Chapter 10

Nick and Judy waved goodbye to Judy's parents on the train platform. There were a bunch of the little bunnies surrounding her parents, all yelling goodbye and waving. Nick smiled and knew he would never forget this trip. Nick felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw it was from his mom. Bogo must've contacted his parents to let them know he was coming. "Should I answer it? Bogo said not to call them," Nick said to Judy. "Just answer it. It's not that big of a deal," Judy replied. Nick answered his phone. "Hello, Mom!" "Oh, Nick! I can't believe you're coming over for the week! But why did your boss call to let us know you were coming?" said Marie. "Well, I was busy and couldn't call, and I didn't know if you would be awake when I called." "Oh, ok. When will you arrive?" "About noon tomorrow." "Good. I'll have a big lunch prepared." "Oh, and Mom?" "Yes, Nick?" "Judy's coming over too." "Oh, wonderful! I'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye!" "Bye!" Nick hung up. "Well, we're gonna get a big lunch tomorrow, Carrots." Judy just smiled. "Why don't people realize that foxes are just as nice as everyone else? You're parents are nicer to people than some others I know, but those people are against foxes!" Judy said. "I know, but your folks seem to like me now. Your dad seemed pretty comfortable with me. He even asked if I could stay longer!" Nick said. Judy looked surprised. "My dad must really like you if he asked that!" Nick laughed and leaned back in his chair. "Yeah. I create feelings in others that they themselves don't understand," Nick said. Judy laughed and put her paw on top of Nick's. Nick smiled and looked out the window. "So where do your parents live?" asked Judy. "I grew up in Zootopia, but when I moved out of the apartment, I stayed In Zootopia, but my parents and my little sister, Viki, moved to the country in Okladensa. They thought that they should get away from the city for a while," Nick said. "Want to go to the observation deck for a while?" asked Judy. "Shure," Nick said as he was getting up and walking to the stairs. Nick got there first. He saw the trees flying by, and the track ahead. Judy got there and looked around with Nick. "Why'd you want to come up here, Carrots?" asked Nick. "I wanted some time alone with my best friend in the world!" said Judy. Nick smirked. "Sly bunny." "Dumb fox!" "You know you love me." "Do I know that? Yes. Yes I do. And this time, we're not being funny!" Judy started leaning toward Nick and he was leaning toward her, and soon, their lips met and they hugged each other. When they parted, Nick looked at Judy. Judy looked at Nick. "Judy, will you be my full-time girlfriend?" "Yes Nick! Of course!" Judy said as she hugged Nick neck. Nick kissed Judy all down her neck and up to her forehead. Judy giggled and kissed Nick hard on his lips. "How would your parents like a rabbit for an in-law?" asked Judy. Nick laughed. "They really aren't the kind of people who care that much. They think all animals should be treated equally, regardless of species or size." "They would make great grandparents." "You're getting a little ahead of yourself, Carrots. Slow down that daydreaming brain of yours!" Nick said. "Sorry. I just like to think about the distant future." "That's a little too distant for me!" "Ok, how about this? Where should we have our honeymoon?" "Still too distant! I like to think no more than two weeks ahead." "Sorry." "You can think about those things to yourself, and when the time comes, then we can talk about them." "Ok, Nick." Nick hugged Judy and she nuzzled her face in Nick's neck. "Let's go sit back down, Carrots," said Nick. "Alright," Judy replied.

When the train stopped, Nick and Judy were the first ones off the train. "My parents live just a few blocks away from here. Let's walk," Nick said. Judy took Nick's hand and started walking down the sidewalk toward their house. Soon, they were walking on the side of the road outside of the town. The house was a two story ranch style house. They walked up to the door and Nick pressed the doorbell. A vixen that looked oddly familiar to Judy opened the door. "Nick!" The fox said as she opened the door and hugged Nick tightly around the neck. Nick returned the hug. "I missed you so much, Nick!" said the vixen. "I've missed you too, Viki," Nick said. Viki! This must be Nick's little sister. "Come in!" Viki said as she opened the door wider. "Mom! Dad! Nick and Judy are here!" Viki yelled into the house. Jeff and Marie ran around the corner and ran up to Nick and both hugged him tightly. "Mom, Dad, It's good to see you both too!" Marie turned to Judy and hugged her too. "It's so good to see you, Judy!" "You too, Mrs. Wilde!" "Judy, this is Viki," said Nick. "Viki, this is Judy Hopps, my partner at work." "How do you do Ms. Wilde?" said Judy. "Oh, it's actually Mrs. Worth. I'm married!" "Congratulations! Where's the lucky man?" said Judy. "He's been deployed with the Marines for a month now," Viki said. "He's doing a great service." "Viki, why don't you show Judy where she can put her things?" said Jeff. "Ok, Dad. Come on!" Viki ran upstairs with Judy following. Nick looked at his parents and saw the love in their eyes. "Lunch is almost ready!" said Marie. "Thank you for doing this, Mom." "No problem! I love having guests over! Just last month, we had your Uncle Robin and Aunt Marian over," Marie said. "Their kids are a handful!" laughed Jeff.

