The climbing to the fifth floor was done in complete silence. Add that to the fact that Nick and Judy had their sides flush together due to the bunny needing help to climb the stairs, and they found themselves in a very awkward situation.
For both of them, the whole process seemed to take way longer than it should.
Once they were finally inside the apartment, with the door closed and locked behind them, Nick slowly turned towards her with a conflicted veil in his eyes.
"The Burrows, Carrots?" He said in a voice so uncomfortably similar to the one she heard him use after that fateful press conference. "Is it really a good idea?"
To say Judy was confused at this was an understatement. "It isn't? You did say back there I'm the only cop you trust to have by your side. And we'd both be out of the city. In my eyes, we both win."
Nick leaned against the door with a sigh. "That's not it, Carrots. I've heard there are only prey mammals, mostly bunnies, in BunnyBurrow. What would they think of a fox suddenly showing his muzzle in there? I've got all sorts of ugly stares, Judy, but that doesn't mean I like them."
The sound of her name leaving his lips gave Judy an odd, unpleasant feeling. It was almost like a bad omen. He did, after all, call her by name when the situation got bad back while they were solving the case.
Judy pushed those silly thoughts aside however. Because despite his insecurities, she felt a load of worry lift off her shoulders. And to Nick's confusion, she giggled.
"That's what you're worried about, dumb fox? That you'll be the only predator around in BunnyBurrow?"
"Won't I?" His eyebrow arched in surprise.
"Of course not, silly." Judy giggled again, turning to go sit on the couch. She motioned for him to follow her example. "Sure there aren't many, but there are several predators who's been living there for ages. Even my family started a partnership with one!"
"Did they?" The fox said in surprise, sitting next to Judy. "But I thought… I mean… the fox repellent…"
"Oh." The bunny's ears fell at that. She looked down in regret. "About that… yeah, I admit my parents used to be a lot more bias about preds… Heck, even I was narrow-minded, while I prided myself in thinking I wasn't."
Nick offered an honest smile. "I'm not mad because of that, Carrots. Really, I should have understood. I did have my own prejudice on you when we met."
"Yeah…" She averted her eyes, rubbing at the end of her own ears. An old, hard to kill, habit. "I guess neither one of us is above prejudice, are we?"
"No, we aren't." He agreed with a nod. "But you know what truly matters? We learn from our mistakes, and we try to not let these preconceptions guide our judgement." Nick then leaned on his elbows against his knees, looking down at the ground with a frown. "Well… you, at least did. You taught me to do that after blackmailing me into helping you."
Judy giggled, then looked at him with an arched eyebrow. "Are you trying to make me feel better or are you trying to guilt-trap me here?"
"If it works." He shrugged with a smirk directed at her. But he quickly dropped the playfulness for now. It was time to make a few things clear here. "But what I'm really trying to say is that you simply took my strongest weapon and turned it against me. You didn't just trick me to help you solve a case. You tricked me so that I could learn a lesson I should have learned a long time ago."
Judy smiled softly at his confessions. "And… that would be?"
The fox looked down again. "That I became exactly what I hated most in the world. I was only adding up to it." He flexed his fingers, looking at his own dark pads. "I had let those scouts get to me, and they were still getting to me."
"Nick…" Judy leaned forward to get a better look of his expression. She assumed he was blaming himself, but his expression was of complete relief, as if a great burden had been lifted off of his shoulders.
He looked up at her and smiled. A smile Judy had never seen before. Not on him, nor on anyone. It was a smile of pure and simple gratitude, more gratifying than any medal of honor.
The smile of someone whose world became a better place.
Judy smiled back. Oh, stupid dust in her eyes, making her all teary and emotional and…
Nick started to laugh. Loud.
"Oh, shut up!" She grumbled, turning to hide her tears from him. Which was too late, of course. A smile seemed to have been eternally carved on her face. She brought a paw to stop her lips from quivering, her nose from twitching, her tears from spilling.
"Oh, you bunnies." The fox was still laughing as he grabbed her around the waist, dragging her across the couch and against his chest. "You're so emotional."
"Shut up!" Judy said/sobbed/laughed. She felt his grinning muzzle press against the crown of her head, between her ears. She leaned against the touch, hearing the thumping of his wagging tail against the couch. "Dumb fox."
"Amazing bunny." He squeezed her in his arms for a second before letting her go. He saw the insides of her ears flushing with blood. "Aw, she's turning red like me." He cackled at the way she scampered to pull her ears down, hiding the evidence of her embarrassment. "You are cute, Carrots. And that is not a preconception."
Judy rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath about foxes and dummies.
"So…" Nick started, leaning back on the couch as he looked sideways at her. He stole a glance at the black handle of the gun sticking out from her pocket. "Who knew bunnies were so well equipped, uh?"
Judy turned confused eyes at the fox. She caught him looking, and the weight on her pocket seemed to make itself known.
Nick stared as she pulled the weapon from her pocket. There was something about the metallic black object that fascinated him.
