For the longest time Judy had wondered how Zootopia managed to maintain its city-wide armistice, and why so few criminals actually shot at ZPD officers. Then she saw what happened when a particularly bold coyote emptied his pistol into Officer McHorn's chest.

She didn't know which had been more frightening; the sound of gunfire, the sight of the bullets striking a fellow officer, or the mildly annoyed grunt McHorn offered in response.

"Beep, beep, I'm a sheep! I said beep beep, I'm a sheep! Oh, Beep, beep, I'm a sheep! I said beep beep, I'm a sheep!"

"Ugh..." McHorn rolled his eyes in irritation, shutting the radio off. "I seriously can't stand the auto-tuned crap they have on the radio these days."

"Just because it's not Land Zepplin or the Rocking Stones doesn't mean it isn't music."

"Okay, I know you know those names are wrong. I'm just saying that I remember when songs actually had lyrics. Not just the same asinine sentence repeated over and over."

"Really? What was it like back then?" Judy asked innocently. "Had the wheel been invented yet?"

"Ouch." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Whatever happened to that sweet, bright-eyed bunny looking to make the world a better place?"

"I dunno." She smiled sweetly. "I guess she just got tired of waiting around for the real cops."

He laughed at her playful dig. "When are you gonna let me off the hook for that?"

"Not sure. Probably never."

"Wilde's been a terrible influence, you know that?"

"Worth it." She sing-songed, drawing another laugh from the rhino.

"Speaking of the red menace, how's he doing?"

"Whiny, but recovering. At least he's stopped texting me every five minutes." Shaking her head, she unconsciously glanced at her phone to check for any new messages. "He wants to get back out here so badly that he forgets that these things take time."

"Go easy on him. Getting benched can be frustrating."

"I know, I know. But he got stabbed, for goodness sake!"

"Technically, he got stabbed twice." McHorn noted.

"Exactly! How can he whine about being hurt, then turn around and complain about having to go on medical leave?"

"He wants you to know how badly injured he was so that you can be suitably impressed when he just shrugs it off. It's a guy thing."

"It's a dumb thing."

"No argument here. Hell, a few years ago I broke my leg when this mink I was chasing actually hit me with his car."

"He what?!"

"You heard right. I mean, a mink-sized sedan isn't that big, and the car probably took more damage than I did, but it still bust my leg up pretty badly. I must've been laid up for three and a half months." He laughed. "Which would have been closer to two months if I hadn't kept trying to show my wife how tough I was."

"Ouch." She winced. "Y'know, I had a cruiser door close on my ear once."

"No shit?"

"Back at the Academy." She nodded. "Lucky for me, ears are all cartilage. I mean, it hurt like nobody's business and my hearing was little tinny on that side for a couple of weeks, but I didn't miss any training."

"Oh, is that how it is?" He gave her an amused look. "Okay, how about this? We were after this elephant for assault and running through Eastdown Park, when the guy picks up a medium-size bench and takes a swing at me!"

"Oh my god!" Judy gasped, despite her wide-eyed grin. "What happened?"

"My partner took him down, but I was out for the count. Lost two teeth and earned this." He tapped the side of his horn, revealing a hairline crack Judy hadn't noticed before. "I was back on duty a week later, even though I couldn't even chew properly."

"Alright. See right here?" She brushed the fur of her cheek aside to reveal three parallel scars. "Clawed in the face by a bully when I was nine. He was shaking down my friends for their carnival tickets. I told him to give them back."

"Why am I not surprised?" McHorn chuckled, rolling his eyes.

"He wasn't too happy about that, but I still got the tickets back, and enjoyed the rest of the evening at the carnival." She frowned a little at the memory. "Then I got an infection that knocked me down for a week."

"Knowing you, still not surprised. Those scars are pretty badass, though."

"They are?" She tried to hide her grin when he nodded. "Thanks."

"Unit 7, the silent alarm was just triggered in a bank at Eighth and Dogwood. Are you able to respond?"

Judy grabbed the radio without hesitation. "This is Unit 7, we're on our way."

When they pulled up to the bank ten minutes later, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Parking their cruiser across the street, the two officers took a moment to peer at the bank entrance.

"Can you see anything?"

"Not from here..." She muttered. "I'm going to see if I can get a little closer."

"Hang on, Hopps. I'm getting a bad feeling here."

Glancing at the bank, she didn't see anything particularly unsettling and said as much.

"Come on, Hopps. Use those oversized ears of yours and actually listen."

"I don't hear anything weird."

