"You only need one man to love you. But him to love you free like a wildfire, crazy like the moon, always like tomorrow, sudden like an inhale and overcoming like the tides. Only one man and all of this". C. JoyBell C.

Since Nick had to do desk duty, Judy had alternating partners for a while during her patrol shifts: The first week she was with Fangmeyer and the next two with McHorn. She also did shifts with Wolford, Higgins and Snarlof, but she always found it difficult. They were all so much bigger and always trying to spare her; they also didn't have too much in common, so they talked about work most of the time. At least she benefitted from their vast experience and while working for a few days with Marki, she was inspired to take some advanced courses in criminal psychology and profiling. That also meant that Nick had to do those, too – Judy was most of the time talked about the learning matter and as it turned out he was a natural when it came to putting himself in the position of others; his life as a Conmammal prepared him quite well for this and a bit of additional theory couldn't hurt. Working on desk duty also made him quite good with computers. He also took a few courses in computer forensics after Bradley, a jaguar working in the forensics lab and a specialist in computer forensics, demonstrated during a case of identity theft how useful such skills are. After nearly three months he was faster in typing with only his right paw then Judy was with both of hers.

Shortly after they returned from Bunnyburrow they made an initial visit to Doctor Alisson. She was a nice rabbit, about the same age as Doctor Greenwood, and even Judy lost her timidity rather quickly. In the first couple of weeks, Nick had to make a visit twice a week to check the healing process of his abdominal wound. But after three weeks, he only had to come once a week and after the fifth week she told him that everything had healed completely. After six weeks, they took off the cast on his right leg and for one week a physiotherapist helped him every day with exercises to train his muscles and gain the original strength in his leg. But this took another few weeks in which he spent even more time in the gym of the precinct than Judy. When in the twelfth week, Doctor Alisson also finally removed his arm cast, he changed his training program to support his arms, too. Five weeks of hard exercises and physiotherapy later, he had finally recovered completely and was back on duty by Judy's side.

Judy and Nick visited her parents every two weeks on the weekends: After work on Friday they took the last train to Bunnyburrow, where they stayed until Sunday afternoon. Because not every member of the Hopps' family lived in their parent's burrow, it took nearly two months and four visits until Nick had met everyone at least once. With the exception of Joshua and a few other older siblings, everyone seemed to like Nick. Every week between their visits Bonnie and Stu sent a package with fresh fruits and vegetables, and sometimes even a cake, to the city couple.

Taking turns with the apartment they slept over worked at the beginning. After a while each of them had enough spare clothes in each apartment, but a single room to live, learn, work and sleep in was soon not enough. They considered a few options and arrived at the decision to move in together. Nick had quite some savings and with their combined salary they should have been able to afford a bigger apartment, but still stay in the inner city. They even got more than they searched for: The cousin of a nephew of an associate partner of Mister Big owned a large apartment complex in the downtown area near the Savannah Central Park. On each of the eight floors were four condominium suites with a rent at least six times what Judy and Nick could afford. But as Judy was the Godmother of one of Mister Big's grandchildren, they got a special family price. At first Judy was hesitant to accept such a generous offer. But it turned out to be rather difficult for a predator-prey-couple to rent a flat in the upper-middle class; there was still so much prejudice, even in the city of Zootopia. After two months of searching for an affordable flat without results, they finally accepted. Their apartment was on the fifth floor and big enough to be comfortable for a three-person-family of big mammals, like wolves. For Nick and Judy, it was nearly a palace. They barely had enough belongings to even fill a single room, but it was their first own joint lodging and over time numerous friends and family members endowed them with old, conditioned furniture and it really became domestic for them after a while. Their very own place of refuge from the daily grind.

It was a nice autumn day when Nick and Judy called it a day. They had a day of desk duty and decided to work out in the gym. It was about seven o'clock when Judy came out of the shower and went to her locker. When she went to open it, she found a sticky note on the door. Judy let her looks wander: The only other mammal in the locker room was Francine. The cow elephant was trying to be conspicuously inconspicuous. Judy read the note and raised her eyebrows: 'You can always find some frosted tori close to me. Ask me for a message.'

