(Tuesday, April 12)

It was morning at the ZPD Headquarters, and Chief Bogo was listing off a series of assignments.

"Delgato, Rhinowitz, Wolford… I need you three to look into a murder case in the Rainforest District… Grizzoli, Fangmeyer, McHorn… you'll be investigating a series of robberies in Savannah Central… Higgins, Trunkaby… Supposed drug dealings in Tundratown. And as for Officer Hopps…"

He paused long enough to give Judy a feeling of hope, before bringing her right back down to earth with the words, "Parking duty. Dismissed."

As the other officers headed out of the room, Judy stood still, mouth agape, before getting out of her chair.

After a moment of hesitation, she spoke up. "Sir, did Clawhauser speak with you earlier?"

Bogo stopped what he was doing and looked down at her. "As a matter of fact, he did. He didn't change my mind."

"But, Sir-" she began, only to have her boss cut her off.

"Just because Clawhauser and myself have known each other for a while, that doesn't mean he can tell me what to do. Especially regarding other officers." He snorted and turned away, convinced that the conversation was over.

But Judy was tired of waiting, and this morning she felt like her anger was about to spill over.

"Sir, what do you want me to do?" she begged. "I've been working here a month… I do everything you ask of me, day after day…"

The chief turned to her, with a stern look on his face. "Hopps, you are testing my patience."

"Funny that," she spat back. "You're testing mine."

The room was silent. Judy's ears drooped as she realized she had said the wrong thing. "I am so sorry, sir. I…"

But her boss pounded his fist on the desk. "You do not have the authority to speak to me like that. You are assigned to parking duty and I'm not going to hear any more complaining. And I am going to give you a very stern warning; If I see even the slightest hint of insubordination from you, you're fired. Understand?"

"…Yes, chief."

"Now get out."

Judy obliged.

—

All day, Nick had been doing a lot of thinking.

Ever since he was twelve, he had been hustling mammals out of money, taking pride in the knowledge that he was technically not breaking the law. But all the talking with Judy had gotten him thinking: If he never actually broke the law, then how much of a criminal was he? Where was one supposed to draw the line between maneuvering around the rules and just abiding the law?

But he was still a con-mammal. He went around proclaiming that Finnick was his son. He was committing perjury. And he did this every day. Maybe he wasn't a serious criminal, but by all intents and purposes, he wasn't a good mammal.

'If God wanted me to be a good mammal,' Nick thought to himself, 'I wouldn't have been born a fox.'

The reason he was thinking all of this was because he was trying to evaluate his future. Sure, his conversations with Judy were going fine for now. But eventually, she would want to meet face to face. And where would the relationship go from there? If Nick was still conning mammals out of money 7 days a week, Judy probably wouldn't take it very well.

Nick tried to shake those thoughts out of his head.

—

Judy was incredibly peeved when she got to her apartment that night. She was hoping that Clawhauser could help her move up in her career. She was wrong, and now her job was on the line.

If only she hadn't opened her big fat mouth.

She got on her computer and logged onto Z-Harmony. While she waited for the site to load (the WiFi was being fairly uncooperative today) she found herself thinking about how her life had come to this point.

'I've been fighting for this all my life,' she thought to herself. 'Maybe it would have been better if I just stayed in BunnyBurrows…' then she shook her head vigorously. She couldn't think like that. She was Judy Hopps, first rabbit in the ZPD and she had the badge to prove it! She wouldn't give up. She refused.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the notification, 'Nick has invited you to chat!'. Judy sighed, but gave a slight smile at the fact that Nick was the one taking initiative this time. She clicked on 'Yes'.

Nick spoke first, "Judy?"

"Hey Nick."

"Is something wrong?" Nick asked. "You sound weary."

Judy took a deep breath. "I almost lost my job today."

"What happened?" Nick asked, concerned.

Judy hesitated. "I… may have gotten a little angry with my boss."

Nick's ears perked up. This aught to be good. "What did you say?"

"I was upset with him for not giving me anything to do, he said 'you're testing my patience' and I said, 'you're testing mine,'

Nick's reaction was not what Judy was expecting; he started laughing.

"Stop that," Judy exclaimed. "It's not funny!"

"Actually, that is 'quite' funny," said Nick. "I wish I had been there to see that."

Judy snapped. "Well, I'll do it again if you want me out of a job!"

Neither of them said anything for a few seconds, before Nick broke the silence. "I'm sorry. I just thought it was a witty thing to say…"

"Well, it wasn't," Judy said trying to keep her temper under control. "It was stupid."

"So… witty and stupid then?

"Yeah," said Judy. "Kind of like you."

Nick shook his head, but smiled. "I will take half of that as a compliment."

Judy took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."

Nick shrugged. "No, by all means. Go ahead and yell, I can take it."

"You can take it, huh?" Judy asked, raising an eyebrow. "How are you always so casual about everything?"

"You really wanna know?"

