"Carrots."

He nudged the little rabbit on the nose.

Nothing.

"Caaarrots," he kept his voice as low as possible.

Still nothing.

Jeez, the bunny could sleep.

"Carrots!" he hissed, nudging her side with the butt of his baton.

Instantly, she whipped into alertness. "Huh? What? Did we catch him?" Her big eyes darted back and forth, still trying to get her bearings.

Nick gripped her elbow as she swayed side to side, the blanket that had been tucked around her was already pooled around her feet. "No, but I have a lead."

And it was the lead they'd been hoping for for the past three days. This was night number four of the investigation, and it was a shame that he had to wake his partner up when she'd only had an hour of sleep since yesterday. Still, that was what they had agreed to, and it wasn't his fault the bad guy decided to show up during his watch shift.

"C'mon, sleepyhead, this way." He ushered her along the stony path, straight into a bush where they could both duck under.

She rubbed her eyes groggily and shook her head. "This better be good. Did you know that rabbits need eight solid hours of sleep a day?"

"You were top of the class; you can survive without beauty sleep." She often teased him about graduating only second in his class—stupid hedgehog instructor's fault, by the way—and he liked to tease her right back. "Now, put your top-class ears to the ground and tell me what you hear."

She only shot him a half-hearted glare before lowering herself and pressing her ears to the dirt. She closed her eyes and held her breath...

Fuck me.

Nick scowled as he lay there awkwardly beside her. He avoided moving at all, in case it distracted her hearing. But, Lion Almighty, he should not have followed her under this bush. He should have stayed on the path, far away from where he could smell her scent or feel her heat.

She must have changed her soap recently because she no longer smelled like peaches and cream.

He mentally slapped himself. He was an officer now, one of the top officers in the ZPD in fact, and working on a case with another outstanding officer. It was no place to ponder on what a rabbit smelled like.

Judy Hopps was no longer peaches and cream, and that was that.

Suddenly, she opened her eyes and stared straight at him as if she had read his mind. He clenched his teeth to keep from scampering away and hiding in a hole.

"I hear..." she whispered. "Bubbles. Popping bubbles."

He nodded encouragingly. "And...?"

"Maniacal laughter?" she asked with a shrug.

"Bingo." Nick pointed ahead of them, across the road to one of the houses that were identical to every other house on the street. Typical suburb, typical hiding spot. And in a small horizontal sliver of light coming from the ground, if one were to squint really hard, there was a shadow in there.

Laughing maniacally.

Judy gasped, a sound that made his heart quicken, too. "Do you think that might be what we're looking for?"

Nick rested his chin on his fist, enjoying his moment of triumph. "Yup. A Night Howler lab in a tiny basement on the outskirts of Zootopia. Who knew?" He raised an eyebrow. "But considering how much you heard, the lab isn't very tiny, is it?"

"No," she whispered, chewing her lip the way she always did when she was concentrating. "There are several other voices in there, mostly female."

Nick's other eyebrow rose, too. Zootopia's population of currently 89% prey was slowly failing to thrive. For some reason, the prey were targeted with a mutated variation of Night Howlers, rendering the victim completely useless in society. Some ran in vicious circles, others dug vicious holes for ages, and a small handful liked to viciously headbutt each other. Ultimately, the city had to lock the victims in cells until an new and effective antidote was created.

He hadn't expected females to be behind this plot.

Then again, he hadn't expected Judy Hopps to change his life nor had he seen Bellwether sneaking in from under their noses almost a year ago.

"I'm going in," he growled, rolling up the sleeves of his uniform.

"Wait!" Judy laid a hand on his bare arm and all the adrenaline that had surged up within him suddenly concentrated on the spot where they touched.

Damn, he really needed a break after spending over 84 hours with her.

He ripped his arm away, sensing confusion in her eyes as she shot a quick glance at him. Oh well, it was better than the agony he was experiencing internally. "I want the element of surprise. It's been three days and they've already infected another twenty citizens since we started this mission."

"But there's only two of us! I can hear at least four different voices down there. Shouldn't we call the others first?"

"And what? Risk losing the bad guys because our heavy-weight colleagues plan to wake up the entire neighbourhood?" He tilted her chin up with his finger and smirked. "Since when did you start doubting this little tag team you and I have perfected?"

"I'm not doubting!" she said wholeheartedly. "I'm just...I'm worried."

"We've handled worse before," he reassured her.

She sighed, looking at the house. "But if something goes wrong in there..."

"Then you'll have already dispatched the others, right?" He brought her gaze back on him, no matter how much it unnerved him. "And they'll come swooping in, saving our hides in the nick of time," he added with a wink.

"What if..." It took her a second, but she finally nodded in agreement. "Fine, but I go in first."

"Why do you always get to go in first?" he grumbled in frustration as she dispatched her location to the others.

"We went over this, Nick." She lifted herself from the ground and brushed off her knees. "If I get hit with a Night Howler, I'm a lot less of a threat to you than you are to me."

That didn't make Nick feel any better, no matter how many times she said it.

"Besides, if either—" she stopped and her ears perked up.

Nick froze, sensing something was wrong.

They both felt movement to his right, then Judy's scream filled the air. "Nick!" He saw a hand reach out from the darkness, grabbing her by the ears.

He growled and pounced, knowing how much she hated when anybody touched her sensitive ears.

"Hands off, you—" His words were cut off with a wheeze as another hand wrapped around his throat. He clawed at the rough skin, but the grip only tightened until he was seeing stars.

More maniacal laughter. "Purr-fect. A prey and a predator for our latest experiments. This one's going to be good."

He was no longer seeing what was in front of him, no longer processing whatever was going on.

"Nick!"

All he could sense was the darkness enveloping him and a deathly cold racing through his veins.