Judy put on her pants and a cushy pullover, putting her dirty clothes into a sports bag and shouldering it. With the sticky note in her paw she left the locker room and waited for Nick. But when Fangmeyer left the male locker room a few minutes later, he stopped for a moment.

"Hey, Judy. If you are waiting for Nick: He isn't in there anymore".

"Oh?" Judy looked puzzled and Fangmeyer winked with a grin.

"Just thought I should let you know… have a nice evening!"

Something was quite strange here. Fangmeyer acted, as if he knew exactly where Nick was, but didn't want to tell her and why didn't he wait for her? Mumbling something angrily, she wanted to go straight to the subway station in front of the precinct. But then she remembered the sticky note.

"Frosted tori…" she mumbled and went back to the front hall to Clawhauser's desk. "Hey, Ben!" Judy waved impatiently to the cheetah who was just eating one of those tori – also called donuts.

"Heeeey, Judy!" Clawhauser was beaming with this glare in his eyes he always had when he wanted to tell someone something. But he didn't this time; he just gazed at her, smiling and eating another donut.

Judy laid the sticky note on his desk. "Is this from you?"

"No". He was beaming even more now and was visibly struggling to stay quiet.

"Okay, but do you have a message for me then?" Judy asked impatiently. Why was everybody acting so strange this evening?

"Yepp!" the cheetah was nearly falling off his chair, giddy with excitement. He took another donut from the box, handing it to Judy. "You should definitely try this one, darling!"

Judy's mouth was left open while she looked at him with disbelief. "Thank you, Ben, but no. I just thought someone had left a message for me here". She wanted to turn around to finally go home, but Clawhauser's squeaking voice stopped her.

"No, wait Judy!" She stopped and had an inquiring look. "You really-really want to taste this donut! Pretty please!" Benjamin sounded really desperate and looked pleading at her, reaching his paw out with the donut. Judy sighed, guessing that today must be full moon or something. She took the donut and slowly took a bit. It was one with carrot flavor, quite tasty, but actually too sweet for her now. But Benjamin Clawhauser looked satisfied and waved her a goodbye, so Judy turned around, rolled her eyes and wandered to the front doors. It took her a few steps until she noticed that there was something strange inside the donut: A white piece of paper, rolled together to fit inside.

"What the…?" she turned her head to ask Clawhauser about it, but the cheetah was apparently having a talk on the phone, not looking in her direction but his tail was really excited. Perplexed, Judy took the small piece of paper, held the donut in her mouth and uncurled the note: 'I'm not a beaver, but you rescued me nonetheless.' It was another riddle and it dawned on her, that Nick might eventually have something to do with it. She actually wanted to get home, have an easy evening on the couch and maybe read a book or watch TV; but now she was curious.

"Not a beaver… I know quite a lot of mammals who aren't beavers". Judy said to herself, reading the note again. "You rescued me. But as an police officer I'm permanently rescuing others". She snorted frustrated, but then thought again. This note was obviously from Nick and he was playing some strange scavenger hunt with her. She looked at the note again, then turned it around and paused: There was a flower sketched on the backside. "Oh, of course!" Judy hit her forehead with a paw. During their first case with the Nighthowlers, she saved fifteen animals and while on the search for Mister Otterton his yoga teacher confused him with a beaver! Nick and Judy were still in contact with the Ottertons, their shop wasn't too far away. Judy walked for about five minutes and wondered if she would meet Nick there.

When she finally arrived at the Florists, she found, much to her surprise, that the shop was still open, but no Nick. She pushed against the door and a little bell rang. Mister and Misses Otterton were arranging some flowers and turned their heads.

"Good evening!" Judy smiled and Misses Otterton flung her arms around Judy's neck.

"Hello Judy, my dear!" she beamed, her husband was holding a really big bouquet and smiled at her.

"Good to see you, Judy!" he winked and handed her the bouquet with 24 red roses. Judy looked puzzled.

"For me? But…" she wanted to protest and say that she was searching for Nick.

"There is a card for you within the flowers". Misses Otterton interrupted her and winked again.