"Of course."

Nick took a deep breath. "Look, all throughout life, you're gonna be judged, you're gonna be discriminated against, and it's gonna suck. But no matter what, never let them see that they get to you. That's my philosophy."

After a moment or two, Judy nodded. "Good philosophy. Maybe I should be more like you."

Nick gave a sly smile. "I wouldn't advise that."

Judy chuckled. "And why do you say that, Nick?"

"Because you're a cop." Nick said, simply. "And me… I'm an absolute mess."

"Don't say those things about yourself, Nick. That's not who you are."

But Nick shook his head. "You hardly know anything about me."

"I would if you told me," Judy countered.

"Well, what do you want me to talk about?" Nick asked.

Judy pondered the question before asking, "How about your job? I know you're a salesman, but I don't know that much else. Just that you 'bend the rules' from time to time. I'm not even sure what you mean by that."

Nick shrugged. "Rules are like rubber bands. You can bend them as much as you want, everything's fine until you break them."

"As a cop, I'm not sure how to respond to that."

This was a tricky subject. While Nick didn't want to give Judy too much information, he did like her enough so he felt it was only fair if he wanted to keep the relationship going. He just needed to be very careful with his wording. "All it means is I'm a little unorthodox. I mean, heaven't you ever bent the rules just a little bit to further your own agenda?"

Judy thought back to her time in police academy. She had literally jumped on top of fellow recruits in order to get ahead, and she was pretty sure that there was nothing in the rulebook about that. "…Um, I guess you could say that."

"See? That doesn't make you a criminal, does it?"

Judy gave a coy smile. "Maybe you can describe what you do with a little more detail, and let me be the judge of that."

"So, you want me to tell a cop how I bend the rules in my daily life," Nick said, plainly.

Judy laughed. "I'm not going to arrest you, if that's what you're worried about."

Nick was internally debating just how much he should tell her. The smart move would be to shy away from any details. Because Nick had been wondering about the technicalities of his shady past, he felt there was no real harm in giving Judy a little more information.

"So, let me tell you about this… business transaction I made about a month ago," Nick began. "So… I go to Jumbeaux's cafe, and buy an elephant sized pawpsicle. Then I melt it down and make much a bunch of smaller pawpsicles out of the large one. Then I sell it to a smaller demographic." He decided to stop before going into too much more detail.

"Hmm…" Judy thought aloud. "Do you have your permit to sell the pawpsicles?"

"Of course," said Nick. "And also I had my receipt of declared commerce, in case you were wondering."

To Judy, the whole thing sounded fairly legit. "How much money did you make?

"$200," Nick said, proudly. "And I make roughly that amount every day."

"Not bad," she said with a smile on her face. "And assuming you reported your earnings on your tax returns, that puts you in the clear."

"Excuse me?"

"You reported your earnings on your tax returns, right?"

Nick's mind froze up for a second before he pulled himself together and said, "Yes!"

"So as far as I can tell, there's nothing I can arrest you for," Judy said teasingly.

"Yep, that's… that's good to know."

But Judy caught the twinge of nervousness. "Nick, is something wrong?"

Nick quickly tried to think of an excuse. "I'm just keeping an eye on the clock, you know."

"Oh," said Judy. "Yeah, it is getting late. Should we call it a night?"

"Sure," said Nick, doing his best to play it cool.

"Okay, then," Judy said. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

—

As Nick signed off, he felt a shiver run down his spine. If Judy looked through his taxes, she could have enough evidence to send him to prison. But as frightened as he was, there was one particular detail he couldn't stop thinking about.

Nick had been doing hustles for the majority of his life. He had been questioned by cops more times than he could count. And yet, this was the first time any officer had managed to pick up on the tax evasion. And this officer was still stuck in paperwork and parking duty? And she was in danger of losing her job?

A part of him thought that maybe it would be a good thing if she lost her job. If Judy were a former cop, it would make things a whole lot easier. But the fact was, Nick felt awful for even thinking that. He cared about Judy. He wanted her to succeed. But in a bizarre twist, her succeeding could potentially lead to his own downfall.

A funny thought occurred to Nick. He had not gone on FurBook in a very long time, but he thought he might do it tonight, just for the sheer irony of changing his relationship status to, 'It's Complicated.'

—

Judy Hopps wasn't stupid.

She knew that Nick had seemed awfully nervous when she brought up his taxes. It was that same tone of voice he had when she revealed she was a cop. The first time, she had written it off as a side effect of the alcohol. But now, she wasn't so sure.

But what surprised Judy the most wasn't that her new online boyfriend might have a criminal record.

It was the fact that she was willing to take that chance.

—

Author's Note: So, this chapter went through a lot of revision. I think I'm satisfied with it for now.

The more the story goes on, the more I worry. So far, the story has gotten a very positive reception. I haven't seen any negative comments so far, but I'm sure they're coming.

I'll try to have the next chapter up by Friday.