Author's Note:

Okay… so… Very big deal here… I have had a lot of great feedback as I have written this series for a while, but recently as I have changed the tone of the story I have been met with some very valid negative response. I happily brush off negative feedback where it's just a matter of opinion, but in the case of my recent change of heading, reflecting on the way I was writing the story, I do agree… I accept that the story had begun to feel like it was something entirely separate, and didn't really relate well to the character-driven story telling that Guardian Blue was built on. It was instance-driven, like a cheap formulaic anime. The plot was obviously forced and while that effect was supposed to be diluted on the move, nothing really shook that feel.

One of the biggest sins for me is a full-on retcon. But a retcon I must do. Byron Howard and Rich Moore know my pain. X.x I know this will be an irritation to a few of the readers as a few were enjoying the show, as it were, but it just didn't feel like it fit with the series as a whole. I have taken a few weeks off to consider how to proceed and make things better moving forward, so hopefully what I have coming will make up for what I left behind. We will be resuming from Nick and Judy following their lead about Ukweli and going after him, no changes further back than that, but things going ahead will be very different.

If you are just joining Guardian Blue for the first timeyou will want to check out Season 1 first, and I would highly recommend Thanks for the Fox before that as well so everything makes sense. ^^

I write for the thrill of writing, and the knowledge that at any time someone, somewhere out there, is just a tiny bit happier because of me. It's a good feeling. As such, I do not claim the rights to Disney, Zootopia, or any of the characters portrayed, I'm just havin' a blast writing about them!

Also! A HUGE shout-out to J. N. Squire for assisting with editing for Season 2! While Nick and Judy are chasing perps and making Zootopia a better place, he is restoring law and order to my lawless run-on sentences and helping find my lost or stolen punctuation.

Guardian Blue: Season Two

Episode 7: Suspect

Judy, fully dressed in her skirt and blouse from earlier in the day, stood behind Yax he carefully opened the lock of the locker that had been used by Ukweli. Nick moved up behind the chocolate-toned bunny, having fully dressed as well. Judy looked back at him and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Call it in yet?" she asked.

"Yep. They are sending officers to cover the hotel, but they are waiting for Detective Pawlander to get there before they head in. We will meet them in a little bit. I arranged for a ride." Nick stated.

"Makes sense… we aren't detectives yet, after all." Judy said. "It feels like we did the real legwork here, though." She sighed. It felt good to have some good information already, however.

Nick put a paw on Judy's shoulder and said, "It feels like we did the legwork, but you know how detective work goes. We may have just carried their bags to the starting line for them and little else," he laughed. Yax opened the locker and stepped back to let the officers inspect the things that had been left behind when Ukweli inexplicably left in the buff.

The seemingly carefree yak stated casually, "Not sure what's goin' on, but I hope this helps." Nick pulled the bundle of clothing out of the locker and put it on the table in the center of the locker room. It was a pretty ordinary looking bundle of clothing. The fabric was light-fitting and colorful which was not unusual for distant border towns out near the interior. However, as he put it down there was a noticeable clunk. Judy and Nick both perked their ears at that and Nick used his claw tips to carefully move the clothing aside. The bright gleam of mirror polished metal gleamed back at them under the fluorescent lighting.

"Woah. That… That is totally uncool." Yax said in a tone that reflected the dread in Judy's heart as Nick revealed the object. Her eyes widened and she froze. A nearly comically large gun lay on the table.

Firearms had been made illegal in Zootopia and the surrounding burrows around the time of the last war, something Judy's grandfather clearly recalled. The tendency for the weapons to be misused disastrously in both the right and wrong paws had compelled such heavy punishments for possession of them that even most of the organized criminals in Zootopia opted to avoid them outright.

Judy and Nick had been trained to fire an actual gun but it was much, much smaller and likely less powerful than this shining metal brick with ivory handle that lay on the table. Judy had never seen a gun like that one outside of a movie. The bunny was shaken out of her reverie by Nick's voice.

