A/N: This chapter starts off with a very serious tone dealing with panic attacks. If this sort of thing bothers you, the scene is over by the 15th break (between paragraphs and dialogue). Also, let me know if the tone is OK in this chapter, it's a little all over the place.

Anyways, enjoy!

...

Nick was lying in bed when he heard a disturbing sound on the outside of the building. The scraping and tapping on the brick exterior was all too similar to the sound from Steven and Pauls phone call. He looked over to his window as hairy legs walked over it.

It was easily as big as him, if not larger. Through the glass he saw the underside of the creature, its fangs dripping with venom. It tapped on the glass with its pedipalps, seemingly probing it. It stopped, and a few moments went by of Nick laying there silently, praying that it didn't know he was there.

It started tapping again, then it violently lunged at the glass with its fangs. The sound was impossibly loud, rattling the fox's mind, but the window held. It tried again, nearly deafening Nick.

It tried a third time, the glass instantly shattering. The monster was trying furiously to wiggle its way in, but Nick was frozen in horror. He sat there, unable to move as its legs flailed just inches away from him. And then he woke up, screaming. His heart was beating so hard he could feel it all throughout his body.

He sat up in bed, the pounding of his heart making him nauseous. He was trembling. He ran to the bathroom and hunched over the toilet. Judy called from the other room.

"Nick? Nick was that you screaming?" She said. She had come straight out of a deep sleep and was still disoriented. She looked at her phone for the time. It was 3 AM. She got off the couch and knocked on his bedroom door.

"You alright in there?" She asked.

"I-I, had a nightmare, and I think I'm-" He took a deep breath "-I'm having a panic attack, Judy," he said. He was barely in control of his body, his limbs shaking violently. He couldn't hold himself up anymore and he crumpled to the bathroom floor.

"Are you OK?"

"No!... P-Please… H... Help!" He shouted, stuttering and pausing to breathe. She opened the door and saw him lying in the bathroom, nearly in the fetal position and shaking like a leaf. She rushed over, crouching in front of him and putting a paw on his shoulder. She remembered a bit of training for panic victims.

"It's alright, it's just a panic attack, it will go away soon. Just take some long, deep breaths... what are you thinking right now?" She said. He took some deep breaths and started wrapping his shaking arms around her. She slipped an arm under him and picked his upper half off the ground, the two embracing each other.

"I just, I'm-I'm remembering the dream, it was, it was definitely just a dream, just a bad nightmare but god, the noise Judy... the noise it made when it tried to break the window, it was so loud," He said, clutching her closer, and resting his head on her torso. She almost cried, she couldn't stand to see him like this.

"It's alright Nick, you're in the real world now, nothing's going to hurt you. I'm here," She said, feeling his shaking die down. They sat there for a few more minutes, Judy rubbing Nick's back as his panic dissipated.

"What was the nightmare about?" She asked, feeling like he was calm enough to talk about it. Nick started sitting up, and they let go of eachother.

"The spider. I was just lying there, in bed, when I heard it crawling on the outside of the apartment. I saw it when it got to the window, and it started trying to get through the glass. The sound when it hit the window was just, crazy… it felt like it was actually in my head, like it was just going to explode.

"then it finally broke the window and I was just frozen there as it tried to get in. That's when I woke up. Gosh, I've never had a panic attack before. I hope it's just because of yesterday, I don't want to experience that again."

"I hope so too. We should get you to the ZPD therapist just in case... I don't think I'll be able to fall back to sleep, will you?"

"Definitely not carrots, I don't even know if I want to," he said, dreading having another nightmare.

"Let's make some coffee," she said as she helped him up. They went into the kitchen and Judy got everything ready while Nick sat down. In a few minutes, they had their coffee and they started talking more.

"I had a nightmare last night. Nothing terrible but, it certainly wasn't fun. I imagined that our 'monster' was a bunch of small, fleshy, two-clawed beasts. They had a face and teeth like a cat but no ears, and no fur, just, red-ish skin. Their limbs were a lot like a spiders' but only one joint, and they had four of them not eight.

"In the dream, we had found the… pack I guess, but they were very aggressive. We were running away from them and we tried to get on a bus for some reason. You didn't make it on l... you were pounding on the windows as they surrounded us… I woke up right after that," she said.

"Sounds like fun carrots. Man, why are nightmares so awful."

"Well, every little thing in biology has a reason it evolved, I'm sure there's some sort of purpose to nightmares," she said, stirring her coffee. Her mention of evolution sparked a thought in Nick.

"You gotta wonder if our ancestors dreamed or if it's just something that more intelligent animals do," he pondered. Judy sat in thought for a moment, still mindlessly stirring her coffee. They spent the next 3 hours talking before they had to get ready to go to work. They finished getting prepared for the day and headed out. They started discussing their plans for the day as they walked down the street.

"So, what's on the to-do list for today carrots?"

"Well, first we should contact the agents and see what their plans are, and let them know about what happened this morning. We should ask them about going to the ZPDs therapist and whether that would be a security concern," she said. Nick nodded in agreement and they headed onto the subway platform.