"Never been in the middle of a shooting, have you."
The question got him by surprise. He looked up at Judy, meeting her understanding expression as she held the gun on her lap.
Nick shook his head. "No, never." He said with eyes closed.
"I've see a gun before. Seen mammals, police and criminals alike, walking around with them, but I never saw or heard them in action before." He shrugged. "Not on live, at least."
Judy didn't know Nick for long, but she noticed his behavior. He was tense and nervous, but he shrugged it off with his cool and suave mask.
"It's normal, you know?" She offered gently. "To be afraid in a situation like this."
Nick turned to look at her with his half-lidded gaze, opening his mouth to retort with maybe a sarcastic remark. But his mouth closed with a soft snap when he saw the bunny eyebrows lower over her amethysts eyes. She brushed off his comeback before it arrived, and he knew Judy wouldn't accept anything other than honesty from him.
The fox closed his eyes and sighed. "I know. I'm just… kinda annoyed, you know? I mean, we were chased by a savage jaguar around the Rainforest District. We were almost frozen to our deaths back in Mr. Big's mansion… " Nick leaned forward and rubbed at his face, as if frustrated. "I don't even know, Carrots. We've been through so much, had a lot of close calls, and a sheep with a gun… he made a mess out of me. He got to me!"
"I know." She offered in a quiet tone, reaching to touch his arm. "I know exactly what you mean."
Nick looked at her. Her paw rubbed his arm comfortingly, and it calmed him more than he was willing to admit. She offered him a smile, and he saw that she truly understood what he was going through.
She somehow did.
And it made her even more amazing to him. "I was thinking, you know."
"What?" She probed gently, paying close attention to what he was saying. The fox, however, quieted down for several moments, looking at and away from her. He seemed to search for words.
Judy didn't push him further. She waited until he was ready again to talk.
"I remembered when you asked me… to join you. To become your partner." With his eyes averted to something in front of him, he didn't see the bunny's ears slightly raise. "A fox cop… who is afraid of guns." He gave a dry and sullen laugh. "Fantastic cop, uh?"
There was no response from Judy. For several minutes.
When it became almost unnerving, Nick looked towards her, expecting to see that she realized he could never be a good cop like she told him so long ago.
Cops were not afraid of guns, after all. Right?
But while he saw understanding in Judy's smile when he looked at her, he also saw that she was probably thinking that he was a dumb fox. It didn't seem like she was taking back any of those words. Her opinion remained unchanged.
"First of all, you're still a civilian right now, Nick. You haven't been trained around a weapon before. Really, I'd be really worried if you weren't scared. Because, trust me…" She leaned forward and looked deep into his green eyes, sincerity shining in her lavender irises. Her voice became lower, as if she was revealing a big secret. "I was scared too."
That came as a surprise to him. His ears shot up and his eyes widened. "No way."
"Yes way." She smiled, leaning back against the couch and looking up at the ceiling. "Cops have fears too, you know."
"But you just…" He looked at the door, remembering how she stalked forward with the gun in her paws, ready to take death face on. She was injured, facing off against a mammal at least three times her size. And yet, she didn't hesitate even once.
But then again, police officer or not, she was still Judy. She was still a mammal with all the emotions a mammal had. But for the moment she had acted solemnly to protect him, she had pushed back all of that.
Judy smiled at the way he went silent and pensive. "That's what I was trained for, Nick. To fight my weaknesses and fears to protect others." She leaned back against the couch. "It's not like I wasn't scared of Doug. But confronting your fear to protect others is one of the things I'm meant to do. It's what cops are meant to do."
The fox stayed silent, thinking over her words. He looked down at his pawpads.
'Brave… loyal… helpful… and trustworthy.'
"I mean what I said, Nick. You'd make an amazing cop. And being scared right now does not make you a coward."
Her reassurance made him feel a whole lot better. His childhood dream wasn't to become a cop, but he could achieve it if he became one. And knowing that he could have Judy by his side as a partner only fueled his wish to do just that.
"Would you do me a favor, Carrots?" He asked without looking at her.
"Anything, Nick." She perked her ears as she leaned forward to pay attention to his request.
"After this whole mess is sorted out…" He looked at her with a half-lidded smile. "…could you swap another application form for me?"
Her smile widened impossibly wide. "Of course I can!" She punched his arm playfully. "Partner!
"Ouch! Hey, no need for police abuse!" The fox complained as he rubbed his abused arm.
"Oh, you big baby." Judy shoved him until he fell across the couch. He smacked her in the face with his tail as retaliation. "Hey! Knock it off!"
"You started it!" He laughed, batting at her ears with his wagging tail.
She reached to catch it, but it moved away from her paws to smack her cheek again. She succeeded in her third attempt, grasping at the red fluffy appendage before Nick could bat it at her ears again.
The fox yelped in surprise. "If you pull at it, Carrots, I swear I'll bite your ears." He threatened playfully.
"You wouldn't dare." Judy challenged, squeezing the fox's tail.
