"Carrots, can we talk about this, please? Hey, Carrots, slow down. Carrots, just wait a minute… Hopps! Let's talk through this… I know you're frustrated. Judy!"

After several minutes of jogging to keep up, Nick finally caught up with Judy in the parking lot of the ZPD, grabbing her arm to stop her. Haughtily, Judy turned around to face him, her cheeks flushed a deep red and her eyes holding a hateful look.

"What is there to talk about?" Judy snapped as she pulled free from Nick's grasp.

"Carrots, I know you're angry, and I know this is hard–"

"No, actually, you don't know," Judy snapped, rounding on the fox. "Last I checked, I was the one dragged from my home and tortured – not you."

"Carrots," Nick sighed, running a paw over his ears and smoothing them to his head. "I'm your life mate and you're mine, and we talk through these things together. You can't just shut me out. I'm trying to help… the Chief is trying to help, Itali is trying to help."

"Well, you're all doing a smashing job, aren't you?" Judy mocked with a sardonic laugh, turning away angrily again.

Nick caught her arm and pulled her back into the conversation.

"This isn't meant to hurt you, Carrots. You can't just bottle up your emotions."

"Oh, yeah? What about you? You bottle up your emotions! You bottle up your emotions about Valerie, and the Junior Ranger Scouts, and your dad, and the polar bear incident, and–and a million other things!"

Nick's eyebrows furrowed at the mention of the Junior Ranger Scouts and his dad; Judy was digging deep, as she did when she was truly angry, but Nick remained calm.

"I've talked to you about those things."

"Yet I still know nothing about you!"

"You know everything about me, Carrots."

"Really? Why don't you just say out loud that you think the polar bear incident was all my fault? Why don't you talk about how you feel about those Junior Ranger Scouts playing us for months? Why don't you talk about your dad?" Judy sighed, exasperated. "What exactly happened between you and Valerie when you were dating? Why can't we talk about things that bother us, Nick?"

Nick looked away, thinking. He placed his paws on his hips, gently tapping his foot against the pavement as he carefully chose his words.

"Carrots, you're making this conversation about something completely different, making it about multiple things that have nothing to do with the situation" he said, his eyes still averting Judy's.

"Fine, then let's narrow it down," she bit back. "You never told me about Valerie and then she showed up in our lives, and rather than siding with me, you sided with her, and when you didn't need her to spite me anymore, you tossed her aside. Then, years later, she came back and kidnapped me!"

"How was I supposed to know that would happen?" Nick shot back in response, his voice rising. "You can't possibly blame me for this, at least not more than I already do, okay?"

Judy bit her tongue, his last words stinging her heart slightly. She didn't want him to blame himself, but her anger outranked that rational thought. She wanted answers and she would get them.

"I deserve an explanation, Nick! After everything, I deserve answers to my questions!"

"I cheated on her!" Nick yelled. "Is that what you want to hear? I cheated on Valerie, okay?"

Judy took a step back.

"W-what? You did what?"

"I cheated on her, Carrots, with another fox I met months after I started dating her. I made a mistake. It was a long time ago."

"But your mother said–"

"She said that Valerie was all over the place and couldn't be trusted, I know. She said that Valerie scammed me, which isn't wrong, but it isn't completely true either."

Nick looked away again, growing frustrated as the memories bubbled to the surface for the first time in several years.

"I was going to propose to her," he sighed. "She seemed like the one, you know? Then, she started acting funny. She started flirting with other foxes in front of me, waiting for my reaction, as if she wanted me to blow up or go off; she likes a show, likes the drama. I never gave her that reaction, but as time passed, I really started to believe that she was seeing someone else. I should have made sure before I… Look, I wasn't thinking… I cheated on her in retaliation. It was a stupid idea. She found out, told me she hadn't done anything, and I knew I had been completely wrong. She left me… I still saw her around in the scamming game in the years after, and she seemed to enjoy the fact that I couldn't have what I wanted, because I did want her. She–she, well–"

"She toyed with you," Judy finished his sentence quietly, seeing the pieces fall together.

"Yeah," Nick responded bitterly. "She did that for a while too, so when I saw her at the ZPD that one day all those years ago, I was shocked, but it was amusing for me to finally be something that she wanted, but couldn't have."

"'It's called a hustle, Sweetheart,'" Judy mumbled to herself.

"'It's called a hustle, Sweetheart,' yeah, that about sums it up," Nick chuckled, somewhat gravely.

"You two have just trying to get back at one another all these years?"

"You could say that," Nick shrugged. "I'm sorry that back then, I sided with her over you, and I'm sorry that things went this far. I didn't mean for you to get hurt, I promise."

Judy shook her head, wondering how they had found themselves in this situation.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm sorry, Carrots."

"I don't see the point in all of this therapy stuff, Nick, it's not fixing anything."

"It's not supposed to fix everything, but it's supposed to help, Carrots, let you express how you actually feel."

"'Never let them see that they get to you,' right, Nick? That's what you said to me, years ago," her expression turned scornful once again. "So, why do I have to do this? Why can't I just figure this all out on my own?"

"Because, you aren't alone, not like I was when I said that," Nick replied gently. "I didn't have you then and you didn't have me, but now we have each other, so talk to me."

Judy sighed heavily, feeling her frustration start to ebb away. A moment of silence fell between the couple as the tension settled.

"I'm sorry," Judy finally exhaled after a few moments. "I just don't like sitting in some office, listening to a list of all the times I failed be read out to me, and then have someone telling me to relive the worst parts of my life. I don't want to do that."

"You see those as times you failed?" Nick asked, reaching his paw to Judy's chin and lifting her face so that they made eye contact.

Judy only nodded, feeling tears sting the corners of her eyes.

"Oh, Fluff," Nick sighed as he pulled her in for a hug. "Those aren't times you failed. Those are times when you were incredibly brave. You have saved so many lives, Carrots, which is not a failure in my book."

Judy stifled a sob against his chest, and Nick held her tightly.

"Why didn't you tell me about the nightmares, Judy?"

"I was afraid you'd think I was going crazy," the bunny murmured against his chest.

"I already know you're crazy, Carrots," Nick smirked.

Sniffling, Judy pulled back and shoved him playfully, before looking down at the pavement below her, hesitating.

"I hate when we fight."

"You're not the only one."

"I don't blame you for any of this, Nick. I shouldn't have said those things, I was just upset, and you shouldn't blame yourself, either."

"I know, Carrots," Nick smiled with a wink. "Let's go home, huh? Kids are at my mom's, we have the day to ourselves. How about we grab something good to eat, go home, maybe put on a movie, cry it all out, and just have some you and I time? I promise we won't ever do another one of those sessions again if you don't want to, deal?"

Judy smiled, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Deal."