Nick had left work a little early, having asked Judy to cover the end of his shift so that he could help with cooking dinner. He loved his mother, he really did, but though she was a great mom and a great role model, one thing that she was not was a great chef. Tonight he had worked extra hard to prepare a meal that both his mother and Judy would like. He had a mushroom ravioli, and spinach garden salad with a sweet potato pie for dessert. Nick's mother was in the kitchen helping him with the baking and preparing the small items that Nick knew even she couldn't mess up.

"So Nick, is that cute bunny coming over tonight?" Nick tensed up, but resolutely kept his eyes forward, letting them burrow into the sweet potato pie that he was taking out of the oven.

"Mom, you can't call her cute! I've explained this to you before, a bunny can call another bunny cute but we can't!"

"Well, would you rather I say that she is adorable, sweet or maybe even exquisitely attractive?"

"How about you don't try and describe her appearance at all when she arrives?" Nick's mother sighed.

"Well I supposes that I could avoid talking about it, but really dear, she is such a sweet girl."

"Yes, well she is, just don't use the word 'cute' please."

A few minutes later Nick heard a buzz from the apartment intercom. Answering it, he confirmed that it was Judy and opened the door downstairs for her with Judy proceeding to follow him up to the apartment. She had never been to the apartment of Mrs. Wilde before. It was a small apartment, and all she could see at the moment was the kitchen and the dining room. Along the walls she saw the pictures of Nick as a kid and the pictures of him with his mother. What really got her attention though was the smell, because whatever they had been cooking smelled truly delicious.

"Mrs. Wilde, it smells great in here! What have you two prepared for dinner?"

"I prepared a salad dear, Nick wouldn't let me anywhere near the other dishes." Nick, looking a little annoyed at being called out so early jumped right in after his mother.

"Well carrots we have a garden salad, some mushroom ravioli and for dessert a sweet potato pie."

Nick took a moment to look just a little smug. There were lots of little competitions that he and Judy had between them, and cooking was one that he consistently won in. Judy gave him a half-cocked smile, slightly annoyed that he had decided to set the bar so high for her the next time that he came over.

"Well it smells great! Need any help setting the table?"

"Sure, here grab these."

Nick passed to Judy some plates and silverware and Judy took them to the table to set them up. Jumping on each chair and setting the dishes in place before moving over and repeating the process.

"Mom, could you please go sit down with the salad? I'll bring the ravioli and water over."

Nick's mother and Judy set themselves down at the table across from each other. Nick's mother seemed to look Judy over with unusual fondness, letting her gaze rest gently on her. Judy decided not to comment on this, figuring that it would be better to wait until Nick sat down before trying to begin a conversation. Nick soon arrived with a pitcher of water and a steaming bowel of ravioli, carefully setting both of them down on the cloth covered table. After a few polite words they began to serve themselves, Judy favoring the garden salad and Nick's mother the ravioli. Everything was going as planned, Nick deciding to help himself to a fair amount of both. Naturally everything tasted delicious, the ravioli having a nice earthy flavor to it while the salad felt clean and fresh. Having gotten their first initial bites in Nick's mother decided to begin the night's conversation.

"You know Nick; this really takes me back."

"Does it? How so?"

"Well, you see you haven't brought a girl to dinner like this since that time you were in high school." Nick had gone from chewing on a tomato one instant to suddenly sucking on it the next. Staring dispassionately at his fork he turned to look at his mother who seemed to be enjoying herself far too much all of a sudden.

"Well mother yes, I haven't brought many girls home. Besides I don't really think that we need to bring that particular story up."

"Oh come now Nick. It's a funny story, hasn't it been long enough?"

"Well it's still embarrassing, I don't really think it needs to be told."

"Well now I'm interested!" Nick wasn't sure if it was the suddenness of Judy's comment or this sudden sense of betrayal that startled him more. Resigning himself to his fate he began to pick at his ravioli, actively trying not to listen as his mother began to retell the story of his prom.

"Well dear, Nick here had asked this wonderful fox to prom with him. He liked her too, though I don't know if she felt the same way."

"She didn't, and I told you we were friends."

"I didn't get that impression when you were cooking dinner for her..."

"Mother please."

"Oh alright, anyway, he worked for hours preparing dinner and when she arrived he was so excited that he almost tripped over his tail trying to answer the door. There was only one problem."

"What was that Mrs. Wilde?"

"She arrived with another date!" Judy flinched at this, she actually couldn't remember if she had a date to her prom or not, but even she would never have stooped so low.

"So imagine my surprise when I went to answer the door and I thought that little Nick was going to have two young foxes as his prom dates. Of course I didn't know that the other fox was actually her date at the time so I was forced to assume that my little Nick had, had quite the effect on these two young females."

"Right, anyway we had dinner, we left and then I went to prom and had a great time."

"I thought you said- "

"I had a great time mom!"

Nick was starting to look just a little iterated at all of this, and noticing that he had raised his voice a little too much, decided to excuse himself for a time.

"I uh, I think I need to visit the little foxes room. I'll be right back. Feel free to dig into the pie now though, don't want it getting cold."

Nick got up and left the table, retrieving the pie from the kitchen and dropping it off at the table. This left Mrs. Wilde and Judy suddenly sitting across from each other with a fresh pot of tea.

Judy felt slightly suspicious about the whole situation. However, she wasn't suspicious enough to not grab some of the delicious looking pie that Nick had left. Grabbing a slice along with some tea she mused to herself about what seemed to be going on. It was clear that Mrs. Wilde had tried to rile Nick up for some reason, but she couldn't figure out why she would try and drive her own son away from the dinner table he had been preparing. Disregarding these misgivings however, the pie was amazing! Judy mentally added it to the list of things that Nick knew how to cook better than her. Unfortunately for Judy however the pleasure provided for her by the pie would be short lived as the reason behind Mrs. Wilde's insensitivity was about to become painfully clear.