"Wolfard, make sure whoever's on scene knows we are gonna be adding class A firearms charges. Proceed with serious caution, guys." Judy was happy with her partner's immediate response being to communicate to the other officers. The gun had nearly completely derailed her and Nick's professionalism where it counted encouraged her. The fox regarded the implement of death on the table a moment longer before blowing out a long heavy breath. "That… looks like it belongs mounted on the side of a pirate ship, not in some lycaon's paws. Where was he even carrying it before it went in the locker?" Nick took a plastic baggie out of the evidence kit that he'd picked up from the bungalow and used one of the garments to hold the gun down while very carefully making sure the safety was all the way engaged. He then used the sleeve of that shirt to put the gun into the bag and picked it up along with the clothes before placing it into the evidence kit.

"That looks way different from the guns we were shown at the academy." Judy stated. "Military maybe?" She felt more relaxed with the gun put away. With the size of a weapon like that, she would likely fare no better on the firing side of that weapon as the muzzle side of it. The recoil would probably tear her arms off.

Nick answered. "I suspect so. I don't think they ever had something like this for civilian use. I mean… Judy, if you fired that thing at the ground, we'd probably have to call MASA to get you back down!" Nick laughed with an obvious tone of nervousness and then nodded to Yax. "And you say he just left his stuff here? I wonder why he wouldn't have taken this with him… I'd not want to have someone find this and link it to me."

Yax kept his distance as if the gun was cursed, not just dangerous. He said, "Well, I don't know what his deal was, but I don't want it here, fer sure! Gonna be droppin some white sage real heavy in here."

Judy spoke up, distracting the nervous proprietor. "Thank you for allowing us to investigate, Yax. We may have to do some follow up, so is it alright if we return later?"

He answered cheerfully, so easily shaken from his distress, "Oh totally! Any time, yeah? You guys work super hard! I saw all that stuff on the news. You need to relax hard too. Come and chill out with us again." He seemed very happy as he said that, and Judy followed her partner out. Nick carefully looked left and right to see if anyone else was outside the establishment. It was clear. He moved hastily, Judy following behind, to the convenience store across the street.

Judy sighed as she stood by her partner, waiting. "So… Wow… This just got a lot bigger. I mean… A murder's big, but jeeze. I hope this was all Ukweli had on him."

Nick replied softly, "Well, witness account said he had nothing on him when he left, but I have trouble believing that a lycaon could even use a gun like that, and there was no trigger guard on it. That makes me think larger mammal would use this. A bull or something, maybe. This isn't all making sense."

"Who's picking us up?" Judy asked.

Her partner stated, "I didn't want to blow our cover by having a patrol car pick us up, and the detective was already closer to the airport, so I made other arrangements."

"Nick, who's picking us up?" As she asked that, she heard the roar of a powerful engine approaching. Her ears fell back. She remembered who he'd been speaking with moments before they found the weapon. Judy glared at Nick.

The fox looked back innocently. "She was close. Seriously," he said with a smile.

Judy groaned. "Nick! Skye is not our personal taxi service! We nearly got her killed last time!" The bunny was exasperated by that. This fox could really quickly wear out a welcome if he kept that up. Skye had done a lot to help care for them while they were on the mend.

Nick smiled back at her and stated, "Well, we will just have to make it up to her. Don't worry fluff. She's actually excited to help!" With that, the brown-dyed doe turned and saw the black sports car approach, moving at a speed that likely would have deserved a ticket in any other circumstance. She pulled into the parking lot and then right past Judy and Nick to park in a spot on the other side of the lot. Judy looked at the car blankly as it stopped so far away from them.

The bunny then murmured in realization. "Oh yeah. She didn't recognize us." Nick was already sauntering over to the car. Judy could see black tipped bunny ears in the passenger seat, and realized with a start that Jack was actually with her. Skye looked irritated. Maybe she was not as eager to help as Nick had suggested. She and Jack might very well have been on a date. After all, if they were close it meant they had not been at home. Nick stopped by the door as Judy approached.

