right?" said Nick smiling. "To help each other, through thick and thin."

Judy's eyes were damp. A small tear dripped from her left eye.

"Aww, sweetheart," said Nick, taking his handkerchief and wiping her tear gently, stroking the back of her ears softly with his warm paw. "I think we've shed enough eye-water for one week, myself included."

Judy giggled as her paws caressed his cheeks lovingly. Her purple eyes gazed up into his emerald irises.

"I always took you for the life-hardened 'no tears allowed – boys don't cry' kind of guy, Nick. But it seems you manage to surprise me every time I think I've learnt all there is to know about you."

Nick held her chin gently in his warm paw, nuzzling her nose with his.

"You'll find that there is much to learn about me, sunshine," said Nick with a kind, paternal gaze.

"Well, you'll have to fill me in one of these days, won't you, Mr Wilde?" said Judy giggling.

"You know, the fact that you said those two phrases so close within context," said Nick. "I'm afraid I'll have to sit you down on my lap and we're going to have to have 'the talk', little lady."

"What? You're going to teach me about the birds and the bees?" said Judy, sliding up higher on his lap, hugging him around the neck and looking into his eyes. "Well, I'm all for it, handsome. But I will have you know, Mr Wilde…"

She leaned seductively closer to him.

'…that I've always been more of an empirical learner."

"Well, in that case, Miss Hopps, I shall have to humour you, shan't I?"

Their lips came together in a warm kiss. They locked in a tight embrace as their lips savoured the succulent feeling of raw physical affection.

And then came a BOOM! And a rain of shattered glass noise!

Judy and Nick bolted up, their moment totally disrupted. Across the street, a window was shattered and fire blazed from it. And someone was lying on the sidewalk.

"What?!"

Automatically, their cop instincts kicked in. They rushed to the scene.

"Fire department!" Judy hastily shouted into her phone. "This is Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD! Explosion on 643 Hashengu Street! Paramedics required!"

She hung up and saw Nick holding someone in his arms. Someone her size.

"He's not breathing!" said Nick, putting the small someone down on the grass of the park just across the street from the building in flames.

Judy realised it was an otter. He looked like he had been caught in the explosion and blasted out the window. Nick started to administer CPR.

"Come one, hang in there, don't you die on me, buddy!" said Nick as he pumped the otter's chest.

And then, out of the corner of her eye…Judy spotted him!

"Nick!" she said. "It's that mole!"

A small mole in dark clothes and big spectacles was walking fast into an alley across the street.

"It's him!"

Nick looked up at her. She looked at him. They nodded in complete understanding.

Judy raced off after the mole while Nick continued to give the otter cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

She pulled out her phone and ran down the alley, filming the chase. She arrived at the other end just in time to see the mole getting into a big black car. The car drove slowly away. As Judy got to the end of the alley and onto the sidewalk, she followed the car on foot for half a block. And suddenly, she saw a familiar face…

"Flash," she said.

Flash Slothmore, Nick's friend from the DMV, was walking towards a bodega…very slowly. On the curb, behind him, was his car.

Judy's mind raced at top speed. By the time she asked him if it was okay, the black car that had picked up the mole would be out of sight. And surely he wouldn't mind. After all…he was Nick's friend…

Very quick and quietly, careful to stash her phone in her pocket, Judy ran up to Flash's car and got in. Luckily, the sloth had left the key inside.

"Sloth didn't see it, I didn't do it," said Judy as she started the car. "I'm not stealing…just borrowing."

She stepped on the accelerator and the car jumped forward like it had been sitting on a spring!

"WHOA!" said Judy, breaking and slowing down as she got the hang of the car, pursuing her target. "Does this thing run on rocket fuel or what?"

The license plate wasn't FST NML for nothing.

Judy chased after the black car from a safe distance. It was a bit difficult because the car was meant for a slightly larger animal, but she managed. She took her phone out once again and filmed the black car, trying to zoom in on the license plate while at the same time keeping the car steady.

