Chapter 5
They were alone now, relatively speaking.
Nick looked around the room. Taking it in. Seeing what changed in his absence and what was still the same. His eyes eventually landed on the little rabbit standing in the middle of the room, her nose twitching in anticipation.
"I wanted to yell at you. I still kind of do. But..." he blinked a few times and shook his head, "Well that", he jerked his thumb towards the kitchen and the two inside it,"wasn't something I was expecting to happen. Ever. Which really took the wind out of those sails."
He walked past her in a kind of a daze and sat down on the couch, putting his head in his paws.
"So, how did you know I was here?" Her voice was barely a squeak.
Nick's shoulders jerked with a single laugh, "Fru dropped her phone in the bath while trying to take a picture of little Judy. Used her dad's to text me to get your number again. I ran to the station and asked Clawhauser to ping your phone's location."
This was just another reminder to Judy why she's so bad at lying. Too many uncontrollable variables.
He looked back up at her, "Why are you here, anyway?"
"You never talked about them."
"Until two minutes ago, I never thought they'd be a part of my life again. So what did it matter?"
"Because, I didn't want the first time meeting them to be me telling them something happened to you in the line of duty."
Nick shivered at that realization. She was right. Oh hello Mrs Wilde. I'm Nick's partner at the police precinct. I'm here to tell you he died in the line of duty. It's not my fault but I know you'll blame me for it. Not a fun image to float around his head.
His head bobbed in reluctant acceptance, "Point very well taken, Carrots. But just so you know I will be a little grumpy at the fact you went behind my back and did this, regardless of how it played out. No more than a week though."
The little joke did not land like he thought. Instead of a laugh or a smirk from the bunny, she continued to scowl at him.
"You want to talk about going behind backs?" Judy's voice raised up, "What about you?"
Confusion fell on his face, "What do you mean?"
"What exactly have you and Finn been doing?"
His eyes widened, fearing she somehow found out, but quickly furrowed in suspicion, knowing that would be highly improbable. But she now knew that there was something more than "hanging with Finn". He could lie like the best of them, but Judy knew how to crack him open.
"What exactly are you accusing me of, Carrots?"
Her nose was still twitching a mile a minute, much like her heart, and now her bottom lip quivered.
…..girl to girl, you ought to know foxes aren't the most monogamous mammals….
….I'd say you're at the tail end of the relationship…
Swallowing down a sob Judy looked away from Nick, "Natalie said that foxes aren't the most monogamous mammals."
There was a whine from the kitchen, "No, Judy I…"
"Hush now! Let them deal with their problems." They heard Marie-Ann scold her daughter for trying to interrupt them.
An invisible boulder seemed to have landed on Nick, knocking the wind out of him as he sunk into the couch. His mind raced as he realized, looking at it from a different perspective, why she might think that. And it did look very bad for him.
"What were you doing?" She was tempted to add or who, but that would hurt herself too much. Make the idea too concrete and she already felt the tears welling up.
There was a sharp pain in Nick's chest as he looked at Judy standing before him trembling in a saddened fury. And the more he looked at his absences with the mindframe of being accused of that, the more the pain twisted in deeper.
"Not that," he shook his head, "Lord no, Carrots."
"Then tell me." she said through gritted teeth.
He looked into her eyes, slightly puffy from crying and on the verge of doing so again.
"I needed to buy something and an officer's pay wouldn't cover it quick enough. So I helped Finn out on a few…"
"You were hustling again?" She shouted.
From the kitchen Natalie could be heard, "Lord that bunny's loud."
"Sweet cheese and crackers Nick! You told me you were done with that life. If you were caught you could have lost your job."
"Hey, hey!" He raised his paws up defensively, "Everything we did was technically legal. No laws were broken whatsoever. That was one of my stipulations with Finnick."
Her foot tapped the floor a flurry as she crossed her arms, "And what exactly was it that you need all that extra cash for anyway? Must be something pretty pricy. Spill it, fox."
With a defeated laugh he fell back against the couch, his head resting on the wall behind it, and said more to himself, "This was not how today was supposed to go. Not even. A. Bit! I had it all planned out. I had it so planned out, it wouldn't have looked planned out," another chuckle at a sudden realization, "It would have been my ultimate hustle."
Judy raised an accusatory eyebrow at him.
Leaning forward he looked Judy in her lovely, but currently angry looking, lavender eyes, "Carrots, you know you're the best thing that has ever happened to me right?"
"I think you might have said that once or twice."
It was way more than that. They both knew it.
"You trusted me when no one else did. You proved to me that a fox could be more than a fox, and pushed me to be more than that. Without you, I'd still be out on the streets." he raised his arms to the room around them, "And you just don't stop. You repaired a bridge I thought I burnt down ages ago."
She wasn't in a mood to be buttered up. But the honest in his voice alone, was causing her anger to slowly evaporate.
"Come on Nick, quit stalling."
His sly grin flashed briefly on his face as he looked deep into her eyes, "You've done so much for me, that I don't think it is possible for me to properly thank you. Even if we were stuck with each other for the rest of our lives, I'd still be indebted to you. But if you're willing…."
He slid off the couch onto one knee in front of her, as he fished something out of his pocket.
"I'll try my best."
The little box in his hand opened to reveal a glimmering ring inside. A gold band with a heart shaped diamond at the center and two gemstones, one bright green and the other lavender, on either side of it.
He recited this simple line for hours. It was astound how hard six words could be. Out of the hundreds or thousands of times he rehearsed, Nick has only been able to say it a handful of times without fumbling or choking up. But this time, he knew, he was not going choke. It was going to be perfect.
"Judy Hopps, will you…"
He was slammed into the couch by a gray blur of an overly emotional bunny. She shed tears, shared kisses, and gave more than a few swift punches to the fox. Lovingly, he accepted them all.
Getting a temporary reprieve from her mostly amorous assault, he looked down at the happily crying bunny, "So that's a yes?"
He punched him in the arm again, "You went hustling with Finn just to get me a ring?"
"There was the ring," He began count on his paw, "Pre-paid reservations at L' Endroit Cher downtown for tonight...".
"Tonight?! Oh Nick, that's too much!"
But he kept going, "Paid the band to play your favorite songs exclusively while we're there, rented out a limo, and paid off a few people to refurbish and hold a specific gonadal on the sky tram in the Rainforest District."
With a sniffle, she hugged her fox. She thought back to this morning with his overly tight hug and his wanting to go out on the town. He had it all planned. All planned for today, a day which was almost over. As happy as she was, she couldn't help but have her heart drop a bit at her unintentional cruelty.
"And I messed it all up. I am such a dumb bunny."
Putting a paw under her chin, he lifted her face towards his smile, "You're not a dumb bunny. You became a cop. Saved the city. Saved me. Saved my relationship with my family. You're an amazing bunny who succeeds at anything and everything she puts her mind to, no matter the odds. If you were to tell me that you've decided to be the first bunny to hop to the moon, I wouldn't doubt you for a second."
He leaned into her with a tender kiss.
"Forget the moon, what about rustling up some more grandkits for me?"
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Thanks to UmbraTsuki (Go check out their stuff at AO3! It's good!) for doing a bit of a beta read for me on this and the next chapter. Might even go back and do some touching up on the whole thing. Maybe.
Ah poor Nick, Judy can't let you do anything right can she? Not even finishing asking a very important question.
And I hope google translate didn't screw up the little french joke I tossed in there.
So the next chapter is the last, and rather short.