"Hey there, how's it goin'?" the black-dyed fox asked.

"I'm not carrying any cash, sorry pal." Jack stated in a very automatic tone. Skye looked down at him incredulously.

The white vixen hissed, "Are you serious? He didn't even say anything yet! I'm gonna tie your ears together, Jack!" Judy felt a pang of guilt herself as she realized she very likely would have thought the same thing to see a fox she didn't know moving over to the car like that. How easy it was to forget tiny little assumptions that seemed pretty harmless. It didn't seem to bother Nick at all though, who just smirked at the rabbit as he shrugged helplessly at his vulpine girlfriend.

Nick spoke in his disguised voice. "No problem, I hadn't expected my Zuber ride to get here so quick-like. This app is so much better than a taxi or a bus, I'm tellin' you!" Judy looked at her partner with undisguised irritation. He was playing games! They had really important work to do.

"What?" Skye asked as she was shaken from her irritation at the front-seat bunny. "No, oh, hey, I'm not your Zuber, I'm here to pick someone else up." 'Gerald' looked back to 'Dee' and chimed, "Look sweetie! There's already a bunny and fox in the car! They're sayin' they aren't our Zuber though."

Judy glared at the black-furred fox as she replied in her normal voice. "Nick, cut it out, we're in a hurry, remember?"

Skye recoiled a bit. "Whoa! What the… Nick?!" She then looked over his shoulder as Judy waved at him. "Oh wow. You guys are… You guys are under cover?" she asked. Nick put a finger to his muzzle as if to shush the vixen and she grinned and nodded. Whatever foul mood Skye had built up seemed to evaporate at the intrigue of what Nick and Judy were doing out there. Jack got out of the car and hopped into the back. Nick sat in back with Jack and the evidence bag and Judy belted herself into the front seat. Skye quickly pulled out of the parking lot.

Jack awkwardly spoke, looking back at Nick. "Sorry about… you know… The thing earlier."

"Ha!" Nick laughed. "Don't worry about it. Begging's not a fox thing, but it is a hungry thing, and walking up to strangers' cars is a thing folks do when they are hungry." Nick made it clear he was absolutely not upset about it.

Skye spoke up as she drove. "The Golden Antler is where we are going, right? They hold a Maker Faire there at the end of the year. I've been there a few times." She gunned the engine as they got onto the highway. The wind roared through the open windows as apparently Skye did not see a huge need for AC and it might have been too warm otherwise.

"What's a Maker Faire?" Judy asked.

Jack responded instead of Skye. "It's like a grown up version of a school science fair. It's got clever engineering, a bit of zany art and fun, and lots to see and do." Judy raised an eyebrow at Jack knowing that, and then looked up to the rear-view mirror, seeing that Skye was grinning too. Apparently, the buck's knowledge of those things that she loved helped to bring them together.

Judy spoke loudly over the din of the wind and engine. "You will forgive us if we can't share much about what's going on! Nick wasn't even supposed to send you that picture, Jack. It's all still an open investigation, so-"

Jack yelled over the wind back to Judy. "Yeah, yeah! I get it, no talkie! There's probably not more than a paw-full of mammals in the city that could even read that thing you sent me, Nick. With Lupin dead, there's one less!"

"Lupin Dead?" Skye asked loudly, eyes widening. "Wait, we… we're dealing with killers?!" Skye did not seem to like that idea very much.

Judy stated flatly, "I wouldn't have spent three hours starting at four in the morning in makeup for a petty theft."

"Are we going after the killer?" Skye asked bluntly.

Judy answered, "We don't know yet. We are after someone who was acting suspicious at the club the day of the murder." Judy still did not want to give too much away. Even if it was harmless, it was unprofessional. Still, she understood Skye's tension. The last time she helped Nick and Judy with a life or death situation she got a lot closer to the action than she had ever wanted to. However, Skye's thoughts wandered to something different.