Judy started to grin, put the bouquet on the table and picked up the card from it. She folded it open: 'There is a rose for every week in my live that was so much better with you by my side, but even their beauty is fading beside you'. Judy was struggling with tears of joy, there were two dozen roses, and it was on the day, six months ago that they kissed in the Hollow-Club after the Gazelle concert. She had totally forgotten their little anniversary and was all emotional that Nick kept it in mind. Then noticed another sticky note on the backside of the card: "For you I would do a hundred-yard dash in record time." Judy was crying and laughing at the same time, and Mister and Misses Otterton shared a mutual knowing smile.

"I think you have another goal, my dear", Misses Otterton winked at Judy and handed her the bouquet again.

"Thank you!" Judy smiled and wiped her tears away with her other paw. Mister Otterton held the door open for her and she waved a quick goodbye. The next one was easy: '100-yard dash' was the nickname of Flash, the sloth working at the DMV. But it was quite a walk to the Department of Mammal Vehicles, also, the sports bag on her shoulder was getting heavy and now she had to carry the roses, too. It was an enchanting gesture, but not very well thought out – but at that moment, a white limousine drove up and a jaguar got out of it.

"May I give you a ride, Miss Hopps?" Renato Manchas, the black jaguar and chauffeur of the Tundratown Refrigerated Luxury Limo Service, opened the rear door of the limousine and smiled at Judy.

"Mister Manchas!" Judy reached to shake his hand. "You, too?" The jaguar just winked.

"May I have your sports bag? I will put it in the trunk, I don't think you will need it tonight". Judy handed him the bag and climbed into the car. After the black jaguar got into the driver's seat, he opened the divider and asked: " Do you have an address for me, Miss Hopps?"

"Yes, to the DMV, please!" she winked and the jaguar nodded.

The ride lasted ten minutes and when they arrived, there was only one other car in the parking lot. Judy recognized the car at once and got out of the limousine with a sigh. When she was beside the driver's side, the window opened and the sloth's face was – very slowly – smiling at her.

"Nice… to… see… you… again… Judy…"

"Hey, Flash!" She hoped it wouldn't take all night for him to give her the next hint and smiled.

"I… have… something… for… you…"

"What?"

"…from… Nick…"

"What is it, Flash?"

"…that… I… shall… give… to…"

"Me?!"

"…you!" It took Flash nearly a full minute to grab another big package from the passenger seat, and another minute until he handed it to Judy, who was anxiously waiting for him.

"Thanks, Flash! See you!" she grabbed the package that was nearly half her size but not very heavy and ran back to the limousine. Back on the seat, she unraveled the big tie around it and found a beautiful dress inside in navy blue. Judy clasped her paws onto her mouth and gulped; the material was made out of the smoothest silk she had ever had in her paws and it gleamed slightly in the moonlight. There was an envelope lying in the box and Judy opened it impatiently. This time, there was a photo inside; a rather old one, made by one of her siblings nearly 17 years ago during her play in the carrot festival. It showed her lying on the stage, covered with ketchup and playing dead. Judy laughed and nearly started to weep again. It took her only a few seconds until she said: "Mister Manchas?"

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"To the natural history museum".

"Yes, Ma'am!"

They had to drive to the other side of the city, back to the precinct. Judy let no grass grow under her feet, made sure the dividers were closed and quickly changed on the backseat. The dress had one shoulder strap and was slit at her legs; it was really body-hugging, but fit her perfectly. She just finished in time when they arrived at the museum. Mister Manchas opened the door for her and Judy got out of the car shyly.

"How do I look?" she asked, the black jaguar nodded with a smile.