"No, you don't hear anything at all." He stressed, climbing out of the car and moving around to the trunk. "Downtown banks are loud, and bank robberies are even louder. Lots of growling and snarling to keep everyone in line."

"So?"

"So, silence only means one thing." He reached into the cruiser's trunk and Judy's eyes widened at the small lockbox he retrieved. "Whoever's inside is too scared to make a sound."

"I don't think I..."

"Trust me, better to have it and not need it."

She lifted her issued firearm from the opened lockbox with some trepidation, clipping the small holster to her belt. She'd passed her range qualifications at the Academy – she wouldn't have graduated otherwise – and carrying one's sidearm was standard procedure for ZPD officers in this kind of situation. Even so, the idea of actually using a gun rubbed her the wrong way; how could you make the world a better place when you're carrying something designed solely for killing?

The logical part of her mind reminded her that she probably wasn't in danger of killing anyone. The ZPD armorer had already warned her the diminutive caliber would be practically useless against anything larger than a badger, but the modified target pistol was the only firearm available that she could fire with any accuracy. That didn't make the idea of shooting someone any more palatable.

"Ready?"

She took a calming breath and nodded.

Stepping around the parked cruiser, the pair advanced cautiously on the bank's front doors. Judy kept her ears up and forward as she listened carefully for any indication of what might be happening inside the building, and they'd almost reached the sidewalk when the sudden roar of gunfire and shattering glass struck the bunny's hearing like a hammer.

Whoever was firing must have been aiming for McHorn, because the bullets passed harmlessly over her head. Displaying startlingly fast reflexes for a mammal his size, McHorn dropped to the ground and rolled out of the shooter's line of sight. Both officers threw themselves behind a nearby parked car, and a heartbeat later another burst of gunfire destroyed the vehicle's windows.

Turning to the senior officer, she yelled the first words that came to her mind. "Someone is shooting at us!"

"No shit!"

Judy's brain picked that moment to ask the dumbest question it could possibly conjure up. "What should I do?!"

"What the hell are you...?!" He actually turned to stare at her in disbelief. "SHOOT BACK!"

The rhino's bellowed command snapped Judy out of her shocked state instantly. Smoothly drawing her weapon, she forced herself to calm down and remember all those hours she'd spent conducting drills at the Academy. She could practically hear their tactical instructor's voice in her ear, reminding her that a firefight could only kill her if she let it.

Dropping to the ground, she tucked her ears back and peeked around the car's tire; hopefully the whomever was firing at them would be too concerned with McHorn to notice her. There were two of them emerging from the bank's entrance with heavily loaded duffel bags slung over their shoulders.

They were clearly ready for a fight, decked out in armor and helmets similar to the kind used by the ZPD's own SWAT team and carrying military-style rifles. Both types of item were heavily regulated in the city, and the fact that these mammals had gotten ahold of them was decidedly unsettling – particularly since her little .32 ACP didn't stand a chance against the combination kevlar and trauma plates.

Taking up positions behind the stone columns on either side of the door, both mammals continued to fire on the vehicle she and McHorn were using as protection. Neither shooter seemed willing to fully emerge from behind their cover, but considering that each shot from whatever the rhino was firing sounded like a miniature explosion and took an apple-sized chunk out of the bank's concrete wall, Judy couldn't really blame them. Unfortunately, that meant that they'd taken to firing in the rough direction of her fellow officer without bothering to aim properly, putting every citizen nearby in danger.

Sprinting out from behind their cruiser, Judy ducked from cover to cover until she found a spot behind a mid-size SUV that offered both protection and a reasonably clear view of both shooters.

She concentrated on the one she had the clearest line-of-sight on, a tawny cougar currently firing largely un-aimed shots from an automatic shotgun. Her nerves caused her to jerk the trigger, sending her first shot into the wall behind her target. The second skipped off the top of the cougar's helmet and Judy cursed when the animal didn't even seem to notice.

She took a deep breath and, focusing on her training, slowly squeezed the trigger until the weapon bucked in her paw. The round struck her target's face from the side, a couple of inches below the left cheekbone, fracturing the jaw and obliterating four of the cougar's teeth. Howling in agony, the big cat clutched his face as he dropped to the ground.

"Eddie!" The other shooter, a gray-furred coyote, yelped in terror. "Eddie, are you okay?! Talk to me, man!"

Eddie. That cougar's name is Eddie. Judy stared dumbly over her pistol's sights, unable to tear her eyes off the wounded mammal. Eddie is bleeding all over the sidewalk because I just shot Eddie in the face.