Marie had fixed a huge chicken dinner, with plenty of salad, fruits, and vegetables. Nick and Judy ate until they were stuffed. "Time for dessert!" said Marie after they had all eaten. Nick moaned. "I think you'll make room for this! Blueberry pie!" Marie said. Once she said "blueberry," Nick shot up and wagged his tail. "I think I can make room for blueberry pie!" said Nick. "I thought you might," said Jeff.

The pie was gone pretty soon after that, but Nick spent most of the rest of the night in the bathroom. The next morning, Nick took a walk with Judy around town. Nick showed her all the sights to see. That night, Nick took her into the woods behind the house and took her on a moonlight walk. They walked all around the creek, and even had a kiss at the waterfall. They continued to walk all around, until Nick felt an urge to be near his family. Nick started to look nervous, and Judy saw it. "What's wrong, Nick?" asked Judy. "I just have this uncontrollable urge to be near my family. Like something bad is going to happen to them," Nick explained. "It's nothing Nick, but if it'll make you feel better, we can go back," Judy said. Nick let go of Judy's paw and started running toward home. Judy ran as fast as she could to keep up with Nick. Nick went inside and ran into his parents' bedroom. "Nick? What are you doing up at this hour?" said Jeff when he saw it was Nick. "Are you and Mom ok?" Nick said in an out of breath way. "Yes. Why should we not?" "No reason," Nick said as he shut the door. Nick walked down the hall to Viki's room. He opened it and walked to his sister. He looked at her sleeping peacefully. She was a very deep sleeper like Nick, so he knew it was impossible to wake her up to see if she was ok. Nick walked out and shut the door behind him and went to where Judy was standing. "You can go to bed now, Carrots. It was nothing," Nick said and kissed Judy on her forehead. "Goodnight, Nick," Judy said. "Goodnight, Carrots," Nick said as he went to his bedroom, while Judy went to the guest bedroom. Nick had the same nightmare as he had at Judy's parent's place. Nick was standing in a hallway with his and Judy's parents and Judy. He was wearing his uniform, while Judy wasn't. He had one door on each side of the hallway. Either door he went through, he would lose some or all of the people with him. He couldn't decide witch door to take. He didn't know who he would lose through each door, so he was freaking out. Then his mother tried to comfort him, but he rejected it. Then tentacles came out of the wall and took everyone away, but he tried to fight them, but he was ripped apart. Then Nick shot up and saw he was on the floor of his bedroom at his parent's house. "Why am I having nightmare like this?" thought Nick. Nick got up and got dressed and went downstairs. Viki and Judy were watching Viki's favorite show, Marie was cooking a breakfast of insect muffins, while Jeff was sitting in his easy chair reading the newspaper. Judy was eating some Lucky Chops. She doesn't eat insects like foxes do. Nick sat on the couch next to Judy. "Good morning, Nick!" said Viki. "Good morning," Nick said. Judy whispered something to Viki, and Viki giggled and did a thumbs up. Nick was looking at the tv and didn't notice. Judy leaned up and kissed Nick on the lips and held it for thirty seconds straight. "I love you Judy, but that was unexpected!" Nick said. Judy and Viki laughed. "Nothing like a good kiss to wake up the sleepiest man!" Viki said. "Trust me, I've done it before." Nick started laughing too and was almost about to fall off the couch when he caught himself. Judy placed her head on Nick's lap and Nick stroked her head and ears.

"Nice to see you, Nick!" said Jeff. "It was nice to meet you, Judy!" said Viki. "Bye! Call us!" said Marie as the train was leaving to go back to Zootopia. Nick and Judy were waving to them on the platform. "Bye!" said Nick. Nick had an urge to stay and protect his family, but he knew that Chief Buffalo-Butt wanted them to go get back to work as soon as possible. Nick had no idea why since he had seen his parents a few weeks ago he wanted to be closer to them, but since staying with his entire family for a week has only strengthened the urge. Nick sat looking out the window for several minutes, but he was brought out of his thoughts by Judy. "Are you ok? You haven't been yourself for the last few days," Judy said. Nick smiled and kissed Judy lightly on her forehead. "I'm fine, Carrots," Nick said. Judy looked concerned and sad at the same time. "I'm worried for you Nick. You've been having nightmares and always seem to have to be near me and your family. Do you want to talk about it?" said Judy. Nick sighed. No avoiding it now. "Judy, I'm scared. I'm scared I might lose you and my family. I don't know why, but I think it has to do with my fear of gangs. And the boss being loose doesn't help one bit." "Do you think we should see a psychiatrist?" "I had gone to one when I was about 20, but he said I had PTSD that was triggered by muzzles. I hadn't told him about the gang, but I probably have it because of that too. I've had a hard life." "I know, Nick. But you're going to have to be strong through life." Nick sighed and looked out the window and was silent for a couple of hours. Judy went to the observation deck by herself to think. Nick just stayed in his seat to find out what the boss would want to kill him for. "The boss was doing something illegal, so I stopped him. According to the law, killing people, taking them hostage, and using illegal drugs are all illegal. So I have nothing to fear legally, but he is trying to kill me for no reason. Wait! He's never actually tried to take my life yet! What am I afraid of? Maybe he went to South America to hide! Or maybe he didn't...," Nick thought. Nick couldn't get out of his head the thought that he was possibly going to die, or maybe the boss was going to take everything away from him. Nick fell asleep in his seat. Soon after he fell asleep, Judy came back down and found Nick sitting in his seat asleep. Judy sat in her seat next to him and leaned against his shoulder and fell asleep with Nick.