Skye narrowed her eyes, obviously thinking hard a moment. "The club… Right there? Wait, you guys were in the…" She blinked at that, and then burst into laughter. Judy put her ears back. Skye was certainly capable of teasing about that.

Jack responded with a smirk. "It's a nice place, Skye. I'll take you there sometime." Skye gripped the steering wheel tighter.

"What? No? Goodness no. I'm good." The vixen denied him outright. This seemed to quiet her possible incoming teasing though, for which Judy was grateful.

The doe finally grumbled, "Now that all our investigation's thrown out to the breeze, I guess it doesn't matter what we say. But when we get there, just drop us off so we can go in, meet with the detectives and give them our evidence. We just need to be available to assist. We have other officers meeting us on scene. You guys do not go in there, okay?"

Skye answered loudly, "Yeah, I'm gonna leave the unknown violent murder mammals to you this time. Trust me."

Jack chuckled a bit and stated, "I'm actually kind of happy to be involved in this. Lupin was one of my teachers. I have a personal reason for wanting this solved." Jack stated.

"Wait, someone you know got killed?" Skye asked incredulously.

"Yeah, I told you my old professor passed away the other day." Jack said blankly.

"Good heavens, Jack, you didn't say he got murdered!" Skye shouted. "Tell me these things! I care!"

Jack seemed to ignore that, saying, "I think he got killed for something he knew, or something he was close to finding out. He was very involved in research that was a bit controversial and in places that were a little dangerous. I'd funded his last two expeditions. I know it was important." Jack stated.

"Do you ever just keep any over your money?" Nick asked loudly.

Jack shook his head. "It's dumb to just hoard it in piles in the dark confines of some bank vault when it could be out there helping someone," he said casually. Judy liked him a little more for saying it. Skye smiled too.

"What was he researching?" Nick asked.

"The Origin Story," Jack replied in a hushed tone as the exited the highway and came to a traffic light.

"What, like… The Origin of Peace?" Skye replied.

"Yep!" Jack stated. Judy knew what Jack was talking about, of course. Anyone on the continent over the age of five likely knew it. Long ago, mammals, even as they became more civilized and intelligent, continued to socially exist in a manner not that far removed from their distant ancestors. Even ten thousand years before, bunnies got eaten, and entire settlements of any nearby predators would get attacked and burned to the ground over it. Those were dark days.

But at some point back then, thousands of years ago, there was a meeting. Predator and prey tribes from all over, of all species, attended. An agreement was made for the good of their world. They drew up documentation carefully recording the agreements for law, trade, and a promise to aid one another. The tribes sent out emissaries to more distant tribes with the news and asked that they embrace peace. It was not instant, it was not always easy, but it spread over time. The agreement was followed to that day, and prosperous cities like Zootopia could stand, thousands of years later, as living testaments to 'The Origin of Peace'.

Skye asked curiously, "So you are thinking he found something valuable that someone wanted to claim for themselves?"

Jack nodded. "That, or someone doesn't want the thing found out. Not everyone was on board with the peace at first and some mammals did not… shall we say… behave admirably. That led to a lot of strife early on and a lot of mammals want to distance themselves from those days as much as possible. Proof of their species unwillingness to live under the peace accords would be an embarrassment."

Judy interjected, "Well, we don't know what the person we are following did, but I suspect he may know something about what's going on." She did not want to start pointing fingers early. She learned her lesson.

Skye asked curiously, "Did you find evidence that suggests he knew something or did something?" The vixen was obviously still concerned about how dangerous the favor she was doing for them was turning out to be. Judy prepared to tell Skye that it was an open investigation and could not be discussed, but Nick spoke, because of course he did.

"We found a firearm in his belongings," he blurted out.

Skye replied loudly, "What, wait, shit, are you serious?"

"Nick, you can't discuss that, they aren't involved in the case!" Judy fairly shouted.

"Jack's why we even have this case!" Nick barked back. "Besides, the well-read and well connected actor might have information valuable to this case."

"Can I see the gun?" Jack asked.

