I wanted to make a longer chapter, but because of the whole quarantine thing, I decided to release what I already have so that it can hopefully help entertain you guys. But I want to get more chapters out soon and hopefully get this fic done with too! Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews that inspire me to keep on writing, you guys are the best!

To answer FoxFire, I am indeed on AO3, but because I only made an account in 2018 or so this fic isn't there. As for my newer fics, you can find them here and there ^^

And no, this chapter's title isn't a reference to Frozen 2, it's just that I couldn't find anything else to name it that fits. Oh well.

Judy and Rick sat alone, in silence, in the dark small closet as they kept close attention to the sounds coming from outside. They could hear drawers opening and closing, something being written, phone notifications buzzing; all very ordinary things one would hear in any ordinary office.

Too bad that was far from being the case for them.

Every once in a while they'd hear the sound of the chair rolling around followed by steps in the room; and their breaths would stop until they heard Sheen sit back down. Only then they'd allow themselves to exhale – but still as quietly as they could.

Judy just hoped Sheen wouldn't need to open the closet.

They didn't dare look through the crack of the door that was slightly open, afraid that the moment they did their eyes would meet those of Sheen for a split second and just like that, they'd be done with.

Funny how an impending threat has the power to make one lose their sense of time, and it only became worse when Rick and Judy remembered that, with each passing second, Nick's life was on the line.

Because it could have been a minute, or it could have been an hour, they couldn't tell, when they finally heard Sheen get up from the chair, walk to one of the doors, open and close it. Their ears shot up in search of any following sound, but they were met with silence. And even in the faint light they found themselves in, Rick and Judy were able to exchange a knowing glance.

Judy took a deep breath and nodded towards the closet door, the only thing keeping them safe from others in that moment. Rick gulped, heart pounding so fast it seemed to break the deafening silence for a second, and finally nodded.

Judy got on all fours and crawled towards the door, trying to avoid any squeaky spots her paws happened to touch. She moved so slowly Rick had to be careful not to trip on her as he followed her, admittedly being way less gracious than the trained cop.

Once they reached the crack on the door, Judy dared to take a peek before Rick was brave enough to. She moved her head back and forth, trying to cover as much ground as she could from that small crack. The chair was empty, and as far as she could tell, so was the room.

"I think he's gone," Judy whispered, and only then Rick was brave enough to look as well.

"Seems like it," Rick nodded, rubbing his hands together and only then realizing how sweaty his palms had gotten. He tried to dry them off on his shirt, only to find it was useless when his entire body was covered in cold sweat, "So… What do we do now?"

"Try to find Nick, free him, and see if we manage to find any clues on the way. And then, escape," She reached for her phone and put it on silent mode, remembering what happened when she tried to record clues with it last time, "You know this place better than I do. Where should we go from here?"

"Oh," Rick gulped, "Well, I think Sheen left that way, which is also the way Lydia went when she went back to the club, and the main entrance is also there, so I think our best shot is to go the opposite way… There." He pointed to the door behind the chair were Sheen previously sat.

"Ok," Judy nodded, "Where does that lead to?"

"That's just it," Rick bit his lip, "It used to lead to Sheen's office. This room was the lab last time I was here. So I'm not… entirely sure what's the current configuration. But… there should be a lab, and if they haven't changed anything else, the room where they kept the… uh, prisoners, is that way too."

Judy's head hung low and she gulped before reaching for the doorknob of the small closet.

"Then that's our best shot," She looked at Rick and straightened herself up, getting up from the floor and dusting her uniform, "Ready?"

No, Rick thought. He was not ready for any of that, and he definitely was not ready for what would happen if anything were to go wrong.

He just wanted to go back home, pick Robin up, pack up and run away. Find a new place, start again. He'd already done it so many times anyway; he'd learned to ignore the shame by then.

But he couldn't do that anymore – not when Nick was there.

"As ready as I can be," He gulped and nodded, praying his legs would not give in right then and there.

Judy checked through the crack one last time before pushing the door open just enough for them to pass through. She made sure to close it again after they left it and they both ran to the other door.

"Oh, come on," Judy groaned as she turned the doorknob over and over again without getting the door to open, "It's locked."

