"So where exactly do you work, again?" Judy asked, glancing to Nick as he drove his car through the frozen streets of Tundratown.
"A car shop owned by a friend of mine, and Mr. Big." Nick said, eyes fixated on the road ahead.
"A car shop, huh? You don't seem like one to sell them," the rabbit commented, turning to look at Nick.
"Oh, I can be, believe me. But this isn't that kind of car shop – we're more of a... I guess a scrap shop? We get wrecked and broken cars, and either fix them if they're worth the trouble, or else scrap them for pieces. We also do minor mechanic work." Nick yawned widely – despite it being just past eleven, the fox seemed no more awake than before. Judy would be lying if she said she didn't slightly regret waking him when she did.
"Oh." Judy turned her gaze back to the window, watching the snow-covered sidewalks and those walking them as they went past.
"Hey, Carrots, next time you have to come to work with me, do me a favor and try to not wake me up?" Nick said, yawning a second time. Judy yawned as well, and shook her head – she forgot how contagious yawns could be. "There's not enough coffee in the world to deal with this more than a few times a year."
"I'm sure you could strike a deal with Snarlbucks. It's kind of their thing – you give them money, they give you coffee."
"Yeah, but it tastes like coffee, and that's the problem," Nick groaned. "I don't want my coffee to taste like coffee."
"So you want coffee with your creamer and milk?" Judy asked.
"More like espresso with my creamer and milk." Nick sighed, licking his lips. "A nice, warm cup of- WOAH"
The fox slammed on the brakes as the two neared a red light; Nick had apparantly been so focued on daydreaming on coffee all of a sudden that he hadn't noticed the light change ahead of them. Judy found herself nearly flung into the dashboard, only saved by the sudden stiffness of her seatbelt, before it yanked her back into the seat.
"This is why I needed more sleep," Nick muttered, resting his head on the steering wheel.
Judy looked at him in mild irritation, before it shifted to curiousity. "Nick, we didn't get back that late. Why didn't you sleep?"
"I just couldn't," Nick sighed. "Mind wouldn't rest."
"Oh," Judy muttered.
The remainder of the ride was in silence, as before long the two were parked at what initially seemed like a warehouse of sorts. The only defining feature was a single word, a name, sitting on the front of the building's otherwise bland brick facade. "Capulet's."
As Judy began to unbuckle herself, Nick set a paw on her shoulder. "Hold on, Carrots, watch this." He nodded to the street ahead of them, more specifically a stop sign now far down. "Three, two, one, and here... We... Go." He snapped his fingers and, as if on que, Judy could hear the distant roar of an engine. It rapidly approached, before a large blue vehicle passed them by, tearing down the road at a dangerous speed. Judy, while somewhat horrified by the blatant disregard of the speed limit, couldn't help but let out a laugh of victory as, the moment the car passed the stop sign, police sirens erupted from the same street and a cruiser turned the corner after the vehicle. Not a block later, and the blue car was pulled over.
"Every week, and he never learns," Nick chuckled. "Alright Fluff, come on."
Without another word, Nick hopped out of the car and began to walk towards the front doors of the building, not even looking back to see if Judy was following him or not. She was, keeping just a step or two behind him as he walked into an office. It seemed rather plain and appeared as if it existed only as an afterthought; pale blue carpeting covered the floor, a pair of flourescent lights hanging from the ceiling, several folding chairs lining one wall opposite a cheap desk, computer chair, and filing cabinet.
Nick continued to go past the desk and pushed his way through another door, and Judy suddenly heard a wide range of sounds. Talking, metal being cut with a saw, music blaring, paint being sprayed. She poked her head into the room beyond.
It was, well, a massive garage. Several vehicles were in separate corners of the large room, each one surrounded by three or four mammals who were working on it in one way or another. There was also car parts, tools, and other miscellaneous things within arms reach of the mammals working on it.
Laughter, hearty and booming, suddenly rose over most of the sounds. "Hey-ey, Nick-ay!" A large black bear grinned and held out his arms, a dirty rag tossed over his shoulder as he stepped towards the fox and bunny. Nick copied his actions, snickering as if he had heard a good joke.
"Aurelio! How's it going, pal?"
"Ah, same old, same old. You know how it is, you were here just the other day. So- hey, what's with the bunny?" The bear tilted his head and looked down to Judy curiously. Nick beat her to the explanation, making the rabbit huff in slight annoyance.
"Eh, the big boss wants us to get along, so we have to tag along with one another to work." The fox shrugged, before looking around the garage. "So did we get anything good in while I was gone?"
"Get anything good?" Aurelio laughed at this. "We got one of the best things we coulda gotten! Come look!"
With that, the bear walked towards another door at the back of the garage. Judy was surprised to see yet another garage, this one packed with vehicles that all seemed damaged beyond repair. Vans turned into convertibles, pickups missing an entire axel, cars with no engines. The bear led the two beyond all of these, stopping at the very back and holding out his paw as if showing off a trophy. Nick's tail began to sway, and Judy could almost see his grin, despite his back being to her.
"Well she is a gem," Nick said. "Whaddya think, Carrots?"
Judy looked at where Aurelio was gesturing and, much to her surprise, there was a ZPD cruiser. It had clearly seen much, much better days – a wheel was missing, the back left of the vehicle had been forced to the center back, a bumper was missing, windows broken, and airbags deployed.