"No!" Judy shouted.

"Sure." Nick said casually, unzipping the bag.

Judy growled loudly. "You're gonna get us suspended on our first day back on the force, Nick!"

The car coasted to a stop at a stop light. Skye turned to look as well as Nick displayed the weapon low enough that it would not be visible outside of the car.

Nick spoke softly, "You do action movies with guns sometimes, Jack, would you know anything about that one?" he asked.

Jack shook his head. "No way. Nothing from the prop department looked like that. That thing looks like it should be part of a tank." Jack said in awe. "We are not seriously going after a guy who was carrying that, are we?"

"EX 1123 Bifurcator." Skye stated. Judy looked up to the vixen curiously.

"What?" she asked.

"The gun. It's an EX 1123. Most powerful non-rifled firearm ever sold. Only distributed to the military. That gun's worth more than my car." Skye began driving again as Nick zipped the evidence case back up.

The black fox looked at Judy. "See, aren't you glad we showed it to them, Carrots? We have more information now."

"No, I am not glad we showed it to them!" Judy grunted back, crossing her arms as she leaned back in the front seat. "But that said… Skye, why do you even recognize it?" Judy asked. The vixen was quiet a moment as she drove, taking a turn and heading up a main thoroughfare. They were getting close to the hotel.

She finally answered. "My dad collected old non-functioning weapons before they tightened the restrictions and confiscated his collection. We still had a bunch of books though, and to me, when I was younger, these guns were like every other machine to me. I liked reading the specs and learning about them." She finally pulled in front of the hotel itself, a 14 story silvery glass block of a building.

"Well, we're here! Get out." Skye's blunt, cold wording was, of course, in jest. She had stopped right in front of the hotel. Judy hopped out and crawled out when his partner folded the seat forward. Judy thanked Skye brightly and followed Nick. She straightened her clothes, chasing her fox up to the hotel. She looked behind her, seeing two patrol cars parked across the street alongside the road that lead to the airport. She then moved to catch up to her partner as he moved swiftly into the lobby.

Inside, Judy found Nick walking over toward the front desk. A squat Cherrywood-toned beaver stood on a stool on the other side of the desk. The black fox moved swiftly up to him. Judy caught up as Nick spoke.

"I am here with the ZPD, Nicholas Wilde," he stated, looking down at the beaver's name tag, "Have any other officers arrived yet, Stanley?" he asked.

The beaver regarded him with narrowing eyes for a moment before stating, "First of all, you aren't Nicholas Wilde. I've seen Officer Wilde on the news. You do not look like him." Nick looked back with wide eyes, as if he had not entirely expected that would be a problem.

The bunny spoke up from behind her partner. "It really is Wilde. We're under cover. I'm Officer Hopps."

Stanley widened his eyes a little and rubbed his chin. "You do a good voice impression, but I need to see some ID." Nick took his badge out of the evidence bag and showed it to the beaver. Judy sighed softly. He was doing his job, and that was commendable at least. He inspected it for a pretty long time, as if not genuinely believing it, and then finally nodded.

He stated calmly, "Yeah, three others went up, I sent 'em to room ah... 714. Went up about five minutes ago. Sorry for the heavy caution, I was told to keep anyone from heading to that floor for a bit."

Nick nodded and headed quickly for the elevator. "Gotcha, Thank you, Stan, you did great!" Judy smiled at him, getting a genuine smile back as she turned and followed her partner. She got onto the elevator and sighed, ready for this whirlwind day to be over. After so many lazy days just savoring Nick's company in their apartment, this was overdoing things. She already missed just laying her head in his lap or kissing and holding him, feeling his arms around her as the passing of the day meant little but opportunity together.

Those days felt like a lifetime away already, and as she looked at her reflection in the mirror-polished elevator door, she didn't even look like the same bunny.

She murmured softly, gazing at Nick's tail by her legs, "You know, for a while I wished I could be someone else, but I am starting to miss being me." Nick turned and grinned at the bunny, sliding a fingertip over her ear.

