(Thursday, April 14)

That morning, Nick had woken up with the flu.

Perfect.

On the one hand, it wasn't anything too serious. He would be out of commission for a few days, but as long as he got plenty of rest and took some medicine, he should be fine. He texted Finnick, but didn't get a response. Regardless of what was going on between the two of them, there would be no hustle today.

He spent the majority of his day watching reality TV, which helped him take his mind off other things. He thought about Finnick, about how a rift had grown between them. He thought about Judy, how he was starting to open up to her in a way he hadn't before, hoping this wouldn't come back to bite him. He thought about his tax returns, and that it would probably be relatively easy to fix them if he talked to the right people.

But not today. Thinking about taxes just made him feel more sick.

—

For Judy, it was yet another uneventful day of parking duty.

She was starting to think that paperwork might just be the lesser of two evils, because when she was out writing tickets, mammal after mammal would say incredibly rude things to her. One elephant actually had the nerve to say, "Are you even a real cop, bunny? Or is that your halloween costume in April?"

The speciesist remarks got Judy thinking about what Nick had said in one of their previous conversations. About how no matter what your species is, it will always hold you back in some way. And now, it seemed no matter what she did, she couldn't get others to take her seriously.

A horrible thought came to her. 'What if, when Nick finds out what I am… he doesn't want to be with me anymore?' After a moment, she shook her head. No, that was ridiculous. Nick cared about her, it didn't matter to him what kind of mammal she was.

…Right?

—

Nick was sick and tired of stupid reality TV shows. Never mind the fact that he was quite literally sick. And tired.

At least he was feeling slightly better now than he was in the morning. For one thing, his voice was feeling better, which was good because he would be chatting with Judy soon. He was already using his laptop in bed.

He was waiting to send Judy an invitation until he knew she was online. While he waited, he thought about how much had changed in just the past week. How he was suddenly thinking about changing his ways because of some cop he met online. He had to admit, it sounded crazy when you said it out loud. But there was something about Judy that just felt right.

It wasn't too much longer before he received that notification that Judy was online. He sent her an invitation, and before he knew it, the two of them were connected once again.

Judy spoke first, wearily. "Hey, Nick."

"Hey Judy," Nick responded. "How was work?"

"Boring, again."

Nick was about to respond when he felt a sneeze coming on. He let out a large sneeze, then frowned when he realized he got snot all over the computer monitor.

"Bless you," Judy said. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Nah," Nick admitted. "I've got a cold today."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Judy said. "Are you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I should be back on my feet tomorrow."

"At least you got to skip work," Judy said. "I had parking duty today - the one job that no one seems to appreciate you for doing."

"Well, it's gotta be better than being sick," Nick reasoned.

Judy scoffed. "You can't be that sick."

"Really?" Nick asked in a joking manner. "You wanna go inside my mind and feel the amount of pain I'm feeling?" He then decided to overact just to amuse her. "Oh, the pain is unbearable!" he shouted. "Agh, the agony."

Judy smiled. "Okay, now your milking it."

But Nick wasn't done. He shook his body wildly all over the bed. "Judy, is that your voice? I think I see a light - ACK!"

On Judy's end, she heard a large THUD.

"What happened?" she asked, concerned.

"I fell out of the bed."

Judy burst out laughing. Nick awkwardly got back into position. "It's not funny," he said.

"Actually, that is 'quite' funny." She said, repeating a phrase she remembered Nick saying two nights ago.

"Well, that's just great," Nick remarked. "Now I can have a cold and be covered in bruises."

Judy smiled in a very condescending way. "Don't you complain about bruises, Nick. I went to police academy. I got bruised every day, but I would just get back up again. What's your excuse?"

"I guess bruises heal…" Nick said. "Wait… scars heal. That's what they say."

"Scars don't heal, though. They fade."

"Huh…" Nick thought about that for a moment, before shrugging his shoulders. "Well, what do I know? I've never even gotten a scar."

"Well, if you ever got one in your life, it would still be there," Judy explained.

"Boy, you sure now a lot about this stuff," Nick commented. "Do you have a scar?"

Judy wasn't liking where this was going. "As a matter of fact, I do..."

"Ah," Nick said. "Police academy, I'm guessing."

"No, actually…" She sighed. "I got it when I was a little girl."

"Oh…" Nick paused, realizing that the conversation had made a very abrupt shift. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, it's… it's fine." Judy said. She felt it was important to be honest with Nick. She took a deep breath.