"Some drunk hit the car while the officer was pulling someone else over. Real glad no one got hurt from that." The bear scratched under his chin, glancing down at the two curiously. Nick was clearly pleased with the cruiser's being there, but Judy was significantly less enthusiastic. For some reason, to see the cruiser in this place seemed wrong.
"I..." Judy fumbled for words, hoping to voice her displeasure, before giving a small sigh. She reminded herself that the cruiser was likely damaged beyond repair and that the best thing that could happen was for every available part to be reused. "I... Like it. What are you going to do with it?"
"Well, the ZPD tends to just let us take it apart before we give 'em the pieces back. A bit of a weird system, but we get paid and they reuse the parts." Aurelio crossed his arms, still staring at the ruined cruiser. "Besides, sometimes they let us keep some bits. You have any idea how useful those bumpers are?"
"Yeah, I do," Judy muttered, her mind briefly turning back to the time she had been in the ZPD. She shook her head to clear herself of the thoughts – that was in the past.
"Alright, big guy, so what do you have for me today?" Nick asked, turning to his friend.
"Well, we've got a few engines that need work, and all of us are too big to get into where we need to get to." The bear gave a little huff before continuing. "I swear, all the engine makers are mice or something. They don't think about us bigger mammals!"
"Maybe they're just trying to tell you to go on a diet?" Nick joked, turning to walk out of the room. Judy followed with Aurelio behind her, the bear laughing heartily.
"You sound like my wife!"
~ óÓÒò ~
"Carrots, can you feed me the serpentine belt?" Nick asked, reaching out a paw from under the car he was working on and pointing to the top. Judy had no trouble hearing him, as it was later in the day and many of the other workers had left, including Aurelio. Nick was finishing up the last vehicle he needed to fix before he and Judy could head home.
The rabbit had to admit, she had learned quite a bit about cars today. From simple things like changing tires, to slightly more complicated things, such as what he was doing now – replacing a serpentine belt. And, to the fox's credit, he had been quite patient and helpful with showing her what to do when she insisted on helping. Occasionally she would make a simple mistake, which Nick would point out and correct with a snarky comment.
As the day wore on, however, Nick decided he needed to take over so they could return home sooner. Judy was surprised at how quick he was, most things taking him only a half an hour at most, though Judy had to admit that the problems with the vehicles were somewhat simple, even for her.
She was brought back to attention as something flicked against her leg – and old, rubber belt that looked nearly worn through and ready to snap with a little tension. She looked around and grabbed a newer, more intact belt from the stool beside her before climbing onto the front of the engine. "Uh, I set it groove side down, right?" She asked hesitantly, not wanting to risk messing up an engine.
"Are there grooves on the pulleys?" Nick asked.
Judy looked down at the engine, doing her best to spot what Nick was talking about. She was far from a mechanic, she realized, but did her best to recall what was what. "Uh... Yes?"
"Then there's your answer," Nick replied. "Set it on the first pulley, and feed it down to me. I'll take care of the rest."
The rabbit nodded and did as she was told, carefully pushing the rest of the belt down to Nick. She watched as his paw snagged it and began to carefully loop it under and around several other pulleys, before he tried to loop it over the last one. He grunted being unable to do so, however, and let out an annoyed groan. "Carrots, can you hand me the ratchet again?"
Without a word, Judy hopped down from the car engine and grabbed the tool Nick needed. As she went to set it in his awaiting paw, however, she paused and grinned. "The what?" She asked.
"The ratchet. I used it to get the belt off?"
"I don't know where it is," Judy said innocently.
"Seriously?" Nick hissed, grunting in discomfort as he changed positions under the engine.
"Seriously," Judy confirmed. "Maybe you kicked it by accident?"
"I think you would've heard that with those radar dishes you call ears," Nick chuckled, before letting out another hiss. He sighed, the tip of his tail giving an irritated flick. "Can you look around for it?"
"I already did," Judy replied. "I don't see it."
Nick gave up, giving a groan filled to the brim with frustration as he pushed himself out from under the engine and sat up, looking at Judy with something akin to disappointment. The rabbit, stuffing the wrench in the back pocket of her pants, smiled innocently before putting up her empty paws. The fox groaned again and went to slap his palm against his forehead, before pausing just before the grease-covered glove would hit him. "I need that to finish," he muttered, getting up and walking off. Judy could hear him rummaging through a toolbox a few cars over. Judy took quick action, carefully and quietly setting the ratchet just under the engine Nick was working on.
When the fox returned with another ratchet and got down to resume his work, he froze upon seeing the one Judy had placed. She tried to hold back a giggle, covering her mouth when the fox picked it up and slowly turned to her. The look of irritation mixed with mock betrayal on his face was all it took for Judy to start laughing. The fox shook his head and went back under the engine as Judy let her laughter die down, climbing onto the stool beside her to wait for Nick to finish. A few minutes later, the fox reemerged and set the first ratchet on the engine, walking away to return the one he had taken.
When he came back, he took the first ratchet and tossed it in a small toolbox by Judy's stool, before taking off his gloves and tossing those in as well. "Alright, I'm done. Let's get out of here, Carrots."
She gladly agreed.
So, this took way longer to get out than I expected. And I realize that the story has seemed a bit... Slow thus far. But don't worry, this is the last of that - we have some actual progress with Judy and her rise starting in the next chapter! I just hope to keep you all from waiting so long this time.