"I miss my bunny," he said in a silky tone. Something about it put a cold chill through her, as if an unspoken promise had been made that his bunny would be greeted warmly indeed when he saw her next.

"Soon enough!" Judy chuckled and then looked up as the elevator's bell chimed. The door opened and both cautiously stepped out. The hallway was empty, so they assumed the officers were inside. The fox and bunny were careful and quiet, not wanting to get the other guests of the hotel involved in any of this, whatever it would be. Nick finally tapped on the door.

"Who's there?" The voice answering on the other side was obviously Wolfard.

"The naked truth." Nick said with a wry tone. Wolfard opened the door and looked a bit surprised as he regarded his fellow officers.

"Oh wow… they did a great job on you two. Come on in. Bring the evidence kit and you can probably give us some extra supplies from it. We're gonna need it." Nick entered the room, followed by Judy.

Judy immediately wished she could have opted to guard the door. The hotel room was in shambles and there was blood on pretty much everything. On the floor was a lycaon who would not be getting arrested for weapon's possession. Shirtless as he was, it was easy to see he had a gaping hole completely through his torso. By the look of the hotel room, it appeared that more blood was likely out of this canid than in him. The bunny immediately looked away from the lifeless mammal, contenting herself with watching detective Pawlander take pictures of the scene.

Nick sucked a breath through his teeth. "Well, that's not tranq-dart damage. What the hell happened to him?"

"He died." Wolfard deadpanned. Nick rolled his eyes.

The fox responded, "I suspect that was not on his to-do list, but I guess we are no closer to figuring out what happened to Lupin. Geeze, what a mess…" Nick looked around. There really was blood slowly drying on what seemed like every surface of the room. "Is this normal for a scene like this? I mean… the walls and ceiling?" he asked. Judy wondered the same, but didn't feel like saying anything. This was not the first body she'd seen, but it had never been anything so obviously violent.

Pawlander was the one who answered. "From the looks of it, the attack did not end when our victim did. Whoever did this wanted to make a point. They wanted someone else to be scared."

"It's working." Nick said. "I'm not getting in line for that ride." He handed a few bags to Pawlander and then removed the gun from the evidence bag. "I bet he wishes he'd have brought this with him." Wolfard took a step back and Pawlander's eyes went wide as he whistled.

"There was just… never any need for a gun that big." Wolfard said.

Pawlander shook his head. "That can't be a common gun. We should be able to find out something about a possible owner with a little digging. That's a good find, Wilde." Judy enjoyed seeing Nick get praised openly like that, mostly because she could tell he still wasn't used to it. He was a part of the team here. He wasn't a lowly fox skulking around on the wrong side of town during daylight hours. He was an equal. His tail flitted with a bit of energy, and she knew why.

Nick spoke with a casual smile. "Way ahead of you. It's an EX 1123 Bifurcator. Military grade." Pawlander wrote that information down and Judy finally mustered up the courage to go see what had to be Ukweli. The rather young-looking adult male lycaon was a characteristic black with brown and white splotches. He looked a bit underfed and was certainly under-dressed. He seemed to be wearing pants that were a size or three too small, so Judy had to guess he'd snagged them along the way. The bunny wondered what kind of weapon was used to create such a ghastly wound. It went completely through him, she felt certain even though she didn't get close enough to actually check.

"Did anyone report a gunshot?" Judy asked.

Pawlander answered, "There was a noise complaint, but the noise had stopped by the time security showed up and knocked. They didn't think anything else of it. It looks like he was stabbed, not shot."

Nick huffed. "Stabbed? With what, a highway guardrail?"

Wolfard shook his head. "Forensics might be able to tell us a little more. Right now, we don't know a whole lot other than being pretty certain that the fight was one-sided." The grey-furred lupine bagged a tooth in an evidence back, causing Judy to cringe and turn away. No one deserved this. The ZPD would get justice for this canine, and the older wolf as well.

