A/N: I'd like to thank GhostWolf88, Stubat, PizzaSteve3902, ConfusedGoatee, DrummerMax64 and Cimar of Turalis-WildeHopps for their reviews of chapters 3 and 4! And to my friend Aninat131, Happy Birthday! Well, technically his birthday's tomorrow where I am, but where he is it's today! Many Happy Returns, my friend!

Savannah Central, Present Day:

Around the same time that Max Thrash was having an interesting phone conversation, the time had come for Nick and Judy's lunch break too. Stopping at a diner they favored around Mufasa Square, they sat down at their usual booth and ordered their usual lunch: Judy a house salad, and Nick a tofu burger with a side of poutine. It was then, sitting there off-duty and awaiting their meal, that Nick decided to turn the line of conversation to birthdays.

"Did I ever tell you about my 6th birthday, Carrots?"

Judy gazed up from her phone where she had been texting from, her face looking puzzled. "Umm, no."

Nick took a sip from his mug of coffee and then leaned back, relaxing into the cushion of his seat. "It's the earliest one I can remember. We didn't exactly have parties when I was a kid, but my mom always found ways to make it fun anyway, even if it was just the two of us, but I already told you that. Anyway, when I woke up that day, I found a post-it note on my bed, with a riddle on it. Once I solved it, it led me to the mirror in the front hall, where there was another note with a riddle hidden behind it. And then I found another note, and another. Some clues were in our neighbor Rita's apartment too, and even one in the lobby of our building. When I found that one, it directed me right to my own bedroom; I was so excited I didn't even take the elevator back up, I ran up the stairs. And when I got back to my room, there was Mom, sitting on my bed with my presents in her lap. She'd set up a whole treasure hunt just for me."

He took another sip of coffee, smiling fondly at the memory. Judy, however, looked wary.

"That's a really nice story Nick, but why bring it up?"

Nick set down his cup, gazing at her. "Well, I don't know if you know, but my birthday is right around the corner, and frankly it's the first one I've looked forward to in a long time."

"Oh, is it? I mean, why?"

"Because of my mom. You know how we had a falling-out when she found out I was a confox; this'll be the first birthday I've spent with her in ten years, and it's all because of you."

Judy found herself blushing. "Aww, g'wan…"

"It's true!" said Nick earnestly, "If you hadn't convinced me to become a cop, she and I may never have made amends!"

Just then, their food arrived; Nick immediately picked up his tofu burger and took a big bite out of it, ravenous. Judy, however, did not even pick up her fork.

"That's nice to hear, Nick, but I know you: you're not one to just start reminiscing at the drop of a hat like that. What's really going on?"

Nick swallowed his mouthful of burger. "Well like I said, I don't think I've ever told you my birthday before, but being the sly bunny you are I thought you might have figured it out by now. And maybe, you know, had something planned."

Judy's expression didn't change, but the inside of her ears suddenly flushed red. The fox smirked.

"You've got something planned for me, haven't you?"

Judy said nothing.

"C'mooon…"

Judy still said nothing, but Nick saw her squirm a little in her seat.

"Juuudyyy, yoo got some 'splainin' to do!" mooed Nick in his best Ricky Ricowdo impersonation.

Judy sighed, looking defeated. "Alright, here's the deal: I loved that story you told me about your 8th birthday, so I called up your mother after we watched Robin Hood and asked when your birthday was, and she told me it was this week, and so we thought we'd do something for you. Obviously I couldn't rent out a theater, so we decided to take you out to Remy's for dinner."

This confirmed Nick's suspicion from before; he had suspected Judy had learned his birth date from his mother. "That's nice, was there anything else?"

Judy seemed to be thinking hard. "Well…we thought we'd invite some of your friends along. You know, Finnick, Flash-"

"...Clawhauser?" Nick asked.

"Sh-Sure. Clawhauser too." Judy stammered. Based on the way she broke eye contact with him then, Nick could tell she was putting two and two together and mentally confirming he had overheard her talking to Clawhauser after all. He gave her a soft smirk, as if daring her to come out and accuse him.

"Sounds good," he said, "And then after?"

"Well, then we thought we'd go back to your mom's place and have some nice homemade dessert." Judy said this very fast.

"Oh good," said Nick. Then he frowned. "Wait, just to confirm, my mom is making the dessert, right?"

"Of course, who else?" Judy asked.

"Well, to be honest I was a little afraid it might be you." Said Nick nonchalantly.

"What? You think I couldn't bake you a cake?" Judy asked with indignation.

Nick raised an eyebrow. Carrots, I've seen you burn cornflakes."

Judy fumed at him. "You know how that happened, and you know that had nothing to do with baking!"

Nick chortled at the memory. "I'm just teasing you, sweetheart. But seriously, you haven't lived until you've tried my mom's Tasmanian Devil's Food cake."

The two then fell into silence for a few minutes. Nick finished his tofu burger and started on his bowl of poutine, while Judy finally got around to starting on her salad. Before she was halfway through, however, Nick started probing again.

