Somewhere in an obscurely located and uniquely abandoned property on the outskirts of Central Zootopia sat a vulpine under a now only slightly muddy bridge. He would never let this mud touch his fur however as that would ruin it's now pristinely clean and flawlessly brushed state and he'd sooner jump off a waterfall than let such a vile substance taint his fur yet again. The only grim reminder that his previous unhygienic nightmare had ever even occurred was the faint yet annoyingly persistent scent of lavender wafting through the air. He let out a small grumble as he thought to use a suitably masculine soap with a name like "Glacier Punch," or "Pure Victory," at some time in the future to replace his current, feminine, aroma. Even though neither of these titles gave any indication of what the scent would be, he could take assurance that they would indeed be extremely masculine.

Hygiene aside however, Nick sat sleepless in his recliner deep in thought... This event was becoming just as annoying as it had frequent and in he was sick of it. Had he an off switch on the side of his head he most certainly would have switched it off by now regardless of the fact that he would not be able to turn it back on again to wake up. He reasoned that if someone cared enough about him than they would find him to turn the switch back on, but until then he'd uncharacteristically give absolutely no foresight into the future affects that action would inevitably cause because quite frankly he was just too tired to care about these philosophical, existential and completely ludicrous notions entering his head… Well, at least physically. While the muscles in his body ached and his eyelids felt as though they were tied to dumbbells, his mind was abuzz with activity, completely inane and useless thoughts that were both introspective and retrospective making them both equally parts useless. Perhaps he should see the ZPD's phycologist so that he could vent his thoughts verbally during the day instead of feeling like his mind was a beehive that was being repeatedly prodded with a stick by a relentless individual. Nick felt compelled to act. He knew thinking about questions that he did not have answers to would ultimately lead into a never-ending stream of more questions each becoming less related to the original but still just as frustratingly abstract and obscure to him. However, his previous actions had set in course a set of events that he could have never predicted and he felt like that may even be part of the problem. Who knew that asking his partner for help would make a crowd of homeless predators more difficult for her a mere two days later? He certainly hadn't. He wanted to think and plan his next convoluted and clever course of action but he just couldn't! His brain was on full overdrive asking him questions he didn't know the answers to. Instead of letting him slumber his mind made him feel like he was failing a test!

'What do you think they said on the news today?'

He didn't know, he was too afraid… no too busy to watch.

'What will your coworkers say tomorrow when they see you and Judy?'

He wasn't a physic but he sure wished he was with that question because he hadn't the foggiest idea. In the past, he didn't care about what people thought of him but these individuals would be seeing him every day and he wasn't so sure how well he could face waking up in the morning if his coworkers chose to scorn or ridicule him every time he went to work… If that's what they chose to do for some reason. He knew the chances of that were slim to none but it still scared him to even think it was now a possibility.

'What will you do if you room with Judy and she asks you a personal question?'

Well, wasn't that a fun one? He didn't understand how Judy could be so open, honest and happy all the time but he certainly couldn't. It's not that he didn't trust Judy with personal knowledge about him and if he lived in the same tiny apartment with her she'd certainly be entitled to at least some of it. He just… wasn't good with open honesty yet. Today, he went beyond his limit with that speech and could swear he felt physical pain in his stomach and head just thinking about the speech he made. He couldn't do something like that again without a long recovery period spent in isolation and he probably wouldn't get much time to himself if he lived with that energetic doe. He couldn't just tell her that he was bad at expressing deeply honest and sincere feelings because not only would that be weird but it would require him to be honest with her about his genuine feelings and that action was still on "cooldown" as far as he was concerned. How frustratingly paradoxical. He didn't want to keep avoiding Judy's legitimate and sincere interactions with him, he wanted to return the gesture without a mask of sarcasm and dry humor but… he didn't know how or at the very least he wasn't very comfortable with or good at it. The only person he could think to ask about how to do these interactions was the very person that he wished to do them with which he felt ironically defeated the purpose.

Emotionally, Nick felt trapped and physically he felt like a sleep deprived moron. Both he felt, were probably true at the moment. Nick then proceeded to partake in two actions that he would never admit to anyone; he took his pillow and hugged it for comfort, burying his face in it while he silently yet begrudging agreed with his subconscious to ask Bogo for the business card to the ZPD's phycologist. He felt weak and helpless having to ask for help, he hated it but at the same time he was relieved that he could finally talk about what to do with the dilemma of sincerity he's been having with his partner. He scoffed, ever since the option of getting help became available in his life he sure was asking for a lot of it. He hoped something wasn't wrong with that and by extension, him. With his thoughts defragmented, or at least slightly more concrete, he slowly curled around his pillow as he saw his eyelid droop. He closed his eyes and…

