Work Text:
Nick woke up at 8:00 AM. It was another day in the rehab for drug addiction. Ever since his mother found him unconscious after an overdose one month ago, she made him stay there. He looked at the table near his bed, and saw the frame with the picture of him and Judy at the Gazelle's concert. Looking at the picture, it was hard to believe there was a time when he actually had been happy.
After they began working together at the ZPD, Judy and Nick had become unseparable friends. Even though Nick was secretely in love with Judy, he also did not want to risk ruining their friendship. Overall, his life was at it's peak, when one phone call changed everything.
It was 6:00 PM on a Tuesday. Since it was his day off, Nick was at his apartment doing dishes, when his phone rang. It was Bonnie on the other side, and she seemed to be completely desesperate.
"Hi, Nicholas. I'm calling from the hospital... Stu, Judy and I suffered a car crash."
Nick felt his blood rush
"Wait, but how are you guys? What happened to Judy?"
"Stu and I suffered some mild injuries. But Judy... she was hurt really bad." And then she broke down crying, as Nick felt numb with the news.
After three hours, his phone rang again.
"Nicholas, I'm sorry, Judy..." Bonnie tried to bring te news, but could barely speak because of how much she ws crying.
"Bonnie, what happened? Please, don't tell me that..."
"She passed away. I'm sorry, but it's true."
Upon hearing those news, Nick became almost catatonic. He spent almost an hour praying for it to be just a nightmare, that he would wake up and it wpuld all be over. Once he realized that Judy was now gone, he broke down crying uncontrollably.
"No, no, Carrots, please, come back!" He though, as tears rolled down his face. "I can't live in this world without you!"
He spent pretty much the rest of the week stuck on his apartment. As bad as he knew it would seen to others, he decided not to go to Judy's funeral. Nick knew he would not be able to handle so much pain. Eventually, he quitted the ZPD as well. There was no reason to be there without Judy by his side, and he went back to his life on the streets, as a con man. In order to numb the pain, he would also try to intoxicate himself. First with alcohol, then with harder drugs, such as heroine, which became his drug of choice. This lead to his mother one day finding him almost dead at his apartment, after spending much of the evening injecting himself. She immediatly called an ambulance, and altough he managed to be ressurected, this also meant Nick would have to go to the rehab against his will.
Surprisingly, the life there was pretty decent, and most of the professionals were pretty kind. But the truth was that, as much as they wanted Nick to become better, he knew deep down he couldn't. He learned the hard way that sometimes, it's not possible to recover and be happy again. His joyful, happy self had been buried with Judy, and as much as it hurt to admit, he would need to live with that pain everyday.