"So how is my son?"

"Nick? Oh he is doing really well as a cop! In fact, chief Bogo has told me that we're one of the most effective teams on the force!"

"No, no, no my dear. I mean, is my son... fox enough for you? Does he know how to strut his stuff or doesn't he?"

"...I'm sorry, I don't think I'm following." Judy looked somewhat confused now, she really wasn't sure where Mrs. Wilde was going with this conversation.

"Well, perhaps it would make more sense if I told you about his father." Mrs. Wilde was now talking in a hushed tone, as if trying to tell Judy a secret across the table.

"He was one hell of a fox, let me tell you. He had this marvelous fur coat, and a set of teeth so sharp you were almost afraid that when he kissed you he might accidentally scratch your lips."

"Uh..."

"Oh wait just a minute child. I'll tell you another thing, whenever he came home after a long day at work there wasn't nothing you could do to get in his way coming home. And when he wanted to be with me he just gave me this look, and I'd know. I'd go all weak in the knees and I felt a terrible burning for him. I did the first time I met him, and every time after too!"

Judy's ears had been slowly falling with every successive word of this conversation, and now they were lying flat against her head. The same bit of pie had now been sitting in her mouth for about a minute turning to an orange sludge in her mouth and having been all but abandoned by any attempt to chew it, now perpetually stuck mid-chew. She was willing the conversation to end, hoping against hope that Mrs. Wilde would change topics, but it seemed that Mrs. Wilde had other ideas.

"I tell you what child, he was one of a kind! Never before, or after, have I ever felt such passion for another fox and boy did his performance in this here apartment warrant it. Why, there were mornings when we'd get out of bed more tired than we had been from a whole weeks' worth of work."

Judy had now set down her tea and was frantically trying to text Nick as discretely as possible, maintaining eye contact with Mrs. Wilde as she tapped at her phone below the table. Though Judy's eyes were clearly wandering, Mrs. Wilde's seemed to be transfixed on a another time and place. Maybe, just maybe, Nick could find an excuse for them to leave early.

"Well, um Mrs. Wilde it sure sounds like Mr. Wilde was a great fox."

"Oh no child, he was an amazing fox! Now, what he wasn't though was a father. As soon as he found out that I was pregnant with little Nick he hightailed it out of the city before you could even blink."

"Oh… that's terrible..."

"It is, and I hope to high heaven that my son has proven to be a better fox than him in that respect, even if it means that he doesn't leave girls like you feeling as weak in the knees as his old man. Now, I'll ask again. How's Nick?"

Judy began to realize that her breath had quickened more than she would normally allow herself. She had not been prepared for this line of questioning at the dinner table. She had assumed that they were going to talk about knitting, or quilting or some other hobby that Judy had imagined Mrs. Wilde would be interested in. Though given her son's previous interests counterfeiting probably would have been more likely. All she could do now was stall for time and hope that Nick came out of that bathroom soon with a damn good excuse.

"Well, Nick is... He's really great! And I uh..." As if in answer to her silent prayers Judy's radio crackled to life with Clawhauser coming in over the channel.

"Calling all units, emergency situation in Savannah square, please respond!" Judy's heart lifted, never before had an emergency situation involving other people's lives made her feel so relieved.

"This is Judy! Roger that Clawhauser, we're on our way! Nick! We've got a call, hurry up in there!" Coming out of the bathroom looking oddly prepared Nick darted over to the door and began putting on his shoes.

"Yup, I heard it too Judy, let's go!" Mrs. Wilde looked a little crest fallen, disappointed that she didn't get to hear from Judy about her son.

"I thought that you two had the night off?"

"Well, you never really get a night off on the force mom. Besides, duty calls!"

"Thanks for having me Mrs. Wilde! The salad really was great." Feeling slightly guilty Judy looked back before following Nick out the door. Quickly she dashed over to Mrs. Wilde and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'll tell you about Nick some other time okay?" Looking a little happier Mrs. Wilde gave Judy a quick hug before pushing her back towards the door.

"You two be careful now!"

"Sure thing Mrs. Wilde!"

"Bye mom!"

And with that Nick closed the door behind him and tried to catch up to Judy who was already over by the stairs and heading down to the first floor. As they exited the building Nick grabbed Judy's shoulder.

"Hey, slow down!"

"But there's an emergenc- "

"No there isn't." Nick had his characteristic sly grin sitting comfortably on his face, Judy knew immediately that he had manufactured their escape from his mother's conversation.

"How did you get Clawhauser to call us so fast though? I only texted you a minute before we got the call."

"Oh, I called Clawhauser almost as soon as I entered the bathroom. You see, I know my mother and I also know how much she loves to gossip. So I also knew to keep the door ever so slightly ajar."

"So you heard..."

"Every last word. Don't worry, I've heard her talk to other people about my father. Sorry you had to deal with all of that."

"But wait, how did you get- "

"Clawhauser to give us a fake call? Let's just say that I owe him more than a couple of doughnuts come Monday."

"Uh huh..."

Nick and Judy both shifted back in their seats, feeling a little more comfortable that there was now some sense of equality between the two experiences that they had both had that day, though two people being equally horrified as well at their parents' behavior didn't quite lessen the horror per se. Letting the streetlights pass hypnotically over him Nick didn't notice until Judy had stopped where they were.

"My place?"

"What can I say? I like the bigger apartment!"

"I think that's not the only thing you like. Come on follow me. "

Nick unlocked the door to the old building and prepared to get his key to the elevator that sat on the first floor. Maybe, tonight wasn't such a bad night after all.