Nick woke up with a start, unable to breathe. His chest felt like it weighed a million pounds, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't suck air into his lungs. His eyes snapped open, and he looked down to see what was wrong.

A steel beam lay on top of the fox, trapping him against the hard floor. It looked like it had fallen out of place from the wall beside him—knocked loose by the bomb, no doubt—and right now, it was crushing his fragile fox body.

Nick grabbed the edge of the beam with both paws and pushed as hard as he could. To his alarm, neither he nor the beam budged. He tried again, but with the same result. His lungs screamed for air, and his ribcage felt like it was about to implode at any moment. Desperation fueled his muscles, and with a burst of adrenaline, he squeezed his eyes shut and pushed the beam as hard as he could.

At last, it moved. Not by much, but enough for him to push himself away.

Nick collapsed on the ground beside the beam, exhausted, and took several deep breaths. There was still a lot of dust floating around in the air, and his lungs were irritated by the amount that he inhaled, but right now he was just happy to still be alive. After taking a few more breaths, he opened his eyes again and began to survey the damage around him.

The bomb had blown the whole office beyond recognition. The ceiling had partially collapsed, littering the room with giant slabs of concrete and insulation and piping from above. A hole in the floor nearby marked the exact spot where the bomb had exploded. The secret door that led to the escape tunnel was blown clean off its hinges, exposing the dark passageway beyond. The electricity had been knocked out, and a pipe somewhere in the wall had burst, forcing a small jet of water into the room. The giant glass window overlooking Zootopia was gone, and he could now clearly hear the sirens from the emergency vehicles far below beyond the hole that was left in its place.

The last rays of the sun were still visible outside, indicating that he had not been out for more than a few seconds. Dust littered the room—concrete dust, for the most part. It hovered in the air, stinging the fox's eyes and continuing to irritate his lungs. The furniture in the room had been completely destroyed, except for the giant desk near the window that seemed to still be in surprisingly good condition. The place where Wood had landed was now covered in cement slabs from the collapsed ceiling, and there was no sign of him anywhere. He couldn't see Puer, either, or…

"Judy!" he cried. The exclamation caused him to cough, expelling a cloud of dust from his lungs. He only took a second to compose himself, before sitting up as fast as he could. His ribs hurt, probably bruised from the beam, but he had to find her, and he refused to wait. As fast as he could, he stood up on his feet, balanced himself against the beam, and looked around the room, this time trying his best to spot the rabbit among the wreckage.

The room was completely coated in gray dust, and it would be almost impossible to distinguish her from just about anything else. Nick stumbled away from the beam and started walking in the direction of the last place he had seen Judy. A sharp pain rippled through his ribs, but he pressed a paw to his side and kept striding towards the spot. "Judy!" he called again as he got closer, but he only got halfway when he realized she was not there. Instead, there was now just a thin layer of dust on the ground, and no sign that the bunny was anywhere close.

He lifted his head and once again looked around the room, trying desperately to spot her. "Judy!"

There was no reply.

He made his way to the nearest pile of rubble. It was just a foot or so away from the last place he had seen her, and he hoped he might find her underneath. He grabbed the topmost piece of debris—a large concrete slab—with both paws and lifted it. His ribs immediately screamed in protest, and he almost dropped it back down, but he managed to fight past the pain and toss the slab harmlessly to the side. Most of the pile underneath was just dust and insulation, far too small to hide a bunny, so Nick quickly made his way to another pile nearby.

This one was a bit larger, without many heavy pieces, so it took Nick almost no time at all to make his way to the bottom. A glimpse of bloodied fur caused his heart to race, but after removing a few more pieces of debris, Nick only found the body of Dr. Wood. He was dead, and his mangled corpse was nearly unrecognizable.

Nick had to peel his eyes away from the beaver and return to the more important task at hand. He looked around the room, hoping to catch a glimpse of his bunny partner. "Judy, where are you?" he called, but once again, there was no response. He stumbled his way to the next closest pile of rubble and once again began to sift through it. He ignored the protests from his body and focused only on finding Judy.

At some point, the busted pipe in the wall ran out of water. The sirens down below fell silent. Bogo's voice, probably blaring through a megaphone, echoed faintly outside the window. The sun finished setting over the horizon, dropping the room into near-darkness. The dust began to settle around the room. The pain in Nick's ribs doubled in intensity, and the muscles in his arms begged for him to rest.