"Oh, no," Rick shook his head, trying to control the overwhelming feeling of defeat that fought its way into his heart already, "What- What do we do now?"

Judy's ears dropped and she took her hand to her chin, suddenly thoughtful.

"I, I could try to kick it open, or break it, but that would take some time and someone could hear it," She looked from side to side, "Or we could try to find some other entrance, if you can think of any and-"

Judy's train of thought was interrupted when the door across the room opened. Their knee-jerk reaction was to gasp and jump backwards, but they knew they didn't have the time to do anything other than that.

Judy drew her gun out of its pocket on instinct, hands slightly shaky, as Rick hid behind her and covered his head with his hands; ready for things to get bad.

They were so startled their chests hurt as their hearts pounded, their guts feeling like knots.

"Gah," Lydia squealed and threw her hands in the air when she saw Judy holding a gun, "Put that down, bunny, it's me."

Rick's and Judy's bodies went from impossibly stiff to unbelievably relaxed as Judy lowered her gun, but as she eyed the vixen, decided to keep holding it in her hand.

Just in case.

"Oh, Lydia, thank God it's just you, but next time give us a heads-up," Rick shook his head and ran his fingers through the tuft of her on his head. If he started to sweat any more, it was going to start to drip down from his head.

"Sure, next time I'll just send you a text before I sneak out," Lydia rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her, running across the room to meet them, "But I figured I'd better hurry to give you this."

Rick and Judy watched in confusion as Lydia reached down to hold Rick's hand, his open palm pointing up, and laid a bunch of keys held together by a silver ring on his hand before closing his fingers around it.

Judy's eyes widened and then she frowned, thoughtful.

"Is that-" Rick opened his hand to look at it, and then up to look at Lydia, in disbelief.

"I knew you wouldn't get far without it." Lydia shook her head as though that was an obvious statement, and then looked back at the door she'd come from, her ears twitching, "But you two better go. Now. He'll realize it's missing sooner or later."

Judy nodded and then snatched the keys from Rick, quickly figuring out which one they needed.

"Got it!" She cheered as she opened the door.

Judy then quickly looked at Lydia as she removed the keys from the lock and held them in her hand, as though she was asking permission. The vixen nodded, and Judy smiled at her as she put the keys into her pocket.

"Thank you, hum, Lydia," Judy smiled at her, although an unsure smile, it was a smile nevertheless.

Lydia held her hand up in a dismissive way.

"Just go," Lydia urged and slightly nodded towards the door before she turned around to leave.

"Come on, Rick," Judy called before she disappeared into the other room.

Rick made a motion to follow her, but found himself unable to move.

"Hey," He called quickly as he turned around to face Lydia before she could leave, and she had to double check he was calling her and not Judy before she turned around to face him again.

"What?" She urged again, checking between him and the door behind her to make sure nobody was approaching them.

Rick looked down and bit his lip, "Thank you. I… We'd be lost without your help."

Lydia sighed, but could not help back a small smile. Rick could tell she'd tried to hide it, but didn't tell her just how bad that attempt had been.

"I must be going fucking insane," She shook her head and groaned, but Rick could tell she hadn't meant it, "But go. Time's running against you here."

He nodded in agreement and turned to the door Judy had gone through, only to stop himself once again.

"Hey."

"What?" Lydia groaned, turning around again with a slight look of annoyance in her face that barely hid her worry. She was used to wanting to give Rick a slap back into reality, but he was really pushing his luck there.

"When this is over, we'll come back to get you too," Rick said.

Lydia's frown quickly turned into a surprised expression as she blinked, blushing slightly and looking away from Rick. She couldn't help but giggle.

"You really haven't changed a bit, Goodie," She sighed and smiled, reaching out to put her hand on his chest and push him towards the door, "But you should really go now, really."

Rick didn't budge with her push, instead reached up to grab her hand from his chest and hold it in his, "It's a promise. I will come back for you too. Unless… unless you don't want me to," His eyes locked with hers, as he searched for any signs of hesitation from her.

Lydia's eyes widened and then she closed them with a sigh, "You really haven't changed, at all. An eternal optimistic, hum?"

Rick let some air through his nose and shrugged. Then, he felt her hand slide away from his.

Lydia opened her eyes again and her gaze met Rick's.

