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When she asked him to be her partner, Nick was touched. This…bunny of all things saw potential in him! It had been so long since someone saw potential in him. Maybe she’s just an unhinged, overeager optimist, but…maybe something in him had changed after everything he’d just been through. Maybe he could do something else with his life. If she believed in him, then, well, maybe spending every day with her and making an honest living (plus free coffee and donuts from the breakroom) could be his best hustle of all.
And then she said what she said.
And he knew it had all been a lie.
The fact that he’d so eagerly filled out that form? Embarrassing. Why would he ever want to work for the ZPD anyway? He was out of there.
And then she came back.
She came back to apologize. To ask for help. To grovel a little bit, which, he wasn’t gonna lie, he kind of enjoyed.
And after everything, she still wanted him as her partner.
Well if she was going to come back for him, to admit when she was wrong, and learn from her mistakes? And she could still see potential in him at the end of all that? Yeah, fine, he’s grown a liking to her anyway. He could spend that kind of time with her. Actually, he eventually admitted to himself, he’d really like to. It’s kind of like the scouts, he’d thought. Spend the day with your friends, do a little do-gooding, and go home to recharge. He wondered if he could do little activities to earn patches like he would’ve in the scouts, too. Probably not, cops suck.
Plus, this is probably the only way he could go straight anyway. He certainly doesn’t have the tax records to apply anywhere high-profile, no matter what kind of false resumé and references he could throw together. And having the chief of police and the city’s new favorite cadet both agree to forgive your, let’s be honest, very shady background in favor of a job? That mayoral pardon was not going to be redeemable at a later date.
So the rabbit it is.
He could always quit when he got sick of her anyway.
But he never did get sick of her. Through his entire 9 months of training, she called him every day. It annoyed him a little at first, but he always picked up. She was always so excited to tell him how she was prepping to work with him. That she had temporary partnered assignments but she just didn’t click with them the way she clicked with him. That Bogo had agreed to pair them up once he was on the force (if he passed his training that is, Chief still had his doubts), so long as things wouldn’t be too reckless when they had field assignments.
(Bogo also feared that no paperwork would be getting done before unauthorized “missions” took place, the reckless abandon of his star student Officer Hopps and the criminal history of the incoming recruit very prominent in his mind. His hunch was proven correct, to no one’s surprise but much to his dismay.)
But Nick got used to Judy’s constant presence. She started inviting him to hang out on weekends, in the evenings, and twice to join her family for the holidays (he declined the first time, but decided it was worth the trek to Bunnyburrow for some fresh berries the second time around. The schlep? Fine. The 386 siblings? Less fine). It got to the point where when she would go 24 hours without calling him, he instinctively texted her to make sure she was alive. Understanding her affinity for “saving the world,” it was very possible she wasn’t.
But she always was, thank goodness. And as the months ticked by, the training took its toll on him, and he started on the official hiring process at the ZPD, Nick remembered that he had never really cared about the police force. At no point in his life did he picture himself as a cop, and even now, he didn’t think of this so much as joining the ZPD, but as joining Judy. He didn’t fill out that first form because he thought it was an exciting job opportunity, he filled it out because she had asked him to be her partner. At first it excited him because she’d seen potential in him. Now it excited him because he sees a future with her.
So when Bogo threatens to split them up, it worries Nick. Because what would he do without Judy? What purpose would he serve within the ZPD if he’s not by her side? He never wanted to be a cop. He wanted to be Judy’s partner.
And he realizes what’s changed since he first handed in his application. That he once thought he’d quit when he got tired of her face, her voice, her unyielding optimism. But now? If he gets separated from Judy? The resignation letter is on Bogo’s desk the next morning. There is no Officer Wilde if it’s not immediately preceded or followed by Officer Hopps. No Judy, no Nick.
And he knows the chief knows that. And he knows the chief doesn’t much care about that. Because Judy would never leave, and that’s who they really need on the force, not Nick. And that’s fine by him.
The only thing is, were he to quit, it would break Judy’s heart. Because she still sees that potential in him and she’d want him to live up to it, next to her or otherwise. But Nick knows there’s no point in that. He’s there for her or he’s not there at all. And with even the brief time he’s been with the force on his record, he could land any honest job he wanted. It would be fine. They could still hang out when she was off-duty, he’d come back for another holiday or two (maybe just the one a year actually, those kittens are RAMBUNCTIOUS), and they could still call every day. He could live up to that potential for her somehow.
But he never wanted an honest job. And he never wanted the uniform. He wants to make her happy.
So yeah, he could quit the force. And if Bogo does dare separate them, he still will. But that’s why he won’t let Bogo tear them apart. He won’t even CONSIDER it. Judy is staying right by his side. And he’ll do whatever it takes to keep it that way.
That’s his PARTNER.