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

His cheap, plastic, alarm clock screeched a terribly tinny and low-quality awaking. His heart threatened to jump out of his ribcage as he flailed wildly for the snooze button to turn the accursed thing off. If the alarm itself couldn't wake Nick up in the morning than the panicked response that it induced surely would. After smashing down the button he lamented not having an adjustable volume on the device. His fur stood on end and a crusty eye twitched but he managed to shakily pull himself out of bed. Oh, how he despised his alarm clock. He supposed he only had himself to blame for not replacing it yet now that he had a continuous and legitimate income… He wasn't poor anymore just homeless. Splashing himself with a warm bottle of water, because he didn't have any cold water, Nick cleaned the morning from his face and attempted to comb his fur down his fur from his earlier fright. It sorta worked too. It didn't matter though because today, Nick decided, was going to be a great day. If he had the looming task of asking his boss for a card to a phycologist and had to worry about how the news made his coworkers feel about him than he might as well make the best of the rest of his day. All he had to do, he pondered, was to ask himself a single question. 'What would Judy do?'

Judy was always to happy and positive and maybe if he borrowed some of her routine he could make it through todays humiliating task and still be chipper about the whole thing. After all, if confidence was a 'fake it 'til you make it' thing than he saw no reason why optimism and cheer couldn't be acquired the same way. He looked to his reflection in a shattered fragment of glass he had hung on the underside of the bridge as a mirror. He could afford a mirror now, of course but he didn't have a nice place to put it yet and there was no point in buying a nice bathroom mirror only to find it had shattered because a gust of wind had knocked it off the wall. Nick took a deep breath and prepared to make a fool of himself as he assumed his perky partner did every morning.

"Today's going to be a great day!" He lied to his distorted reflection while getting into uniform.

"You're going to do great things today!" He lied to his reflection yet again with a smile.

"All your cowor- friends at work will be so happy to see you!" He felt like puking.

"And you'll be ha- happy to see th- them t-" He gagged on bile.

Nick Wilde had pulled off hustles that would make even the smartest of mammal's heads spin. He'd outmaneuvered the mafia, he'd gone to places in the city no sane mammal would go, he'd been outnumbered more than ten to one by petty street thugs and always came out on top… or at least alive. So why on Earth was hearing judgement from his coworkers so scary?! Because, a small part of his brain nagged him, 'you can't run from these people.' Nick saw the members of the ZPD five days a week and if they passed some stupid judgement on him for how the news portrayed his actions he'd have to deal with it for the rest of his career. He'd worked so hard to become a cop and now he finally was one. The only way to get away from his coworkers was to quit his job and he'd bite his own paw clean off before he did that to Judy or himself. He'd just have to hope that whatever the news said about him and his coworker wasn't too bad and that his coworkers still held a good, or at least neutrally respectful opinion of them. He gulped down the remaining warm water from his bottle and looked to the mirror to try again. He wouldn't let his nerves get in the way of the great day he was going to have.

"You'll be happy to see them to," He finished with a trembling smile.

The sentences were childish and simple but somehow saying them aloud was somewhat reassuring. He felt like someone who believed in him was giving him a pep talk even though he was completely aware that the individual was only his reflection nervously smiling like an insecure doofus. Oh, how the mighty had fallen. A low rumble coupled with odd pops and bangs reached his ear and for the briefest of moments his fake, weak smile turned to a real one.

"Speaking of your coworkers…" Nick drawled as he looked to see the beat-up old truck his partner drove pulling up. Judy honked the wheezy horn and gave an energetic wave as before patting the dashboard on the passenger's side of her vehicle.

Nick had thankfully finished getting dressed before his partner arrived. He wasn't expecting her to pick him up and his lack of walls would have made things rather awkward had she arrived mere moments ago. Nick pushed that thought to the back of his head… he didn't need to delve into where that thought could lead him. That was neither here nor there, he supposed. What mattered was that his partner wasn't too embarrassed to be seen with him after the news. That must have been a good sign; after all, today was going to be a great day! He climbed into the seat beside Judy and waited for her friendly greeting but it never came.

"You look awful, Slick."

"We can't all be supermodels, Carrots," He brushed her comment aside.

"No, no, no, wait that's not how I meant it! I mean you look good! Well, no you don't look good but you usually do. Er I, what I mean is… Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, like a kit," Nick lied distantly as his mind tried to process her ramblings; sadly, the only thing he seemed to be getting was white noise.

The truck wasn't moving… "Are you sure?"

"Carrots," He chided warningly.

"Right, right, sorry," Judy started to move the truck to a slow roll before it petered to a pathetic stop.

"Why are we stopping?" Nick asked blankly.

"Have you been getting enough to eat?" She was squinting at him not accusingly but as if she was carefully examining physique.

Nick reached for the door to exit the truck but was thrust back into his seat by the force of which the truck sped from being parked.

"Okay, we're going to work!" Judy cheered with a painfully fake grin plastered under her quivering nose. "So erm, you ready for today?"

Nick didn't hesitate with his lie, "Oh yeah, so ready."