She was so engrossed that she failed to notice the coyote turning his weapon in her direction. "You little shit!"

Judy shrieked when a round struck the car's tire just in front of her; the only things that saved her life were the coyote's unfocused aim and the tire's steel rim. Enraged, he had broken from his cover and was sprinting toward her, presenting a target too fast and small for McHorn to get a bead on.

Intent on rejoining the rhino, Judy scrambled away from the parked vehicle and began to run back the way she came. She'd made it about halfway when one of the coyote's shots connected with the pavement just in front of her, throwing small chunks of debris into her face. Flinching away, she tripped herself up and fell to the ground, staring helplessly as her sidearm slid under a nearby car. She didn't even have time to think about going after it before a foot between her shoulder blades forced her to the ground. A second later, a muttered curse was followed by the sight of a rifle hitting the pavement, it's bolt locked back on an empty magazine. The tiny flicker of hope she felt was quickly extinguished by the sound of a pistol's slide being racked.

"Guess bunnies ain't so lucky after all." The coyote growled, leveling the pistol on her. She looked back over her shoulder in numb shock, nose twitching and feeling like she would be swallowed up by the cavernous-looking barrel. Neither of them noticed when a looming shadow fell over the pair.

"Drop the weapon. Now."

Startled, the coyote spun toward the new voice and found McHorn towering over him; the rhino was close enough to practically block out the sun. The coyote fired before the enormous officer could say another word, pulling the trigger over and over until the slide locked back.

"Hm." McHorn grunted, peering down at the canine and seemingly unconcerned with the dozen new holes in his chest. "You done?"

The coyote didn't respond, gawking stupidly at the rhino's tattered shirt. After a few seconds, McHorn reached down and effortlessly wrenched the gun from the canine's paws. Cuffing the mammal and conducting a quick search for additional weapons, he half-turned to Judy. "Keep an eye on this one, Hopps, and get on the radio for an ambulance. I'll go secure the other shooter."

Sitting in the back of an ambulance and pulling a thermal blanket tightly around her shoulders, Judy wished it could actually help ease her trembling. Her adrenaline high had worn off about ten minutes earlier, and since then all she'd done was shake and cry intermittently.

"How're you doing, Hopps?"

Startled by McHorn's voice, she hastily wiped her eyes on her uniform sleeve. "O-oh! Yeah, I'm...uh...I'm good."

"Right." He held out a small bottle of water. "Thirsty?"

She nodded, accepting the bottle with a faint sniffle.

He sat down beside her and the ambulance's suspension groaned in protest. "You know, most officers go their entire career without even drawing their sidearm, let alone getting into a full-on firefight. It's okay to be shaken up."

"Why? You seem fine." She was immediately ashamed at how petulant she sounded.

"Hopps, I spent three years with SWAT. I won't say it doesn't bother me, but this wasn't my first rodeo."

"Well, I just sat there like a frightened little kitten." She shook her head shamefully. "I just...I was just so scared."

"Hopps, if a mammal is getting shot at they can only be one of two things; scared or crazy."

"Were you scared?"

"Well, I sure ain't crazy."

"But when he shot you... I mean, I saw the bullets hit. You didn't even flinch!"

"Is that what's bothering you?" He unbuttoned his ruined shirt to reveal the heavy armor vest underneath, tapping against it with one hoof. "Reinforced steel plate, ZPD standard issue for an officer my size. That mutt's little pop-gun barely even made a scratch."

"Armor? But you're..."

"A big, tough rhinoceros?"

She didn't respond, looking down at her paws.

"I'm tough, Hopps, but I'm not indestructible. I want to go home to my family just as much as any other officer."

"Oh."

The pair sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the flurry of activity around them.

"What about the cougar I, y'know..." She swallowed, looking in the direction the other ambulance had gone. "...shot."

"EMT's said he'd be okay, more or less." The rhino assured her, smiling when her entire body sagged in relief. "He's probably gonna get to know the dentist's chair pretty well, but he'll live."

She nodded. "That's good."

"Ready to hit the road? We've got about a ton of paperwork to fill out for this little adventure."

"In a minute." She sighed, leaning sideways to rest against his massive arm. "Hey, McHorn?"

"What's up?"

"Thanks for having my back."

"Anytime, Hopps."

Beep, Beep, I'm A Sheep by Lil Deuce Deuce

It's on YouTube and it's absolutely what I imagine pop music in Zootopia sounds like.