"When I was nine years old, there was this bully. His name was Gideon Grey, and… he was a fox."

Nick felt his heart stand still.

"He was bullying another kid, and I told him to cut it out. But then he turned on me, and he…" She could feel her nose twitching just remembering it. "He took out his claws, and he swiped me across my cheek. Then he held me down, and… he told me to my face that I was never going to be a cop." Judy swallowed. "But you know what? That just convinced me even more that I had to be a cop. Just to spite him. And hey, I turned out pretty good, didn't I?"

"Yes you did…" Nick said, quietly.

Judy continued. "As for the scar, it's not visible anymore. If you touched my cheek very gently you could feel it, but otherwise there's no evidence that it ever happened."

"Ah, I see," Nick said.

After several moments of awkward silence, Nick said "Can I ask you a really stupid question?"

Judy gave a soft smile. "Why stop now?"

Nick didn't smile. "After that incident with the bully… how do you feel about foxes? I mean, like… in general?"

"Umm.." Judy thought about that. "Well, I don't want to sound speciesist. I know there are good foxes out there. In fact, I heard that Gideon Grey is nicer now, so I'll… try to give him the benefit of the doubt if I run into him again." She paused, trying to come up with the right words. "It's just… that incident really scarred me, both literally and figuratively. And my parents in particular were really shaken up by the whole thing… actually, they gave me a bottle of fox repellant when I moved to the big city. I haven't used it yet, but you never know. It always helps to be prepared."

Every word Judy spoke was like a dagger being twisted further and further into Nick's heart. He honestly couldn't believe Judy would say this. In the last week, he had really gotten to care about her. But now, here she was, rambling on, while remaining completely oblivious to the fact that she was hurting him.

Judy was still taking. "…To be honest, I haven't really run into any foxes while I've been here. I mean, I've seen them, but I don't really talk to them."

Nick did not appreciate the irony.

"…Why'd you ask?"

Nick stammered.. "Uh, no reason."

"Nick, is something wrong?"

"It's just, um…" He tried to think of a good excuse. "You see, I've known a number of foxes in my life."

Which was completely true. He was talking about his family, as well as Finnick and a few other friends that had come and gone.

"…Really?" Judy inquired.

"Yes," Nick said, shaking a little. "Remember when I told you that all mammals are gonna be discriminated against? Well, foxes… they just might have it the worst. Everyone expects them to be shifty and untrustworthy. No fox can make an honest living for themselves. If you're a fox and you got good grades in school, well obviously you must have cheated." Nick could feel himself getting angrier. "To the point where a lot of foxes become criminals because they know that's the only way society will ever accept them."

On the other line, Judy was silent for a little while, before she slowly said, "Damn…" She didn't usually swear, but nothing else really felt appropriate. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize…"

"Yeah, that's just the way it is," Nick said flatly.

Both of them were quiet for a while, before Nick said, 'Oh, would you look at the time."

"It's not that late," Judy said. "We could chat a little longer if we wanted to."

"No, I… I'm tired," Nick said. "I want to get some sleep." He still didn't feel well, and everything that Judy said seemed to only make it worse.

"Oh, okay. Goodnight, then."

Nick logged off without saying goodnight.

He put his laptop on the side of the bed, then started coughing. How was it possible that his cold felt so much worse now than when he started? He had always heard that your emotional state is connected to your physical health, but he had never really believed it until tonight.

All his life, Nick had been called horrible things. Street trash. Vermin. Judy had at least tried to be polite, but he knew what she was really thinking. Had he actually believed for even a split second that she was different? That when the time came, she would see that he was a fox and it wouldn't bother her?

Finnick had been right all along. He needed to get out of this relationship before things could get any worse. Nick closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, mumbling to himself nine simple words.

"Never let them see that they get to you."

—

Author's Note: Here we go, this story is coming down to the wire.

Back in Chapter 7, someone with the username 'Toons Girl' commented that if this story was a stage musical, they could imagine the song 'Criminal' coming into play. Well, Toons Girl, this is the part of the story where you'd play 'Build A Wall' from Shrek The Musical.

On a side note, I want to say again, THANK YOU for all the support that this story has gotten. When I started this story, I never imagined I would get anywhere close to this amount of reviews, favorites, or follows. Everyone has been so supportive with their reviews, and it's so refreshing to see a bunch of online comments with nary a hater to be seen.

See you in the next chapter!