"Nick, I'm starting to think you don't know how to make a sandwich."
"I'm just putting the cheese on. How could I be doing that wrong?"
"You're using shredded cheese. You know we have sliced cheese, right?"
"Is there a difference?"
Judy rolled her eyes at the fox as she opened the refrigerator and retrieved the sliced cheese. Now on the fifth day of their vacation, the two were making sandwiches for lunch before spending another hot afternoon at the beach. The windows of the house were open, letting in a warm breeze and the distant noise from the beach patrons already enjoying the ocean. Nick's cellphone sat on one of the kitchen counters (now plugged into the stereo system that had been provided along with the beach house), playing through Nick's various playlists. On the couch sat a packed beach bag with towels and sunscreen, as well as the couple's bathing suits.
"Think you're some kind of sandwich expert," Nick mumbled to himself.
"What was that?"
"I was just saying how much I love you."
"Mm-hmm, sure," Judy laughed. "You know you're going to have to learn to make sandwiches properly before the kids start school, so you can help me with their lunches."
"I still have a couple of years before then," Nick said with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. "And even then, I'll probably just pay for the lunches they'll give them at school."
Just then, the couple both jumped at the sound of an ear-piercing scream that carried through the windows from the beach.
"HELP! Someone please help!"
Judy dropped the knife she had been using to cut her sandwich and was at the glass sliding back door in a flash, already wrenching it open as she called to Nick. "Tranq gun?"
"Got it!" Nick called as he pulled it from his belt and followed Judy out the back door.
The two quickly ran a few yards down the slope of their beach house's back lawn and onto the hot sand of the beach. There was already a small crowd beginning to form part way down the beach, where the screams were coming from.
As the couple came closer, they found it was a young female rabbit screaming. She looked absolutely frantic as she tried to tell the animals gathering around her what was wrong. She was babbling, however, and no one could really make sense of what she was saying.
"Excuse us, we're officers," Nick announced as Judy pushed through the crowd and took ahold of the disheveled rabbit.
"Ma'am, take a deep breath and tell me what's wrong."
"M-my… my b-baby!" the rabbit sobbed. "One o-of my babies is m-missing! S-she's missing!"
Judy shot a glance at Nick to ensure he heard what the rabbit had said, and then turned back to the young mother.
"When and where did you see her last?"
Almost as if on cue, just before the mother could reply, a small voice was just barely audible over the crashing waves of the ocean.
"Look!" a large male elephant in the crowd suddenly called in a husky voice, pointing. "There! In the water!"
The crowd all turned in the direction the elephant had pointed in, and sure enough, there was a small figure in the water. The figure was shrieking for help, struggling to stay above the water, fighting against the current that only kept forcing her away from the shore. The mother rabbit gasped. Judy's heart skipped a beat at the sight of the drowning bunny. The beach had no lifeguards, and it was up to one of them to save the baby. Nick had apparently already surmised this.
"Here," Nick yelled as he forced his wallet and his tranquilizer gun into Judy's paws before he sprinted toward the ocean, diving in and swimming as fast as possible toward the tiny bunny. The crowd watched in tense silence as Nick carefully, yet firmly, snatched the baby bunny up by the scruff of her neck in his teeth and began ferociously swimming back to shore.
"Someone call 911," Judy ordered the crowd as she ran toward the water, shoving Nick's wallet into her back pocket and his tranquilizer gun into the band of her jeans as she ran.
She met Nick in the waves as his feet touched the sandy bottom and she took the baby in her arms.
"She's not breathing," Nick gasped as he tried to catch his breath.
Judy quickly crouched down and carefully positioned the baby face-up on her right forearm. Cradling the back of her head with her right paw, Judy placed her left forearm on her front and used her paw to hold the baby's jaw. Nick stood behind her, saltwater dripping from his drenched clothes, and watched with bated breath. The waves crashed against the sand around them. Without any hesitation, Judy then flipped the baby so that she was facedown and delivered five firm and distinct blows to the bunny's back between the shoulder blades. Immediately after delivering the fifth blow, the baby sputtered and coughed, forcing the water from her airway.
The young mother rabbit sobbed in relief, as she dropped to her knees in the wet sand and took the baby in her arms. The crowd around them began cheering and applauding as the mother drew Judy into her grasp.
"Thank you!" she gasped as she hugged Judy tightly. "Thank you so much!"
Moments later, emergency services arrived and took care of the mother and her baby. From the snippets Judy and Nick caught from conversations they partially overheard, they learned that the mother lived just at the edge of the beach, and that she had discovered the back door was open and one of her children missing. The responding officers thanked a sopping wet Nick and Judy for their help, and the couple began walking back toward their beach house as the rest of the crowd dispersed, the situation now resolved.
"Good swimming," Judy laughed with a sigh as she wrapped an arm around Nick's waist.
Nick laughed and placed an arm over Judy's shoulders.
"All in a days' work, Officer Hopps – er, I guess it's Officer Wilde now."
"Let's leave it as Officer Hopps to avoid confusion," Judy smiled. "I can still be Mrs. Wilde."
"Sounds good to me," Nick replied as he ran a paw through his drenched hair. "How did you know to do that thing to get the kid to breathe?"
"You mean CPR for babies? It was in all of those baby books your mother gave us when I was pregnant the first time."
"Ah, right."
"You never read those baby books, did you?"
"Look, I can explain–"
"I can't believe I leave my children with you," Judy joked with a shake of her head.
"You know, I saw that bunny in the water, Carrots, and all I could think of was Violet."
"Aw, Nick," Judy smiled sweetly. "You saved that baby."
"We saved that baby," Nick corrected her with a grin. "And all I'm gonna say is I'm glad we don't live near a beach; that would just be one more thing to worry about."
The couple laughed as they came near the back door, then paused, looking at the water dripping off of them.
"We're going to make a mess," Judy groaned.
"We could always just take our clothes off and go in naked," Nick smirked.
"That's not happening."
"Here, let me help you," Nick laughed as he playfully tugged at Judy's shirt.
The rabbit slapped his paw away and trudged into the house, leaving wet footprints on the white tiles behind her.