"Did I tell you I saw a wolf eat a roach on the subway yesterday?"

"Sounds like a classy fella. Was it one of the big ones or the horrible little ones?"

"It was one of the big ones. A big, big one. I swear it was the size of my head. Bigger even."

"Sounds like a nice protein snack. Could you hear the crunch when he bit down?"

"No, thank god, I probably would have just gone home after that."

"Ha! Yeah, I wouldn't blame you. I've never understood why some mammals eat insects right off the wall in public," Nick said, garnering a curious and slightly disgusted look from Judy.

"Why just in public? Nick don't tell me…" She started, trailing off as she noticed the way he was smirking at her.

"Oh, that's so gross..."

"Hey, you gotta get protein somehow," he said to her dismay. Their train arrived and they boarded it. In just a few minutes they were at their stop. They got off and headed above ground, the walk to the precinct going quickly. They walked through the doors and went to chat with Clawhauser.

"Good morning you two! How's it going?"

"Not bad claws, had a rough morning but it coulda been worse," Nick replied. Ben looked over to Judy for her report.

"Same old, same old, you?" She said.

"Pretty good but…" He said, trailing off as he smelled the air. Judy immediately realised why.

"Oh! I stayed over at Nick's last night because I was getting sick of my neighbors."

"Ooohh, I was gonna say. Actually, speaking of which, why aren't you two a thing?"

"What thing?"

"You know, like, a couple?" He asked. Their eyes bulged out of their heads. Judy was about to say something when Nick cut her off.

"You know claws, I keep asking her but she always says she just wants to be friends. I don't get it either," he said with a wicked smirk. Judy glared at him, embarrassed. Ben gasped harder than he had ever gasped before.

"Judy how could you! Nick is such a good mammal, and your personalities are perfect for eachother!" He said, incredibly disappointed with Judy. She facepawed and shook her head, the inside of her ears turning bright red.

"Ben he was joking…"

"I wasn't joking Fluff, that's how I really felt!" Nick said, even catching Judy off guard this time. She lifted her head off her paw with a concerned look on her face

"What? I'm sorry if you confessed your love for me and I played it off as a joke! I do like you as a friend right now, but we could be more than friends..." She said, worried she had hurt him. He facepawed.

"Ok, clearly I can't joke around about this sort of thing…" He said, embarrassed that he had tricked both of them instead of just Ben.

"Oh…" Judy replied, also embarrassed and a little confused. They sat in awkward silence for a bit before Ben chimed in again.

"So, are you two a thing or not?" He said.

...

Meanwhile, at the A3I headquarters, James was entering his office, greeting a Tanya who had arrived earlier.

"Good morning duster tail," He teased as he plopped down at his desk.

"Good morning you horned goofball," Tanya replied, smiling at his new nickname.

"So, I don't know what to do next. I feel like we're kind of stuck. Should we just try to get in contact with Officers Hopps and Wilde, see what they plan on doing? " James said.

"I was thinking we could travel north and try to find a Baka spiritual leader, see if they can contact Jengi to help us find this thing…" Tanya said, quite serious. James sighed.

"Tanya, isn't asking a tribesman to ask their forest spirit where we can find this spider a bit ridiculous?"

"It might be, it might not be. Its all I could think of other than just wandering around in the rainforest district."

"What if we set up a bunch of motion activated cameras?" James offered. Tanya nodded.

"That would work. Do we have the capability to do that?"

"Not really." He said. Tanya let out a drawn out sigh.

"Lets just get in contact with those two and see what they think," she said as she picked up a phone.

…

Back at precinct one, Nick and Judy were looking at each other, not sure how to answer Ben's question. Judy opened her mouth to speak when Nick's phone rang. He was very glad for the interruption, and he immediately answered.

"Oh, hey Tanya!… Yeah… Well, we're not in our office right now, how about we call you back in a few minutes? Yep, bye… Well Ben, looks like this will have to wait for later," he said, hoping Ben would drop it easily.

"Ok, but you two better talk about it! You would be great together!" He said cheerily.

"Yep, definitely, later Claws," Nick said as he ushered Judy away. They headed to their office, talking along the way.

"Geez, that was awkward. I wonder why he thinks we'd be a good couple?" Judy said.

"I have no clue fluff. We do get along very well, plus we tease each other like couples do. And between walking home last night and what happened his morning we practically became a couple already," he said jokingly.

"Yeah… You know, I have to admit, I kind of felt something this morning when we were, you know…" She said, stopping to look him in the eyes.

"Yeah… You know, I… I think the only reason I recovered from that panic attack so quickly was because I kinda feel the same way…" He said, returning his line of sight straight into her eyes. They stood outside their office, with no idea what to say.

"We should probably talk about this later…" Nick said as he gestured for her to enter the office. She nodded and they walked in, Judy picking up the phone and started dialing the number that had called Nick. After quite a few rings Tanya answered.

"Hello? How'd you get this number?"

"Oh, Agent Vecher, it's Officer Hopps."