Several hours later, the train pulled into Zootopia Central Station. Nick woke up when the train stopped, but Judy was already wide awake. "Let's go, Nick!" Judy said. Nick grabbed his suitcase and his backpack and walked off the train behind Judy. Chief Bogo was there waiting for them. "Welcome home, you two. Here's your keys. We had your cars brought here for you. I hope to see you at work tomorrow," Bogo said. "Figures...," Nick mumbled to himself. Bogo left without another word. "That's a little strange," said Judy to Nick. Nick nodded and walked to his car. Judy walked to hers and they went to their separate apartments. They were both thinking the whole way to their homes. When Nick got home, he went straight to bed, but he couldn't sleep, he kept having nightmares again. This time, only his parents were there. In the dream, they were poisoned and Nick's arms were cut off. Nick opened his eyes and knew it was a dream. Nick couldn't sleep very well that night. Judy, on the other hand, slept well, but had a nightmare too. It wasn't as bad as Nick's, she could sleep through it, but it was about her getting kidnapped and put in a dungeon while Nick couldn't save her, but he did save her at the end of the dream.

When Nick got to roll call the next day, he fell asleep before Bogo even got there. Judy elbowed him to wake him up before Bogo came in. "Assignments! Officers McHorn, Delgato, you take the Tundratown patrol team today. Officers Wilde, Hopps, paperwork today, Officers Francine, Fangmayer, Sahara Square SWAT. Officers..." Nick forgot what else he said. He fell asleep again. "WILDE!" Bogo yelled. Nick shot up. Everyone else was laughing. "Wake up!" Bogo said. Bogo continued giving assignments for another fifteen minutes. When it was over, Nick walked straight to his desk. When the computer had booted up, he saw two hundred papers that he had to fill out. Nick moaned, then started on the first paper, a report on the number of parking tickets that had been given last week. Nick almost fell asleep before he finished, but the papers he had to fill out were easy. "Here," Judy said, startling Nick. She was handing Nick her earbuds. "They help me concentrate when I'm too sleepy to work. Just play loud hard music, not soft music," Judy said, smiling. Nick took them. "Thanks, Carrots," Nick said. He turned around and plugged them to his phone and played his rock music playlist. It really did help keep him awake. He finished his work early and left to go clock out. Before he clocked out, his phone started ringing. He looked at it. It was from Viki. Nick answered. "Hey, Sis, how you doin'? Listen, I- Wait, are you crying?" Nick said as he answered. "Nick! There's a mean man trying to break into our house! He's got bad people with him and they have guns and knives! Help!" Then the line went dead. Nick ran to Bogo's office. "Chief!" Nick yelled as he burst through the room. Bogo put something under his hooves and Nick heard Gazelle music playing, but he ignored it. "What is it, Wilde? I'm busy working here!" Bogo said. "Chief! My sister just called! My family is being attacked! I need permission to have Officer Jefferson fly me to my family in the ZPD jet, NOW!" Nick said. "Permission granted, Wilde!" Bogo said. Nick ran out the door, hoping he wasn't too late.

Author's Note:

Dun dun dun! Cliffhanger! Who and what could it be? This is the longest chapter so far. Hope you enjoyed it! I was informed earlier that I keep using "where" instead of "were" a bunch. From now on, I'll do a better grammar check, and I'll revise the first nine chapters for grammar later. This isn't really related to the story, but Nick's favorite song is Strike Back by We As Fox. It became his favorite after he wanted to "strike back," so to speak, at the world when he was a kid. His second favorite is Dead Man by We As Fox. This one became one of his favorites after he met Judy, because like the song says, she "pulled the dead man out" of Nick. I would totally recommend listening to their songs, if you can decipher the band name, that is. (We As Fox is NOT the band's real name, obviously.)