her paws immediately fell to her sides, her ears instantly laying down flat.

"Oh, sweet cheese and crackers."

"What? Carrots, what is it? Is there someone in there?" Nick asked, prepared to take aim, holding the gun up as he waited for Judy's response.

Judy shot him a sideways glare and then stood, throwing the door open and flicking on the lights in one move.

"The apartment is a mess!" she yelled.

Nick cringed and attempted to slink away, but Judy caught him by the collar of his shirt.

"Nick, what did you do? This place looks like a stampede went through here!"

"I was busy…?"

It was more of a question than an answer, as if he were trying to convince himself as well as her. Judy's cheeks puffed slightly, trying to control her rage. She released Nick's collar and walked into the apartment, stopping once she was a few feet in and could see the extent of the mess. Her paws went to her waist, her foot thumping rapidly against the wooden floor. Nick stood and fixed his shirt slightly and cleared his throat awkwardly; he didn't really need a lecture from her about cleanliness.

"Uh, let's start looking for signs of a break-in."

"That'll be easy to do with all of this."

Judy picked up one of the filthy dishes that Nick hadn't touched since he'd used it (which must have been weeks ago) off of the coffee table and gestured with it before setting it back down. Nick stuck his tongue out at her, before turning his attention back to the details of the "scene." He began to inspect the couch, knowing that that was the best place to check at the moment.

"Nick?"

"Find something?"

"No, I have a question."

"Is it about why the place is a mess, because if so, I'm not answering."

"No, it's not."

Judy didn't make a noise – much less laugh – at his joke, which made him turn his attention toward her to see what the problem was. She was holding one of Nick's discarded Hawaiian shirts that had been lying on the edge of the couch, but she was holding it in a funny way; it looked like she was cuddling the fabric. Her eyes were slightly glossed over as if she could cry at any moment.

"Okay, what's your question?" Nick asked, his tone light and gentle as he could see something was clearly bothering her.

"Did you really want to… you know… be done?"

"Carrots, that was one big misunderstanding."

"Yes, but did you mean it? Do you still mean it?"

Her sulky voice carried across the room in a volume just above a whisper. Nick stared at her from where he was crouching on the floor in front of the couch, before standing and walking to her, carefully bringing her into his arms.

"If I meant it, I wouldn't have let you attack me with your mouth in that field… and I certainly wouldn't have taken that three-hour-yelling from your parents…"

"It wasn't a three-hour-yelling! It was ten minutes, and it was a lecture."

"Right, same difference."

Judy playfully slapped his chest, making Nick chuckle slightly.

"I'm still sorry, Nick," she said.

"Don't be, we've been through worse."

"I don't know, this was pretty bad…"

"But we'll get through it."

Nick then hugged Judy closely, feeling her arms wrap around him and hug him back. Then, with a small kiss on the top of her head, Nick released her and looked into her bright eyes.

"We are going to figure this out, Carrots, and it will take time, but we'll do it, okay?"

Judy nodded in reply, a small smile on her face. With a final look of reassurance, Nick went back to the couch. He turned on his phone's flashlight and began sweeping the light over the couch as he lifted the cushions one at a time.

"Well, I don't really see any – wait."

Nick extended a paw and reached toward the back of the couch. Pulling his paw back, Judy saw that he was holding a piece of fur that was reddish-brown.

"It looks like it came from a red panda, or a mouse, maybe?" Judy reasoned aloud.

"Or a bank vole," Nick growled.

Nick looked up at Judy, anger flashing in his eyes.

"It was them," he hissed.

Judy's face fell, as well as her ears. She had thought that Nick was managing this whole "running-into-past-bullies" thing by now, but she could tell that things had only gotten worse. Guilt flooded through her as she realized that she had not only left Nick, but she had left him at the worse time possible. Judy walked closer and crouched down to where Nick was bent in front of the couch.

"Nick… I don't think it was–"

"Well it doesn't matter what we think, because we are getting ready to know."