"I always liked that about you," She said before she quickly lurched forward and pressed her lips against his, taking her hands to either side of his face and keeping him place.

Rick was taken aback, left speechless and reactionless as it happened.

When he finally acknowledged what had happened, it was over – she had pulled herself back from him and laid her hands on his chest. Lydia took the opportunity to finally push him towards the door without any reluctance from him. He tripped and his body pushed the door open as he fell backwards into the other room, shaking his head.

Lydia giggled and stood by the door.

"Good luck, Rick," She said before she closed the door.

Rick shook his head and got up from the floor, dusting his clothes. He still felt her kiss lingering on his lips, the butterflies on his stomach still flying as strong and high as they did when they first kissed all those years before.

"There you are," Judy approached him from behind, "Come on, we have to hurry."

"Oh," Rick blushed and shook his head back into reality, "Of course," He said before he started following her.

Once Judy pushed the door open, she found herself in a dimly lit, small corridor with two doors on the right wall and one door on the left wall. Aside from those, the corridor led to a dead end. Whatever it was they were looking for, it had to be in those.

Judy turned on the flashlight on her phone and gulped. The carpet and walls were a dark shade of red, with stains that gave the room a sinister look – even more sinister, that is. She hoped those stains were merely food spills that nobody had bothered to clean, but she knew better than that.

She finally dared to take a step.

"Careful," She whispered to Rick, "We don't want anyone to hear-"

She turned around to see how Rick managed to be so quiet, only to see he hadn't followed her and was still in the other room.

"Rick," She whispered again, slightly angrier now, as she approached the door, "We have to…"

She stopped at the doorstep and checked through the door opening, and she found that indeed Rick was there, but he wasn't alone – he was talking to Lydia.

"I must be going fucking insane," She heard Lydia say.

Judy shut her mouth and watched the scene unfold in front of her.

She'd been curious about the vixen ever since she had first seen her, especially about Rick's unfounded trust in her.

What was happening there?

"When this is over, we'll come back to get you too."

Judy tilted her head when Lydia giggled to that, but tried to hide it. Was Lydia someone who needed… saving? Judy knew that, in most cases, people in schemes end up being stuck in them, even when they want out. But she'd assumed Lydia was just an old – willing – part of it, considering how Rick knew her from before.

Could Judy be wrong?

Judy's train of thought was interrupted when he witnessed Lydia kissing Rick. She couldn't hold back a gasp, but she quickly covered her mouth to suppress the noise she made so that she didn't interrupt them.

Soon after that, Lydia pushed Rick into the room. Judy barely had a second to notice she'd do it and to get away from the doorstep so that Rick wouldn't see her there – she didn't want either of them to know she'd been snooping around.

Soon enough Rick was in the corridor with her and the vixen had closed the door again, leaving them alone.

"There you are," Judy approached him, doing her best to act casual, "Come on, we have to hurry."

"Oh, of course," Rick said, and Judy pretended not to notice his nervousness.

"So, which one should we try to open?" Judy asked Rick.

"Well," He cleaned his throat and shook his head, "Preferably one that leads to an empty room, I mean, we don't have much space to hide if someone sees us here."

Judy nodded, and watched it as Rick started to sniff the air. He got on all fours and sniffed under the door cracks.

"I can't pick anyone's scent," He told her, "They must be empty, I really hope."

She nodded and walked to one of the doors and started testing out keys, trying to focus on their current mission and ignore the secondary thoughts in her head.

But suddenly, some of it made sense.

The sense of familiarity Judy had had when she first looked at Lydia, the sensation she'd already seen those eyes before – because she had, but in someone else. The feeling of trust Rick had towards her even when they hadn't seen each other in so long and when she was on the side of their enemy. The way his eyes shone when she appeared, and the protectiveness he felt towards her; the way his voice became a whisper when he'd called her an old friend.

And it definitely made Lydia's willingness to help them a lot more plausible.

Judy got it now.

But that didn't mean Lydia could be trusted.

Did it?

"I got it", Judy sighed when one of the keys finally turned in the door's lock.

Now you get the chapter's title :P

What will they find next? Stay tuned to find out! Let me know your thoughts if you feel like it :D

Hope you guys are staying safe and sound during this hard times. I wish you all the best, and I know we will get through this!