He barely noticed any of it. He didn't care. All that mattered was finding his bunny.

He finished excavating the pile, and still there was no sign of the rabbit. Nick stood back up and looked around the room once more. "Judy!" he called again, as loud as he could, but there was no answer. He started to make his way to the next pile of debris, but something caught his eye, and he froze in place.

Judy was lying on the ground, several feet away. She was facing away from him. She wasn't moving.

Nick's eyes widened. "Judy!" He ran over to her, ignoring the sharp pieces of concrete, glass, and other scrap that dug into his feet, and reached her within seconds.

He rolled her over so she lay on her back. At first, Nick felt a tinge of relief; she did not have any open wounds, not even so much as a cut anywhere on her skin that he could see. Even her fur still looked perfectly groomed. It was as if the bomb had not affected her small body in the least.

But her eyes were closed. Her face was expressionless. And she wasn't breathing. He quickly brought two fingers to her neck and checked for a pulse. There wasn't one.

His heart dropped. No…

He wasted no time. He lay her as flat on her back as he could, dropped to his knees, pressed his paws against her chest, and began to rhythmically push his weight against her. "Ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive, staying alive." He stared at her face, desperately praying for her to start breathing again. "Ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive, staying alive."

She didn't respond.

Nick refused to give up. "Ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive, staying alive," he continued, timing his compressions to the beat of the song. He eyed Judy intensely, waiting impatiently for any sign that she was coming back to consciousness.

But Judy did not wake up. No matter how many times Nick pressed her chest, no matter how long he whispered his song, no matter how much time passed, she remained still.

Nick felt tears form in his eyes. "Wake up, Carrots!" His voice was reduced to just a weak shadow of its former self. His arms, weakened and tired, refused to obey his commands any longer, and collapsed helplessly. He fell to the ground beside Judy, resting on his elbows. His vision became blurred, his throat tightened, and his quiet voice echoed through the devastated room in anguish. "Wake up! Please!"

Judy remained still.

Nick blinked away his tears as fast as he could, but it was not long before they began to trickle down his cheeks. He squeezed his eyes shut and let out a pained wail. "Judy, please!" He opened his eyes again, leaned over the bunny, and brought his paws to Judy's face, cradling her as gingerly as he could. "You can't leave me, Judy!" he pleaded. "I need you!"

He lost his vision, too blinded by the tears in his eyes. He tried blinking them away, to no avail. His weeping was now so strong, it overrode his breathing, and he hiccuped a few times uncontrollably. Between each breath, he whispered to the bunny, pleading with her over and over to wake up.

But minutes passed, and she did not. Her eyes remained closed. Her ears were tucked neatly behind her head. Every muscle on her face was completely relaxed. She almost looked like she could be in a peaceful sleep—but Nick knew better. He refused to believe it, but he knew.

He squeezed his eyes shut, forcing a new volley of tears to trickle down his cheeks. I couldn't save her… His paws curled into fists. I couldn't protect her… He gritted his teeth and fought back the urge to scream. I failed her…

It was the whole reason Nick had become a cop in the first place. It was why he had stayed by Judy's side for the last year. It was why he had gotten out of bed every day, why he had wanted to become a better person, why he had wanted to make the world a better place. It was all because of her—all because of this bunny, whom he had sworn to protect as long as he lived.

But now…

He opened his eyes, hoping that she had woken up, but knowing she hadn't. There was nothing else he could do for her now. He slowly slid one paw underneath her head, then the other behind her shoulders, and lifted her off the ground. He brought her body close to his, rested his snout between her ears, and hugged her tightly.

He let out another cry of anguish. "Judy, please, come back. Don't leave me," he whispered, his words barely squeezing past his lips. He closed his eyes once more and clutched her firmly. "I never got to tell you…"

A wave of grief rushed over the fox, almost crippling him. He clung to Judy's body as firmly as he could manage, and in-between pained breaths, he brought his mouth to one of her ears and whispered the words that he should have told her long ago.

"I love you."

He had not expected his words to bring her back to life, but all the same, she remained limp in his arms. Any relief he might have felt from finally admitting his feelings out loud to her was nullified by his sorrow. He lost track of how long he sat there, crying over Judy's body, wishing with all his heart that she could be brought back to life. His tears rolled down his cheeks, soaked the fur on top of Judy's head, and never seemed to end. His body felt numb, his throat dry, and his heart broken. He rubbed the back of Judy's head with his paw, brushing her fur tenderly, and kept her as close to himself as he could.

