Judy wasn't sure what she had expected when she had driven all the way out to Mrs Wilde's ranch, but it sure hadn't been this. She had knocked at the door, been looked up and down by the almost imperious vixen that had answered, and after she introduced herself she had had her badge demanded of her, then been left to wait after the fox had noted down the number and called the ZPD non-emergency line. A short time later, she had been invited to join the fox on the veranda.

Mrs Wilde was the very image of a country vixen, her slightly greying fur worn as proudly as the sensible flannel blouse and faded jeans. Only the phone holster on her belt containing the latest in consumer electronics gave any indication of her big city roots.

She offered Judy her choice of beer or lemonade, and being off-duty and knowing how country folk - even ones not born to it - thought, accepted the beer, which turned out to be unlabeled and home-bottled. They sat in tense silence for a long moment as they looked over the acres of greenhouses, shadehouses, and sheds from the raised veranda. Finally, Mrs Wilde broke the silence.

"I don't know how well rabbits recognize these things, but you are positively covered in the smell of my son, and you didn't look like the bearer of bad news. So the only question was whether you were literally, or only figuratively, his partner in crime. And now I see I've wronged Nicky terribly." Her voice was level, but in a way that highlighted the grief welling up behind the stoic facade. "Does Nick know you're here?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'd have thrown you off my property if you'd come behind his back." The vixen's gaze pinned her to her chair, scrutinizing every inch of her. "Hopps. Of the Bunny Burrow Hoppses?"

"Uh- yes. My parents are Stu and Bonnie."

"Can't say I know them, but I've bought feed from Hoppses in the past. Never been given reason to regret doing business with them. Though, of course, not every apple grows close to the tree." Her gaze narrowed. "What makes you think you're good enough for my son?"

Judy had, out of shock and politeness, let herself be steamrolled by Mrs Wilde, but that was a bit too far. "With respect, Mrs Wilde, that's for Nick to decide, not you."

To Judy's surprise, Mrs Wilde smiled in response. "Good answer. He needs someone with a bit of steel in them. Wouldn't have expected a bunny, but if I could predict my son our lives would have turned out very differently." She sighed and sat back in her chair, her eyes finally leaving Judy to roam over her property. "He always was strong-willed, and clever, and stubborn. If he applied it to something decent... although I suppose he has, now. The young man that answered the phone at ZPD seemed almost smitten with Nicky, with all the nice things he had to say about him. I suppose I have you to thank for that. Tell me, how is it you managed to drag my boy to respectability?"

Judy mulled over her answer for a moment, sipping politely at her beer. "Did you hear about the Nighthowler riots?"

"Of course."

"I was... one of the investigators, back when it was a missing mammals case. Nick was the last known contact of one of them, and helped me track them down, all the way to that abandoned hospital the Mayor was keeping them in." She chose her words with care, trying to sidestep the uncomfortable memory in the middle of it all. "Then, later, he helped me uncover Bellwether's connection to it all. We found her drug lab together, but we were caught by Bellwether's accomplices. I wouldn't have gotten away if it wasn't for Nick. I told him he'd make a good officer, and after Bellwether was jailed he went to the Academy. We've been partners ever since he graduated."

"Partners, as in-"

"Police partners. The other one is... much newer."

"So it was entirely platonic when he went to the Academy?" Her gaze was back on Judy as she nodded, still evaluating but less harshly, now. "I'm impressed. I thought it was a case of feminine wiles pulling my Nicky onto the straight and narrow, but..." She sighed. "You managed what I couldn't." Judy didn't know how to respond to that, so she took another sip of her beer. Mrs Wilde stared out over her property, her eyes distant. "Me and Nicky... we were always too similar to each other. Both convinced we knew best. I still think I did, though no doubt he thinks the same. The mammals he got involved with back then!" Mrs Wilde shook her head, and Judy bit her lip. Mrs Wilde was undoubtedly referring to Mr Big's organisation, which she was even closer to than Nick ever was. She doubted mentioning that would go over well. "He cleaned up his act a bit later on, but it was still no respectable way to make a living. I tried and tried to get him to find a respectable way to make a living, but all I ever managed was to drive a wedge between the two of us. He had such a chip on his shoulder... ever since that damned cub scout meet. If I was any less a vixen of principal, terrible things would have happened to those children, and to the scout leader that cultivated those little monsters." She sighed, and smiled wryly at Judy. "Please forgive me, dear. I haven't had somebody to vent to about these matters in quite some time."

The two of them spoke for some time, as Judy filled Mrs Wilde in on what had been going on in Nick's life recently and Mrs Wilde told Judy stories about Nick as a kit. Mrs Wilde warmed up to her over time, but remained slightly distant, though Judy couldn't tell if that was just how Mrs Wilde was or not. A couple of hours later they weren't exactly chatting like old friends, but they were talking more comfortably and had shared a few laughs and a few drinks, though Judy had switched to lemonade after the first beer since she still had to drive back. Eventually she had to make her excuses and leave if she was going to get back to Zootopia at a reasonable hour.

On her way back, Judy called Nick on the hands-free unit in the unmarked police car.

"So, how'd it go?"

"I didn't even have to say anything. As soon as I introduced myself, she checked my credentials and then she understood everything."

"She's pretty sharp like that. Most of the time, anyway." There was silence for a moment. "So, how is she?"

"She seemed good. Very, um. Formidable."

"That's the polite way of saying 'scary', Carrots. And you're right, she can be."

"She gave us an open invitation to visit, if you'd like to have company while you see her again..."

Nick took a while to respond. "I think I'd like that. Thanks. So, did you get any idea of how she's doing financially?"

Judy smiled. "She seemed to be doing well. I don't know much about bug farming but there were a lot of buildings in good condition, and those would fall apart pretty quick if they weren't being used and maintained."

Nick sighed. "I'm glad. Even if her financial success made a mockery of my career choices, it's good she's able to get by comfortably now."

"Nick-" Judy begun, warningly.

"Hey, if you can't mock your past self, you've stopped growing as a person, that's what I say." Judy thought back to the person she was when she first joined the ZPD, and had to concede the point.

"Anyway, I'll be home in about an hour. Would you like me to pick up something for dinner?"

"Ooh, you'd be coming through the Rainforest District, right? Can you swing by the Canal District and pick up some prawn laksa from that Melesian place?"

"Sure thing."

"Oh, and Carrots?"

"Yeah?"

"I like that. 'Home'."

Judy blushed, and smiled.

A/N: What does this make, three chapters in three days? Crazy. Chapter eight was at my normal pace, but seven and now nine both just sort of happened. Please don't expect this sort of pace to continue, I've got no way of knowing whether the next chapter will take substantial effort or whether it'll just sort of fall out of the keyboard when I sit down to write.

Anyway, Winter Snuggles was a good name when it was just exactly that, but I'm running a real risk of having an actual plot and character development in this, so it doesn't seem quite so fitting any more and I'm considering a change. But at the same time I'm hesitant to throw two months of name recognition away. What do you guys think? Any ideas for a better title?

Or maybe I'll just leave the name change for when I split new chapters into a sequel to have them under an M rating, for when these two finally break loose of my control and start lewding each other uncontrollably.