ZPD, Precinct 1

8:32 AM

As Nick, Tim, and the superintendent left the building, Judy was left in the halls, pondering what to do next.

"Since I can't be seen with Nick at the apartment, I guess I could stay here at the precinct for awhile, until I think it's safe to head back to the apartment," Judy thought, "Maybe while I'm here I can think about this... thing... I have with Nick."

Judy decided that she should head to her cubicle and think about it there. The cubicle she worked in was rather different than her fellow officers cubicles. It was rather small, much like the officers that worked in it, so that there would be no workplace errors while they do their job. Well actually, it was supposed to be a cubicle designed specifically for an elephant, but it was retrofitted to serve as a cubicle for 2, much smaller animals, like Judy and her quick-witted partner. The cubicle even had 2 chairs specifically designed to accommodate smaller mammals, which was perfect for the bunny and fox duo.

Judy managed to hop onto her chair and into her space of the elephant-sized cubicle, which was laden with notes, and 3 photos that were framed. The first picture was of her and her parents. Judy's face in the picture showed that she was brimming with optimism, almost as much as she was showing in the second picture, which featured her graduation from the police academy as a Valedictorian of her class. The third picture, however, didn't show her as optimistic, but instead, was actually pride for Nick as he also managed to achieve Valedictorian in his class.

The Bunny smiled at the memory. It only seemed like yesterday that Nick graduated from the academy and came to work for the ZPD's precinct 1, for his day of police duty. It was also the first day that the bunny and her new partner discovered Bogo DID, in fact, have a sense of humor, even though it was sort of odd. Suddenly, she remembered something that Nick said that day, as well as what he said on Friday.

"You know you love me," he said.

Even though Judy knew he said that to be funny with her, she couldn't help but blush at the irony in his words.

"Okay," Judy thought to herself, "let's rethink this Judy. You want to be sure you're not panicking over nothing or not. Let's see, I've been feeling clingy as of late, but that might be because we're roommates and that he was my first, REAL friend I made since I moved to Zootopia. Then again, why didn't I try to get off him when I woke up this morning? Did I... did I really ENJOY it? Oh carrot sticks, I think I DID like it! No, no, no, that doesn't mean you LOVE Nick for it. Yeah! Just because I liked him for doing something nice for me, doesn't mean I love him for it! Then again, there was last night, when he tried his way to cheer me up, and then he suggested he and I visit Tim so he could help me get over my pity for-... Oh GODS. I really AM in love with him!"

"Hey there Hopps," a feminine voice greeted the bunny.

Judy lightly gasped and spun her head around in surprise. The mammal talking to her was fellow officer Fangmeyer with a mug of joe in her paws.

"Oh I'm sorry, I thought you could hear my pawsteps," the tiger apologized.

"No, it's okay. I was just... thinking about something...," the smaller cop trailed off.

"Like what?" the tiger asked as she raised her brow.

"Ohhhh, nothing too bad," the doe tried to lie.

The Tiger snorted. "I take it that it's really bad if your seriously lying about it."

Judy's jaw hung open in surprise.

"C'mon Judy, I've been around enough women to know when some girl's lying and by the gods, you're terrible at it," Fangmeyer said before pulling up a seat for herself, "so tell me, what's bothering you?"

"I... don't want to talk about it," the bunny pouted.

"Hey, maybe I can help you somehow. But I can't do that if you don't tell me what's wrong."

Judy considered her options. If she confessed to Fangmeyer that she is in love with a... -her fox, she could help her figure out how to handle this. After all, this feeling, this love for another mammal, was new to her. She had never experienced love up until now. But then on the other paw, there comes the risk of this getting out, which can inevitably lead to her getting fired from the from the force. It was against the rules to date another mammal if they were in the same workplace as the other. If she doesn't tell, however, her secret will be safe, but she will have to figure out all this on her own.

She made a hard decision and took a deep breath before speaking.

"Can you promise not to tell anyone about this?" the doe feebly asked.

"I promise not to tell a soul," the tiger promised.

"Okay, here goes nothing... I think... I..."

She hard trouble getting the words out of her mouth.

Her face turned red. "I think I'm in love with... *gulp*... with Wilde."

"Oh. OH. I guess I now know why you wanted me to keep this a secret."

"You can't tell ANYONE about this. You swore!"

"Okay! You're right, I promised, but Bogo isn't going to be happy when he catches wind of it."

"I know! I was trying to figure out if I actually love him or not when you came up to me. I wanted to be sure that it wasn't just a phase or whatever, since it matters for my job."

"Well, if I can ask, when did you start to feel something for him?"

Judy thought for a moment. "I guess... it was when I was in the rainforest district when I was still working on the missing mammals case. After Nick saved me from getting my badge taken away, I was glad but... maybe I felt something else."

"And... do you feel something towards him?"

A pause.

Judy looked down with her ears behind her head and nodded shyly.

"Do you know how he feels about you?"