The black car turned a corner, drove straight two blocks…and turned another corner…

"Where are you going, Mr Mole?" Judy said through her teeth.

Suddenly, she noticed the street light turn yellow and the black car stepped on the gas to beat the light.

"Oh no, you don't!"

She shot after the black car, but it was too late. The black car crossed, the light turned red…and a large delivery truck crossed her path!

Judy slammed the brakes, screeching to a halt! She stopped a foot away from the delivery truck, which slammed the brakes too to avoid the collision.

"WATCH IT, ROAD HOG!" shouted the angry driver, a large pig.

Judy cursed under her breath. She had lost the black car. As she waited for the light to turn green again, Judy checked the video on her phone. She managed to film the mole and get a good look at the car, licence plate included. So it wasn't a total loss.

Judy brought the car back to the spot where she had taken it from and quietly hopped out. And just as she did, Flash was opening the door to the bodega, walking out with a bag of groceries in his clawed paw, with a placid smile on his face, none the wiser.

"Well…for once, being a sloth worked out for the better," said Judy to herself as she walked briskly through the alley on her way back to Nick.

She arrived at the scene to find the fire fighters controlling the flames. The elephant fire fighters used their trunks as portable water hoses and soon the fire was tamed.

Judy noticed an ambulance across the street, two paramedics and someone in a stretcher. And beside them was…

"Nick!"

Nick was talking to the paramedics, holding the paw of the otter on the stretcher. The otter's eyes were open!

"Will he be alright?" asked Nick to the paramedics.

"Yes, he's out of danger now. Off to Euripides Mouse Memorial, we'll patch him up. If it hadn't been for you, Officer, he wouldn't have made it."

As Judy approached them, the otter held Nick's paw tightly, trying to talk. Judy could see from his mouth what he was trying to say.

"Thank you…thank you…"

"You're gonna be alright, okay?" said Nick. "Hang in there, sport. You're going to be alright."

The paramedics lifted the otter into the ambulance and closed the doors. Then they drove away as Nick stood there watching, with Judy beside him holding his arm tightly.

The Euripides Mouse Memorial Hospital was a warm and welcoming place by hospital standards. The reception lobby was ample, decorated with tapestry depicting a mouse in a toga pulling a thorn out of a lion's paw. The image was simple, but Judy felt that the meaning was deep and very important.

As Nick knocked lightly on the door of room 352, causing the bouquet of roses he was holding in his arm to shake a bit, Judy looked around her at the pleasant pictures on the walls and vases of flowers at every corner. Certainly nicer than the drab linoleum and wallpaper she had come to associate with hospitals.

The nurse, a kind-looking beaver lady, opened the door.

"Officers," she said. "You can come in. I've just finished adjusting his intravenous."

"Thank you, Nurse," said Nick.

Judy held his paw tightly as they walked in. A lovely room with an ample window met their eyes, with a picture of a little house with a watermill beside a river on the wall. And on the bed, smiling and looking at them with gratitude, was the otter that Nick had saved the night before.

"Rise and shine, sport," said Nick, walking to the side of the bed.

"Officer Wilde," said the otter with a warm smile.

"Hope you like red roses," said Nick, placing them in a vase on the bedside table. "They're cliché but effective, so I'm told."

Judy stood beside Nick with a smile of relief on her face. She was glad the otter was out of danger. The otter reached with his IV-free paw and held Nick's paw warmly.

"You saved my life," said the otter. "I cannot ever thank you enough for what you've done for me."

"Just doing what any good citizen would do," said Nick.

"I was doing my rounds, everything was quiet, and then suddenly it all went black and there was a deafening sound…and then I woke up and saw you. And there were fire fighters everywhere."

Judy gathered that he was a security guard at the building where the explosion had taken place.

The otter turned his head to Judy.

"Officer Hopps," said the otter. "So glad to meet you at last. You've done so much for my family and I never got the chance to thank you personally. I wish it could have been under different circumstances."

"Always happy to help," said Judy brightly, wondering

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