Pawlander spoke up again. "I think that's all we need here. You guys have been up since what… three? Head out. Get back to your usual color. We might have some answers for you about this stuff in the morning. I'm glad you two were able to help with this. Without you bearing it all for the ZPD, We might never have known these two crimes were even related." Judy nodded at that, though it was hard to smile amid all this carnage. It felt really good to be back on the force, back at work, and helping again. She wasn't sure how much this had actually helped, but at least Pawlander did not have negative things to say about their participation. That could work out well for them later.

Wolfard spoke again as Judy and Nick moved toward the door. "It's great to have you guys back on the team. We've missed you a lot at Headquarters. It's been too quiet. Higgins has been trying to prank Fangmeyer and it's just not the same."

Nick chuckled at that as he exited and nodded to Wolfard. "Well, Bogo brought us in for this specific assignment but he didn't tell us if we were gonna be back on the roster, so I'm hoping we are. I've enjoyed chilling out and watching movies with Judy all day, but I'm glad to get back to work. First time in my life I've actually missed doing my job," he laughed jovially, "… though usually it's not… this." he gave a more somber nod to the hotel room in general. "Be good just to write some tickets after this." Somehow, Judy doubted they would be completely out of the loop where this horrifying incident was concerned. Still, the detectives would be the ones investigating, so it was more likely she and her partner would be back on patrol more than dealing with this specific case.

Trying to push the images of that awful room out of her head, Judy followed Nick back on to the elevator. The ride back down was quiet, where coming up had been a little flirtatious. The mood was strikingly different and the bunny noticed that right away. The mood change was actually more troubling to Judy than the image of that room that she was trying hard to push out of her head. Judy became a bit concerned as Nick spoke not a word as he got off the elevator and walked toward the door of the hotel. She followed close behind. He had seemed more resilient in that room, but had it kind of messed him up? She knew he could put on a strong face when he needed to.

The black-furred fox walked up to the matching black car parked not too far from the entrance. Judy was actually rather surprised to find that Jack and Skye had waited. Nick and Judy could well have been tied up in there for hours. Judy wondered how long Skye would have patiently waited out there with Jack as she moved up behind her partner.

Nick leaned into the window by Jack and asked softly, "What are you guys doing for the next few hours?" Judy watched her partner carefully, having not expected that question. She assumed he would be asking if they would give them a quick ride back to the apartment. There was not a smug smile on Nick's face. He looked weary.

Jack glanced up curiously at Nick as Skye answered casually, "We were probably just gonna hang out. I was considering hitting up a junk yard to look for some parts, but it's not time sensitive. What's up?"

Nick's eyes glanced between Skye and Jack, and then spoke softly, his tone a bit heavy. "I'm… Not gonna lie… we just saw some pretty unpleasant stuff… so I wanted to know if you wanted to go do something fun and distracting to kind of … brain bleach some of it. And no, I don't want to talk about it. Really." Skye looked horrified. Given how candid Nick seemed to have been about so many other things, she was left to her imagination about that. Skye's imagination was likely pretty talented. Jack looked unsettled too, but got out of the car, not even assuming that Skye might say no.

Jack and Skye were their friends. They would never say no to something like that. Judy quietly got into the car. Yes, what they had seen had bothered Nick. No, he wasn't completely okay. Judy knew he wasn't from the doctor's visit just the previous day. But one thing had changed that made Judy grateful. Nick did not pretend he was alone anymore. He had friends, and while perhaps it was for Judy as much as it was for him, he asked for help. Judy found immediate comfort in seeing Nick not only seek out the support of his friends, but readily find it.

Skye did not make a suggestion on where to go, or even ask. She seemed to know where she was going and drove swiftly onto the highway. Jack interrupted the quiet as he began talking about the worst romantic comedy film he was supposed to star in. It was a movie which was so awful it was never even shown. Judy closed her eyes and listened to the comical tale. She reached a paw back to hold Nick's own. He readily took it and held it tight as Skye whisked them away for whatever distraction she had in mind.