"It's called a hustle, sweetheart. Boom."
Supported by her friend, Judy angled the carrot pen just so at the mayor of Zootopia, watching with undisguised relief when the ewe scrambled backwards into the waiting custody of the ZPD.
"You have the right to remain silent..."
Chief Bogo's voice drifted down to the two smaller mammals, just as a horned face looked over the edge of the enclosure they were currently trapped in.
"Hopps, you okay?" Officer McHorn had been pretty blatant in his disregard for her abilities her first day on the force, but now his tone was laced with a gruff concern for the tiny bunny.
"Doing just fine!" came Judy's cheery response. Of course, she'd certainly had better days and it went without saying that a good part of the reason she was still standing was with assistance from the fox at her side, but she wasn't going to potentially jeopardize any thoughts of her being 'one tough little bunny.'
It was Nick that gave the rhino a slightly more realistic assessment of her condition a trace of concern in his voice. "She tore up her leg pretty bad, we've got pressure on the wound but she's going to need treatment." It took only a moment for his tone to shift to something more sardonic, never one to let humor go unspoken. "Maybe you should get an ambulance on the 'horn'."
"Nick!" Judy's voice was horrified.
The rhino rolled his eyes thinking to himself that it was only vaguely a surprise that Hopps had managed to fall in with that insufferable fox again.
"Yeah yeah, just sit tight Foxy Loxy, we'll find a ladder for you two soon enough." McHorn seemed to consider a moment before floating his own joke down to the rabbit. "Judy, if you decide you need a tranq gun down there in the meantime, you just let me know." His head disappeared for the time being, not waiting around for another sly response.
"Huh... Carrots, I think your buddies are starting to warm up to me. Last month that would have been an offer to toss down a taser," the fox said with a touch of smugness, his smile mirroring his tone as he gave his companion a fond look.
He shifted rather quickly back to concern once they were relatively 'alone' again, his carefully constructed casual persona fading into something more earnest. "Come on, you shouldn't be standing on that at all, let's take a break while we wait."Judy shouldn't have been surprised at the change, his hands firm, but gentle as they helped the injured rabbit settle on the ground. Her tight, trusting grip on his shirt, all the thanks he needed for his help, the smile on his face now genuine when she didn't let go of that gaudy green print.
Even with Nick's support, Judy still sat down rather heavily on the sandy floor of the diorama. She couldn't quite keep herself from wincing as pain rushed back to her lower leg, the adrenaline from the confrontation wearing off. To say the day had been a non-stop roller coaster would be putting it mildly, exhaustion beginning to show on her face as well as in the hunching of her shoulders.
Nick's smile dropped into a concerned expression, but quickly returned, just a bit larger than before when he offered her his shoulder to lean against and she obliged.
He smelled just as Judy remembered, though without the scent acuity of other mammals she found herself hard pressed to describe exactly what his scent reminded her of; a mixture of warm fur, a light musk, his soap, and what she would swear sunlight should smell like. She couldn't hold back a small giggle at the thought.
Maybe the pain in her lower leg was making her delirious. "How long do you think it'll be before they find a ladder?" She glanced up at Nick to see him studying the mural that wrapped around the enclosure.
"You're tempting me to make a horrible joke about civil servants and light bulbs," came his easy reply.
"Hey, I happen to be one of those civ-" She cut herself off when her gentle elbow to his ribs, left her friend hissing in pain through his teeth and holding his side.
"Watch the ribs Carrots - I.. kinda need them to... breathe."
Judy threw her hands to her mouth in horror as she remembered. "Oh Nick, I'm so sorry, I didn't even think!"
The slender fox had protected her when they'd been knocked into this pit, using his body to shield her from both the charging ram and their impact on the ground. She almost felt like melting through a crack in the ground for being so careless. "Are you okay?"
"Fine... I'm just fine." And it didn't seem like he was lying, as he relaxed after a few moments of deep breaths, saying as though he'd had plenty of experience. "They're likely just bruised... maybe a hairline fracture or two at the worst." He smirked down at her. "If I'd have broken anything I wouldn't have been able to play 'savage fox' quite so well."
"Truly a terrifying performance." Despite her teasing tone, Judy could feel a tension stir in the fox and she dropped her hand to the top of his dark furred paw as she continued with honesty in her voice, "Except I already know how much of a goober you are so there was no fooling me."
'This time...' was clear in his expression, though he wiped it clean in almost the same instant. Apologies had been exchanged and accepted, but he wasn't ready to let go of his self doubt just yet. He shuddered at the thought of his teeth around her neck and, for a worse moment, thought of what would have happened if that conniving sheep had gotten her way... what damage he could have done had he truly not been in his right mind.
Nick's voice was quiet in a way she'd never heard, "Carrots, this whole thing could have gone so-"
"But it didn't!" she rushed in, her natural speed and exuberance nearly the perfect foil to the fox's quick wit. "From savage jaguars, giant toilets, mob bosses, crashing trains to crazy mayors, we outfoxed them all." She beamed up at him as he rolled his eyes at her joke.
"You see? I'm already a terrible, terrible influence on your small and impressionable bunny brain." Nick had more he wanted to add, even had his mouth open to to say something devastatingly clever, then the rabbit in question twined her fingers together with his. She mercifully didn't notice, or was really good at pretending not to, how the fox snapped his mouth shut, rendered speechless for the first time since he could remember when.
"That must be what makes us such a good team." She closed her eyes and hmm'd rather happily. "I mean, look what a good influence I've been on you. You've gone from hustling pawpsicles to saving the city."
"How dare you," came his dry response. "Any borderline heroics on my part was mostly trying to keep you from killing both of us... but listen, I'm running a poll for best nickname for you. Officer Toot-toot or Conductor Carrots. I'll let you pick your favorite."
Judy groaned with a new found gusto, resting her head firmly into her free hand. "You're right, you're terrible... but I don't think I get to be Officer anything after I resigned-"
It was perfectly timed, a sudden commotion at the edge of the enclosure, Delgato and Wolfard lowering a ladder, the latter explaining to the pair in the pit, "Sorry about that, had to find a ladder that didn't have rungs taller than you, Hopps."
Normally, a too big ladder wouldn't have fazed the seemingly unstoppable bunny, but Nick realized with a pang of worry that she was having more than a little trouble getting up the ladder, hopping on one foot as she had when she'd run from him. A quiet curse stayed under his breath as he realized that the gusto which she'd thrown herself into her acting had probably also loosened the tight bandage he'd rushed onto her leg. And there it was, gleaming wetly, and assaulting his sensitive nose, the blood his handkerchief had camouflaged.
It was hard to steel his expression, to not have his face slip into pure worry, but as he neared the top of his climb, he realized he needn't have bothered about giving himself away, a genuinely amused smirk spreading across his muzzle as he watched the bunny get mobbed by her co-workers.
The fox stood apart, all but forgotten as he observed this reunion. She'd made her mark on them, he thought to himself with a small bit of pride, turned her detractors into her biggest supporters just by being her indomitable self. It was the best kind of hustle, the kind that ended up being something real. She caught his eye, smiling and waving and he felt a genuine warmth spread through his chest, a happiness that still felt fragile, but was undeniably real.
The mammal she'd hustled most successfully had been him.