"You really look beautiful, Miss Hopps. I will wait for you here". He closed the door again and waited outside the car while Judy slowly walked up the stairs to the main entrance. She was expecting to finally meet Nick, but there was only yet another sticky note on the door: 'Go to the hairy ancestor of the iceman'. Another riddle… but Judy grinned and tried to open the door: For a wonder (more or less) it swung open, and she slowly walked along the main hallway. Only a few dimmed lights were on and it took her a while to find her destination: The big mammoth at the back entrance that was leading to the station. She walked around the statue and finally found a small black box with a white tie on the pedestal. A note was lying beneath, which said: 'I gazed up at the stars as I waited for you. They twinkled down at me, like a huge handful of diamonds someone had coated in glue and thrown on the ceiling. But in comparison with your eyes they are only dull marbles'. Judy was glad she was apparently alone at the moment, because she started to cry again, becoming emotional. But it really hit her after she opened the small box. Inside was a golden necklace with an orange gem pendant in the shape of a carrot, combined with a smaller green one for the foliage. With blurred vision, she put the necklace on and walked back to the main entrance, left the museum and to the still waiting white limousine. Mister Manchas was still waiting outside and opened the door for her.

"I have no clue where to go next…" she snuffled with a smile. The black jaguar handed her another small box:

"Don't worry, just take a seat Miss Hopps".

Judy nodded, took the small box, and got in the car. She opened it and immediately laughed; inside was a silk handkerchief and a small note: 'You rabbits are so emotional'.

She switched on the light and looked at her mirror image on the window. With some care she dried her eyes and stroked over her fur a few times. After all her crying she really looked horrible, but just when she wanted to switch off the light again she noticed another small bag on the seat opposite her. Inside was a hand mirror, some lipstick and rouge of the same brand she owned (but never used) and a small brush. Again with a short note: 'You look quite beautiful even without all of this, you know? But I bet you were already cursing that you didn't have time to dress unhurriedly at home'. She laughed and nearly started to cry again, but then chose to apply just a small bit of makeup and brush her fur on her head, arms and legs.

They drove for about another ten minutes, and Judy sensed, that her little journey was slowly coming to an end. She had not paid attention to their route and did not recognize the buildings they were now passing. Based on the surroundings, they must be in Sahara Square, a part of Zootopia she wasn't in very often due to the high temperatures during the day. She searched for the biggest building, the Oasis Hotel, for orientation. Even at night it was brightly illuminated, but she couldn't find it. Maybe she was wrong about being in Sahara Square? The car was slowing down and finally came to a stop. But it wasn't Mister Manchas who opened the door for her, but a cheetah.

"Good evening, Miss Hopps, and welcome to the Oasis Hotel", he addressed her formally. "Your company is already waiting for you in the foyer".

Judy wasn't sure if she was dreaming or not. She took a step outside of the limousine and stood on a red carpet, leading directly to the magnificent entrance of the world famous Oasis Hotel. Uncertainly, she stepped out of the car, nodded smiling to the cheetah and slowly walked over the red carpet. She felt like those VIPs she saw on TV. Even for autumn, it was really hot this evening, as it always was in Sahara Square, but she was sure that she would even be hot in Tundratown at the moment. Another cheetah, standing beside the entrance door, opened the door as she approached and a cool breeze of conditioned air blew in her face. She blinked and when she opened her eyes again she saw Nick. He was standing nonchalantly at a marble column in a white made-to-measure suit with a shirt in the same navy blue as her dress and a black necktie. His smile was soft and in his paw he held another single red rose. When she entered the hotel, he approached her with a sly grin.

"Happy anniversary, carrots", he winked, passing her the rose and held his arm out for her to grab. Judy blinked a single tear away, took the rose and his arm, not knowing what to say. Nick exerted himself for this and she was simply voiceless. The fox escorted her first to the elevators, and then to the restaurant on the top floor. A cheetah finally guided them to a nice table for two near the windows; the perspective was the limit and Nick held out the chair for her to sit down. He took the chair on the opposite side and when he looked with moony eyes at Judy, she finally found her voice again and whispered:

"I love you, sly fox".

"I love you, too, Judy", and his soft voice vocalizing her by her real name this time, made her heart and every other organ she had melt in a hot flood of emotions. Preferably, she would have jumped on the table and kissed Nick as passionately as she could, but just when she was pondering it, a waiter came and served them a bottle of champagne. Her fox took his glass, and he said with a smile:

"To the best thing that ever happened in my life; to you!"

Judy took her glass, too, and replied: "To the best thing that ever happened to us!"

Many thanks to Sean Dalglish for his review and proofreading this chapter! (Mar 2017)