"Really?" She asked with timid disbelief.

"Yes, completely, one hundred percent ready, maybe even one hundred and one."

"Even after the news thing yesterday? I mean, I didn't even watch it I was kind of afraid of what they'd say about me after last time. That must seem silly to you… You don't think the other officers will make fun of us do you? I mean, I cried on live television."

"I'm sure everything will be fine, they know you're a good cop. We've all done things we regret but that shouldn't stop you doing what you love. It's perfectly normal that you didn't want to watch the news, lots of people would be afraid of that amount of attention especially from the media. I was there at the recording though so I know it wasn't that bad."

"Wow Nick, I wish I could be as confident in things as you are. I don't know how you always seem to just know a solution or just the right thing to say. I mean, I'm no pushover and I'll always give my all to a problem I'm facing but not in the same way you do. I guess it's just because you've learned it already, huh? I must seem like such a dumb bunny for worrying about it so much but seeing how you're not freaking out about it… I guess that means everything is going to be okay."

"What? Oh yeah, totally," Nick looked from the rear-view mirror to his now calmed partner; what she didn't know was that he wasn't talking to or about her. "Don't you worry about it Carrots, you're not a dumb bunny," He muttered quietly to himself.

"Aww, thanks Nick."

Every muscled in his body tightened and cramped and he hated it, "For what? I didn't do anything," He denied skillfully as he mentally cursed his partner's sensitive bunny ears.

"Really now? Because I could have sworn I heard you say something really sweet," She teased in a sing-song voice.

Luckily, they were just arriving at their parking spot and he didn't even wait for the car to reach a complete stop before he bailed, "Well than you must have honey in your ears, Fluff because that sweetness didn't come from me."

Nick took a deep breath before pushing open the large glass doors of the ZPD headquarters. His partner wasn't far behind him. Sure enough, as soon as the pair of them were seen they had received odd looks from their coworkers. Clawhauser looked to be suppressing some sort of elated squeal and Fangmeyer looked to be examining them closely as if she was waiting for something to happen. Wolford only spared the two a cursory glance with a lopsided smirk before shaking his head and getting back to his coffee. The exact thoughts of his coworkers remained a mystery to Nick but whatever it was didn't seem to be negative. If anything, the general mood of the room was rather mirthful. For a moment he almost felt relieved until he saw the expression of the chief looming towards them.

"Hopps, Wilde, My office, now."

The atmosphere of the office hadn't changed much since yesterday if Nick was being honest with himself. The chairs were still far too big, the clock far too loud and the lights were still far too dim; however, Nick had noticed that the chief had purchased a small potted cactus that appeared to be blooming a single flower… how nice.

"I'm going to be honest with you two; I'm tired of having you in here. So, I'm going to be quick about this so we don't need to embroider the seat cushions with your names." The chief cleared his throat before making eye contact with Judy and then Nick, "What is the nature of your relationship?"

Nick received the muscle locking feeling that he had in the parking lot while Judy cocked her head.

"Er, I'm afraid I don't understand your question, sir. I guess, friendly would be my answer…" Judy piped ever so innocently from Nick's left.

The chief sighed, "What I mean by my question, Hopps, is quite simple. Are the two of you romantically involved? Are you intimate with one another? Is there any reason that I should have to believe that the two of you may be distracted as partners on the force? I ask this because yesterday's news broadcast and the knowledge that you two plan to room together alludes to such a conclusion. I'm not here to judge either of you and I can assure you that this is a professional matter only. In fact, the answer to this can be as simple as a single word. Are the two of you romantically involved, yes or no?"

"N-no sir, we are not," Judy was attempting to hide behind her ears and still be professional at the same time… nobody was impressed.

"Officer Hopps is correct sir, the nature of our relationship extends to platonic at most."

"I see. Well, with that cleared up I only have one thing to ask of you. Keep the PDA of your platonic friendship to a minimum while in uniform if you can bear it. While what you two did on the news was morally admirable it did not reflect the level of professionalism that those in ZPD uniform are expected to have. That being said, I'm going to have to keep the two of you out of the public eye for a while so you'll be parked on the side of the road with a radar gun for that time. I trust you will act professionally with no distractions. You two are dismissed, please don't come back."

Judy did not need to be told twice and quickly darted out of the room as if it had been doused in gasoline and lit aflame but Nick found himself lingering.

"Wilde, I don't like repeating myself."

"Sir, can I have ZPD's physiologist's contact information?" Nick ungracefully blurted out.

Bogo's eyes widened for a moment as he examined the officer before him. Slowly, the chief reached for one of the business cards he kept in his desk drawer. The chief must have known how uncomfortable he was because he sure was taking his time grabbing it. Finally, the chief held the card out to the vulpine and he quickly snatched it with a curt thanks before he too scurried out of the room.

"Whatever helps, Wilde," The chief exhaled while rubbing his temples and sitting back into his seat.