A/N: Rob Zombie "Foxy, foxy".

Nick was uncharacteristically quiet. After Judy finished telling her tale, there were some questions followed, and while she was sure that no one really wanted to believe what she said, they had no reason not to. The bunny cop has proved to be truthful and sincere in what she did. And while the tale was strange, there was no reason for her to lie. Also, the fact that Wilde and Whitefang have apparently believed her helped the others to push their doubts back. The cops left the restaurant soon after and went their separate ways.

Nick though insisted on making sure Judy got home this time. She was a bit irked about the implication, but let the overprotective fox have his way. Deep down the gray doe knew she would probably be just as worried about her partner, were their roles to be reversed. They ended up taking her car and resuming the track back to her apartment that was just several more minutes away. Minutes filled with nothing but the low hum of the car's motor. No jokes, jibes, lectures from the bunny's red furred companion. It actually got her worrying a bit, but Judy refrained from asking when she noticed how serious the fox looked, along with him constantly checking rear view mirrors and the mammals. For her, that was a bit paranoid, but if it helped her partner feel more at ease, than so be it.

As usual, Judy left her car in a parking lot, just a short walk through the local park from her apartment complex. It was barely a ten minute walk at a sedate pace that she preferred taking back home in order to wind up a bit before preparing a meal, relaxing for a while and falling asleep. She hoped that once on foot, Nick would say something, but the tod remained silent. He behaved strangely. On the outside, the fox was looking as calm as ever, but his eyes roamed everywhere, ears swiveled in reaction to any sound, nose twitched looking for only he knew what smells.

Strange. The whole experience was supposed to influence her the hardest, but it seemed like it has not really set in yet. Nick though, was shaken hard from the start. This did not sit well with the bunny. She hated seeing him like this, like he was before their reunion under the bridge a bit more than two years ago. He hid it well, but at the time, the fox was constantly on a lookout for something or someone, expecting harm to come to him from around any and every corner. He became a bit more relaxed and less paranoid after the infamous Bellwether Plot was uncovered and after his time at the ZPA.

- Nick? - once she tried calling out to her partner, the tod flinched, as if the normal loudness of her voice was a deafening scream in his ear. Instead of speaking though, he just gave her small lift of his muzzle, indicating that he was listening.

- You okay?

What happened next was rather sudden and unexpected. Nick stopped in his tracks, which in turn caused Judy to stop. She looked up at the tod, worried a bit about him and his current condition. What met her was a face full of utter disbelief all the way to the hanging lower jaw. Then, it followed, starting as an almost undetectable snicker in the back of the fox cop's throat, developing into several chuckles and exploding into an uncontrollable laughter.

- Hey! That is not funny! - Was the indignant bunny's reply, but Nick's laughter was contagious and seconds later there were two off clock cops laughing in the middle of a park.

- Okay, I have to admit. That was funny. Like, come on, I am the one who was kidnapped, who is supposed to be all extra suspiciousy and panicky, while the one who did all the jumping and succumbed to paranoia was you, dumb fox! - Sides hurting and tears rolling from a long laugh, had the bunny deciding to take a sit at a bench. There were several of them, lining the route through the park, a bit away from it to allow visitors some refuge from the route and its users. Nick joined her just a few seconds later.

- Sorry, Carrots, have to revoke your sly card for today, what with being fooled by something that is not this sly and cunning fox, dumb bunny.

- Realy? If I remember correct, I outhustled your sorry tail, so this means that you are at the bottom of the cunning and sly food chain, mister.

- Oh no, somebody call the cops, there is a vicious gray hustle-shark and she came to eat me! Heeeeelp! - Nick pretend screamed while Judy was making an impression of huge jaws snapping at him with her hands.

- No one is going to hear your futile cries, hustle-plankton, muhahaha!

A few minutes later, the two partners were sitting as they usually would when hanging out together and not doing anything but resting quietly. Nick leaning on the back of the bench with Judy leaning on his side, hugging her knees.

- Do you believe me? The story that I told? - The question was mostly unneeded, but the doubt she saw in her colleagues eyes, when claiming the whole band was mostly knocked out by a single wolf, made Judy question herself.

- Pfft. Of course I do, Carrots. Though, you do understand, that you will have to prepare two versions of the report, the real one and one more believable to give old chief a way out of this mess, right?

- What? Lie on a report? That…

- Not lie, Carrots, just omit certain things, like the number of mammals helping, the very fact that they were helping you, and let others draw whatever conclusions they want. It's a standard tactics in this kind of situations.

- But, Nick, why would I…

- Carrots, I know you don't lie. And I know that it is possible. But think about other mammals. A single wolf beating black bears and a dozen other mammals armed with diskthrowers. Relentlessly shooting, since the whole warehouse is probably covered in disks. That as is as close to impossible and unbelievable as it gets.

As much as Judy was reluctant, she knew Nick was right. Nevertheless, she did not like it. She was honest. But this was not a question about honesty, this was a question about bureaucracy. And the tod was right. She would be honest with chief Bogo, give him the true version and the slightly corrected version. It would be then the buffalo's decision. There was something else though, that caught her attention.

- Nick? What do you mean you know that is possible? - the bunny doe's voice was laced with suspicion.

- Thirteen seconds. Not bad, Carrots, I was starting to think you would never catch on. Still, I should probably deduce points…

- Stop yapping your muzzle and start answering the question, fox. Or your tail suffers. - To make her threat more substantial, Judy grabbed the end of tod's tail and pulled it into her lap. The fox was unfazed though and simply lifted and eyebrow. Shrugging, he just settled back into his relaxed position.

- I was not always a hustler, you know? I tried honest jobs. Some even accepted and lasted for a while. I was twenty five, almost a decade ago, when...