"Oh! Hi Judy. We were calling earlier because we wanted to know what you two had been up to and what your plans were for the day."

"Well, yesterday we stayed pretty late analysing a bunch of social media reports that might have been our culprit. Based on their locations we've determined its probably in a forest near Steven's neighborhood, or the next neighborhood over." Judy said.

On the other end, Tanya and James looked at eachother, dumbfounded. Tanya put her paw over the phone and whispered to James.

"Why didn't we think of that?" She said, to which James just shrugged. She Took her paw off the receiver to talk again.

"Good work! Did you want to head over to the locations and scout them out?"

"Yeah, that's what we were thinking but we wanted to get in contact with you guys first."

"Welp, we've been contacted, and we think it's a great idea! When do you want to meet?"

"Well, there's something else we need to discuss first. Officer Wilde had a panic attack this morning over what happened yesterday, and he wants to seek counseling with the ZPD's therapist. Would that cause any problems security wise?"

"No, not really. They can't talk about what they hear anyways, and if it's very sensitive information then they will treat it as such."

"Oh, good. I think I need to get some help too, I can't stop thinking of all the things I've seen online that freaked me out but I figured were fake…"

"Oh, all that kinda stuff? A huge majority of it is fake. We take down anything we know is real, but some things do slip through the cracks…" Tanya said, not exactly easing Judy.

"Oh, ha, isn't that great?" She said nervously.

"Yeah, see? Nothing to worry about. Anyways, what about a time to scout the rainforest?"

"Oh… ummm… it's probably going to be around noon-ish-" she said, pausing to look at the time, which read 7:50 "-Maybe we should get lunch. I feel like we got off on the wrong foot."

"Sounds alright to me. What will you two do in the meantime?"

"Probably a bunch of paperwork, therapy, and figuring out our current relationship."

"Sounds like a very strange but overall not too bad day. Let's talk later about lunch."

"Sure, sounds good. Talk to you later, buh-bye."

"Bye," Tanya said, giving a guilty smile at Judy's 'Buh-bye.' James knew that look when he saw it.

"You and your thing for small town, farmland dialect."

"I'm sorry! I love it! Rural people are just so polite and friendly, it's adorable!"

"You heard the woman, that fox already has her!" he said teasingly. She rolled her eyes.

"I told you that was one time! I'm not into women! Or rabbits!" She said defensively.

"Seems like you were pretty into that one doe!" he said. She gasped as he laughed.

"Agent Miller I was not and you know it! We went out on one date for fun! God, you are the worst!" She said, mostly angry but partly amused by his teasing.

"Ok, ok! I'm done!" He said, recovering from his laugher. He was straight faced for a moment before a smile creeped back on. He covered his muzzle to avoid laughing. A huge smile grew on Tanya's face. She found his ability to crack himself up very amusing.

"Don't you dare!" She said, pointing at him accusingly, still smiling. She knew that he had just thought of something really 'good' but she wanted to hear nothing of it.

"I wont, don't worry… we should get back to work."

"You bet your fluffy little tail you should get back to work Mr.," she said, glaring at him playfully. They spent the next few hours rifling through paperwork and online reports, trying to get another lead on this spider. Eventually, their phone rang again and Judy was on the line, sounding irritated.

"Hey again. What are we doing about lunch?" She said, followed by Nick saying something that was too difficult to hear. Tanya began to respond but was cut off by Judy.

"Would you knock it off!"

"Come on carrots just one little squeeze…"

"Nick, for the last time, I don't want to play with the damn stress ball! I'm trying to talk on the phone!"

"Your loss…"

"Ugh… Sorry about that Agent Vecher. Anyways, lunch?"

"Sure. How about we just go to Bug-Burga?"

"Sounds good to me. Nick you want to go to Bug-Burga?"

"When?"

"Now."

"Why?"

"Nick, we said we were going to meet the agents for lunch."

"Who?"

"Ugh, just, we're going to get lunch ok?"

"Sounds good to me carrots."

"Oh my god, he is so out of it right now. The therapist here gave him some pills in case he has another attack. He took one to make sure it wouldn't cause any problems, and apparently it didn't agree with him so now he's just high as a kite."

"Ha! At least he's having a good time." Tanya said. On the other end, Judy's expression softened as she realized she shouldn't be so irritated with Nick. She watched him as he squeezed the stress ball, a constant smile on his face as he watched it deform and bubble out between his fingers.

"Yeah, he certainly is," she said to Tanya, still watching Nick play around with the stress ball.

"So you want to meet at the one on Rain Street?" Tanya asked.

"Sure, how does 12:00 sound?"

"That'll work for us! See you then."

"Yep, bye." Judy said, hanging up the phone. She turned and stood up, gesturing for Nick to follow. He looked at her for a moment, confused, so she made a more animated gesture. He understood and began to follow her.

"Where are we going?"

"We're going to get lunch."

"Yeah, where?"

"Bug-burga."

"Oh… you know, I gotta say, I don't really like Bug-Burga all that much," Nick said, Judy facepawing as they left their office.