"So this is just a dinner then? It isn't a party? Or maybeee… a surprise party?"

Judy startled. "W-What do you mean?"

"I mean the guests – are you sure there's not going to be more people at the restaurant, ready to jump up and yell surprise the minute I walk in? Or perhaps waiting at my mother's place when I go there to pick her up, or when we go back there after dinner?"

"Of course not," said Judy, "We're already inviting some of your closest friends along, isn't that enough?"

"Could be, but you're tenacious," said Nick, "And sly, and you've got my mother on your side, so I just thought there might be a little more to it than that."

"Nick, birthdays aren't a celebrated thing for rabbits," Judy replied, "When you grow up in a family of over three hundred, surprise parties are as good as impossible. Believe me, when it comes to birthdays and parties, I really am just a dumb bunny."

"You said it, not me," said Nick casually. He paused to take the last bite of cheese-and-gravy-covered fries from his bowl of poutine. Then he asked: "So it's definitely not a surprise party? Just a little dinner with friends?"

"Definitely," said Judy, digging into the remainders of her house salad with a little too much gusto. Nick just shrugged, and paused to wipe his muzzle with his napkin.

"Why not just tell me, then?" he asked.

"We've spent the past week working out the details. But I think it's all arranged now, your mother should be calling you about it sometime tonight."

"I'll be looking forward to her call, then." Said Nick.

Later that afternoon, Nick and Judy were back at the precinct, working on their end-of-day paperwork in their cubicles. Nick's mind was barely on his work at all; he kept glancing up, watching the tips of Judy's ears over the edge of her cubicle. They kept twitching and swiveling in different directions, indicating she was anxious about something. Grinning, he kept quiet and waited, eager to see what the bunny would do next. When they had only half an hour to go, Judy got up, exited her cubicle and strolled in the direction of the bathrooms. Seeing her turn the corner Nick got up and followed her, turning the corner himself just to see the female's bathroom door close. Thinking fast, Nick ducked into the male's room, knowing there was an air vent inside that connected the two bathrooms. Spying a stepstool by the door he moved it to the wall and stood on it with his ear pressed against the duct, listening for Judy's voice. He quickly heard it:

"Mrs. Wilde, Nick knows."

Nick's eyebrows shot up in intrigue. He was definitely interested to hear what role his mother was playing in all this. He continued listening:

"No, he didn't actually say it, but while we were at lunch he brought up a birthday he had when he was six, and then he kept going on about how he looks forward to this birthday because it's the first he's had with you in years, and then he started asking if I had anything like a party planned, and I tell you, the smugness coming off of him was palpable. And, and–he all but confirmed he overheard me talking to Clawhauser yesterday."

Nick gave a huge nod to that, a large smirk spreading across his face. He so loved playing with that bunny's head.

"Of course I didn't tell him about the party, but he started grilling me so I told him about the dinner we were going to take him out to, and I think that's thrown him off the scent for now. But there's a problem: I had to tell him we were taking some of his friends along, to make it seem like there would be no one waiting for him at your place. Finnick, Flash and Clawhauser, those were the names I gave him. Finnick would go along with it, he loves a free meal, Clawhauser too, but I don't know about Flash. I mean, it took him the better part of four days just to answer his invite, changing plans with him now might take too long."

Nick clenched his muzzle in his paws, trying not to laugh. Judy continued:

"It should still work, he was definitely interested in going back to your place for dessert, he said your cakes are very good and he's not exactly confident in my baking... Mrs. Wilde? Mrs. Wilde, why are you laughing?"

Nick pressed the side of his face closer, this part had to be good.

"Oh, Nick told you that story, did he? NO, that had nothing to do with baking. Look, I was eating cereal in my apartment, and Nick came to the door. I had to put the bowl down to answer, but my desk was too cluttered so I put it on top of the hot plate but I'd forgotten I left it on after making tea and STOP LAUGHING MRS. WILDE!"

Next to the vent beside her, Nick doubled over trying to hold back his laughter, accidentally letting out a small snort. On the other side of the wall, one of Judy's large ears gave a distinctive twitch. The bunny was quiet for a few seconds before she spoke again:

"Okay, we'll talk more soon, but now I gotta go. If I keep Nick waiting much longer he's going to get suspicious."

With a jolt Nick got down, put the stepstool back in its place, and bolted out of the male's room, rushing down the hall and into his cubicle before Judy could see him. She didn't, she didn't even move from where she stood in the bathroom, but she didn't have to. With her ears she had had no trouble deducing who had just snickered. She put her phone back up to her ear:

"Okay, he's gone now, Mrs. Wilde. How did you know he was eavesdropping again?" She listened for a few seconds, and then smiled. "...Yeah, I guess a mother does always know. Alright, what is this new plan of yours?"

A/N: Rita the neighbor I mentioned belongs to PullTogether, whose stories I really enjoy. This will be the last update for a couple months I'm afraid, for I've undertaken a new story for Cimar's 'What If…?' collaboration project which I'm going to be focusing on until it is finished. But when I'm done that, it's right back to this story! Thanks for reading!