"Oh, I would." He grinned, unafraid of showing his teeth. Judy didn't flinch, but was reconsidering his threat.
"Fine." She mock-frowned, releasing his tail. It fell to her lap, but didn't move from there. "You're no fun."
"You are no fun." He resisted the temptation at flicking his tail against her small nose. "Dumb bunny."
"Dumb fox."
The fox chuckled, relaxing on the couch, contented. He moved his tail away from Judy's lap, and in doing so he heard something fall to the floor. Glancing over the edge of the couch, he spotted Judy's gun on the floor, closer to him.
Tentatively, he reached out and took it carefully, as if afraid he could trigger a shot form it if he moved it too brusquely.
"Here." He said as he handed it over to the bunny.
The doe saw how tense the looked, and smirked. She took the gun and pulled back the top, which slid back with a click. She top the ammunition cartridge from the bottom of the handle before reposition the top piece back in position. It clicked in place.
Judy looked back at Nick, catching him staring in fascination. His eyes widened when she offered the gun back.
"W-what?" He squeaked when she dropped the gun on his lap when he refused to take it.
"Relax, Slick." She leaned back on the other side of the couch. "Do you think I'm crazy enough to hand a loaded gun over to an untrained mammal? Give me some credit. I might be dumb, but not that dumb. Go ahead: kill the curiosity."
"What a bad joke, Carrots." Nick snorted, sitting up and tentatively taking the black gun by the handle. Once again, he felt the nearly comfortable weight of the weapon in his paws. The metal and plastic – or was it wood? - at the handle felt colder than normal in his rough pads.
No longer in the adrenaline-drive of a life-threatening situation, Nick allowed himself to, as Judy stated, 'kill the curiosity'.
The charcoal black 9mm was brand new and had apparently never been used before that night. There wasn't a single marring mark on its smooth midnight black surface.
It was, of course, sized for a bunny, but he could still comfortably hold it with both paws. And it could most likely still bring down an elephant if used properly and in the right paws.
"I bought it as present for myself after graduating from the academy." She stated, watching as he toyed with her gun. He didn't avert his eyes from it, but one of his ears rotated towards her in attention. "I figured that I deserved something… different and useful for graduating Valedictorian in the academy. My parents didn't understand my conquest. They were proud, but…"
Nick nervously pulled the trigger, jumping in his own skin at the powerful clicking inside the barrel. Judy giggled softly, which was ignored by the fox.
"I guess it was more like a trophy than to be actually used." She shrugged. "I don't really like guns. My ears can't stand them." The bunny admitted with a slight embarrassed smile.
That made Nick look up at her with an arched brow. "So you ditch safety for the sake of your ears?"
"If you had ears as sensitive as mine, you'd get my point. It's like stuffing your muzzle in the garbage, I think."
"A stronger sense of smell doesn't make us feel sick because of a bad smell. We can just detect details that other mammals can't." Nick explained matter-of-factly. "But I think I get your point." Nick chuckled to himself, returning to exploring the weapon in his paws.
"Anyway." Judy continued. "I kept it locked in my family's truck ever since then." She brought her legs up on the couch. She rested on her side against the back of the seat as she watched her friend fuss with the gun. "In a burrow full of nosy and curious siblings, it was the safest place I could think of. Not to mention the glove compartment of the truck had always been a forbidden place for the kids. It had been even before I was born."
"Why is that?" The fox asked, looking at her for a moment.
"Because of the taser I gave you." She nodded to the object, which was left on the counter of Nick's kitchen. "Like I said before, my parents used to be a bit distrustful about predators. Especially my dad. And when my mother gave birth to their first lither, he became straight out paranoid."
"First-time daddy." Nick shook his head in mirth. "My mom used to tell me that my father became a nervous mess when I was born too. She almost felt sorry for him."
"Must be a father thing." Judy smiled. "Anyway, he bought the taser to protect his family, but mom nearly flipped at him." She started to laugh. "I mean, the thing is lethal to anything smaller than a wolf, and can knock out a fully grown bear for several hours! And it was in a burrow that would one day be full of snooping kits! 'Do you have anything other than fluff and carrot mush in that head of yours?' Dad swears those were my mother's exact words to him!"
Nick laughed along with her. "A bunny joke! Coming from a bunny!"
As their mirth died down, they were both immersed in a comfortable silence. Nick kept his eyes on the black gleam of the gun he set on his lap. While still uncomfortable to have a weapon in his paws, he felt confident now that he could conquer that uneasiness with proper training.
Proper police training.
"Carrots?" He called, turning his eyes to her. He felt a bit guilty when he saw her eyes flutter open tiredly. Nevertheless, a comfortable smile sat on her lips.
Judy hummed in response, blinking slowly.
"I…" Nick looked back down at her weapon. And sighed. "I think we should try to catch some sleep." He offered the gun back to her.
Judy blinked at him, as if her brain was tiredly lethargic in processing information. Finally, her eyes grew more aware, and she pushed herself off her rest against the back of the couch to retrieve the gun.