Wood and his fellow conspirators had succeeded. They had wanted to separate him from her, and now they could never be together. They had wanted to ruin Nick's life, and now Nick didn't want to live anymore. They had wanted to ruin Zootopia, and Nick's whole world had been destroyed now thanks to them.

They had wanted for Nick to suffer, and there was no greater suffering than this. They had taken his bunny away from him.

His throat became sore and his eyes started to sting from the tears. His mind went numb. His heart was crushed. He hugged Judy's body as long as his strength allowed, but eventually, exhaustion and despair overtook him, and he had to finally let her fall away from him.

But as he started to lower her back to the ground, a whisper reached his ears.

"I love you, too."

His eyes snapped open, and his heart leapt in his chest.

Judy was looking at him, a small smile on her face. Her eyelids were droopy, and she struggled to focus on him, but her beautiful purple eyes twinkled in the darkness. She had raised an arm to his cheek, and now she was affectionately rubbing away his tears, slowly moving her thumb across his soaked fur.

Nick was overcome with joy. He stared at the bunny for several more seconds, making absolutely sure he wasn't dreaming. When she kept rubbing his cheek, and her smile grew more and more firm on her face, he couldn't help but let out a giant grin from one ear to the other. "Judy!" he cried, full of relief and happiness. "Judy!" He pulled her back to his chest and gave her the biggest hug he could muster.

Judy returned the hug as best she could, though it was a very weak one. She was only able to use the one arm, and she barely managed to wrap it halfway around Nick's back, but he didn't care. In-between sniffles from a fresh wave of tears—this time, tears of joy—Nick felt Judy's chest against his own as she took long, deep breaths of air. He could even feel her heartbeat underneath his paw that supported her head.

She was alive. She had come back to him.

After a few seconds, she patted him with her paw, indicating that she needed to break off from the hug. Nick released her from his grasp, cradled her in his arms, and looked at her once again. "I thought I lost you," he lamented.

Judy gave him the same half-lidded smile he was so known for. "Bunnies can play dead, remember, Slick?" No sooner did she finish her quip, then her eyes closed tight, and she winced in pain. Nick gave her a worrying look, but after a moment she managed to open her eyes again and flash another smile. "Just kidding," she admitted, "I really was knocked out there."

Nick let out an annoyed sigh, but the smile on his face did not diminish in the least. "You dumb bunny." He once again rubbed the fur on the back of her head. "I'm going to kill you for this."

Judy brought her paw back up to his cheek and rubbed it lightly, brushing away a few more tears. "You foxes," she chuckled. "Always so emotional."

They locked eyes with each other. Both of them had broad smiles on their faces, glad that the other was okay. Both of them now held the other in their arms, ready to defend each other against the world.

And both of them had just admitted out loud, what they had suspected all along.

The rest of the world seemed to fade away as they stared into each other's eyes. The joy, the safety, the closeness, and the love they felt for each other overpowered everything else. They felt their heads start to drift closer to each other. Their smiles slowly disappeared from their faces, and their eyes slowly began to close. Their hearts raced in their chests, as they both knew what was about to happen.

Their lips met in a tender kiss. It was long overdue.

Their love came boiling to the surface. All of the distrust, and the angst, and the pain, and the heartache that they had gone through to get to this point—all of that was gone. Now, they trusted each other. Now, they cared for each other. And now, they knew that they loved each other, and nothing could ever take that away from them.

Time came to a stop around them. Their passion and love for each other—long buried by both of them—came rushing to the surface. They remained in each other's embrace for a long, long time, both refusing to back away from the other. The fox rubbed the back of the bunny's head, and the bunny continued stroking the fox's cheek. Nick supported Judy's fragile body, while she gently pulled his head close to hers. They completely lost themselves in the kiss, and in that moment, both were sure that they had never been happier in their lives.

It was only when distant footsteps, and the far-away sound of Chief Bogo's booming voice, sounded from the secret passage that they finally broke their kiss. They opened their eyes, looked at each other, and smiled, both of them filled with immense joy, but otherwise said nothing. There was no need for words. There was just their love.

Now they knew. They loved each other. And that was all that mattered.