"No. The only thing I know is just that he's my first love," Judy said before clasping her paws over her muzzle.

"Oooh boy, quite a rock and a hard place you're in Hopps."

"That's why I was trying to figure my feelings for him! Since I love him, that means my job could be at stake!"

"I don't know about you... but maybe there's a chance that you and Wilde will KEEP your badges, even if Bogo finds out."

Judy's ears shot up. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it; you and Nick are one of the best officers precinct 1 has ever had, and you managed to solve 2 MAJOR cases by yourselves from almost nothing! Bogo should be considering you two as assets to the ZPD at this point. He would have to have a thick skull to be able to fire both of you."

This stunned the doe officer. Ever since she began working at the precinct, she wasn't exactly treated with respect, save for Benjamin Clawhauser. Everyone there just treated her as if she was the precincts token bunny that got stuck with parking duty. It wasn't even until after she spoke at the press conference that she finally got recognition, just not the way she wanted it to be. You see, on the one paw, she got respect from the prey officers, but on the other, she was despised by the predator cops. It wasn't JUST precinct one that she was recognized, it was almost whenever she went out in public and like the precinct, 2 mammal groups had different views on her. One disliked her while the other congratulates her success as if she did the right thing. It was also one of the reasons she wanted to hand over her badge. She didn't want to be praised for a mistake and couldn't bear people reminding her that she was the one who blamed the predators themselves for going savage. Things eventually smoothed over after she stopped bellwether and her associates, but that would take time. In fact, this was the first time one of her predator colleagues said something nice to her.

"Wow," Judy finally managed to say, "I don't know what to say except... thank you."

"Not a problem," Fangmeyer replied, "Officers around here always willing to help each other out, right?"

"Yeah... actually, could I ask something really quick?"

"Sure. What is it?"

Judy anxiously fidgeted with her seat. "Since you've been nice to me, does that mean we're... good?"

The tiger officer had a puzzled expression. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, does this mean you don't... not like me anymore?"

"What do y-... wait, are you still blaming yourself for that?"

"Maybe," the bunny shyly said.

"Listen, I may not represent every predator that lives in Zootopia, but I think it's safe for me to say that you and Wilde cleared our names; that we were never the monsters that caused all the cities problems. It was that rotten sheep that did it, therefore, yes, we're all good."

Judy felt her spirits rise from the reassurance Fangmeyer gave her. "Thank you for being open-minded. You don't know how much that means to me."

"Again, not a problem."

9:15

After half an hour, Judy made her way to the subway to catch the train to her apartment.

"I wonder," Judy thought to herself as she rode the train, "should I tell Nick about—... no. What would he even say? 'Oh my gosh carrots, have you lost your carrots?' No, he wouldn't... would he? *sigh*... you know what, maybe if he doesn't... love me back, I can always see my therapist in Bunnyburrow."

While growing up, wanting nothing more than to be a cop, Judy's parents assigned her to a childhood therapist to help her get over a dream that Mr and Ms Hopps thought would be impossible. Yeah, it didn't work out, but if there was something that troubled Judy, he would always be there to listen.

30 minutes of going to different stations later, the train finally reached her stop. As she then made her way out of the station, walked down the road and into the apartment complex, she began to worry about Nick's reaction when she confessed that she loved him. The best-casinerio was, "Hahahaha! That's a good one carrots! Hoo-wee, anyways, what was it you were saying", but the worse-casinerio was, "Oh my God carrots! You can't be serious, right!? This is one of those phases of yours right".

"There would be only one way to find out," Judy thought anxiously as she walked up the stairwell.

She reached the floor where their apartment was and now walked down the hallway.

She now stood in front of the door to the apartment, reached to put her apartment key into to the door.

Then she paused and took a deep breath before inserting the key into the lock.

She unlocked the door, put the keys into her pocket, opened the door, entered the living room and then turned around to close the door behind her.

She paused again, staring at the door.

"Here goes nothing," she thought.

She was about to go to Nicks room to knock on his door, expecting him to be out-cold on the bed, when she noticed Nick was already in the living room with another fox.

It was Tim.

"Crackers," Judy mentally cursed herself, "I completely forgot Nick took Tim home to our apartment! Wait... did he tell Tim that we live together!?"

"Nick, did you-," she started.

"Don't worry Carr-Judy," Nick caught himself, "I told him we were roommates."

"Oh good," she said with relief.

"That's a relief," the bunny thought, "I guess now it'll have to wait until later. But now that Tim's here... would he even WANT to be adopted by a bunny?"

"Hey Tim," Nick suddenly asked the younger fox, "do you want something to drink?"

"Yes please," Tim politely responded.

"Right away good sir," Nick said playfully mimicking a British accent. As innocently as he could, he walked by Judy and whispered "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me," in her long ear without looking at her directly.

"Wait what," Judy thought surprised.

Judy tried to tell him to stop but all that came out was jiberesh. Eventually, Judy and Tim were the only ones left in the living room.

"I'm going to kill him," the furious bunny thought.