As he watches her sullenly throw her cards onto the table, he has to wonder how someone with four rabbit's feet can be so bad at poker.

~o~o~o~

Gathering the cards to deal out the next hand, Ben considered whether or not he should tell Judy to call it a night. While she certainly didn't lack enthusiasm, they'd been playing for over two hours and she hadn't won a single hand.

Eyeing her cards, the bunny made a faintly determined sound and tossed her last three chips into the center of the table. "I'm all on."

"It's in, Judy. You say that you're all in." Clawhauser reminded her again. The first few times he'd said it with a laugh, but now his voice carried a note of pity.

"Right." She nodded. "I'm all in."

Shaking his head, Ben turned his attention back to the other mammals at the table. "Alright, guys. Let's see 'em."

Laughing, Delgato lay his cards out with a flourish. "Ha! Read 'em and weep!"

Glaring at the lion's full house, Hank Grizzoli angrily threw his cards into the middle of the table. "God dammit! That's three hands in a row, Del! Are you hiding cards in your mane or something?"

Delgato collected up the pot with a smirk. "Nope. Just lucky, I guess."

"Lucky, my furry ass." Daniel Wolford growled, tossing his own cards away.

"Luckier than me." Judy grumbled, pushing herself away from the table.

"Sorry, Hopps." Delgato laughed. "That's how it goes."

She shot him an annoyed look. "You know, this was my entire 'fun' budget for the month. I guess it'll be nothing but microwave meals and library books for the next few weeks."

"Take it easy, Hopps. You shouldn't play if you're not ready to lose." Wolford reminded her, rolling his eyes.

"Tell you what, Hopps." Delgato chuckled. "How about I front you ten bucks, so you can play another hand?"

"Or you could front me fifteen, so I can play two hands." She countered. "And pay you back twenty."

"Damn, Hopps! You just don't know when to quit!" Delgato laughed at the bunny's shrewd expression. "Okay, how about this? I'll cover you for another couple of hands, if you agree to cover my shift next Saturday."

Frowning, Wolford leaned over and punched the lion squarely on the arm. "Cut it out, man! She's had enough."

"Take it easy, Danny. I'm not forcing her to do anything." Delgato insisted, raising his paws. "I'm just giving her the choice. How about it, Hopps? You in or not?"

"Actually, I have a better idea." Smirking, the bunny pulled a small notepad from her pocket, tore out a page and wrote [One (1) Shift - Hopps] on it. "There. One shift covered for anyone holding this scrip; no questions asked."

"I take it back, Hopps. You wanna play like that, it's fine by me." Wolford laughed, glancing around the table. "I mean, assuming you guys are."

"I never say no to a day off." Delgato chuckled. "Griz?"

The bear shrugged. "Why not?"

"Alright then." Ben agreed, picking up the deck and dealing out everyone's hands.

"So," Grizzoli rumbled, considering his new cards. "Any of you thinking about taking the detective qualification exam next month?"

"Hell no." Wolford sniffed disdainfully as he threw in a pawful of bucks and slid a pair of cards back to the cheetah. "I've failed that damn test four times now. I can take a hint. Gimme two."

"Just one for me." Delgato requested, sliding a single card across the table along with a much larger stack of five buck bills, grinning as the other players begrudgingly ante'd up to match. "Well, I really think it's time for the next step in my career, and detective will really help me out when I come up for Lieutenant in a couple of years. From there I could make Captain in another seven years – six, if I'm lucky – and be running my own precinct before I'm fifty."

Wolford rolled his eyes at the lion's long-winded response. "So in other words, yes?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Delgato shrugged. "How about you, Griz?"

"Nah." Grizzoli answered simply, mulling over his hand for another few seconds and placing a generous stack of bills next to Judy's note. "Check. I'll take...three."

All eyes turned to Judy, who was anxiously shuffling her cards around. Glancing up, she jumped a little when she saw the four large predators were staring at her. "Um...well, I'm definitely thinking about it. I know I've only been a cop for four years now, but I like to think I've got a head for investigating. I'm kinda nervous, but Nick said if I decide to go for it than he'll help me study and take the test, too. So that'll be nice."

They all sat quietly for a few seconds, then Clawhauser cleared his throat. "Uh, Judy? Del raised. Ante up."

"Auntie Up? Who's that?"

"No, it means to need to match everyone else's wag-"

"I know, Ben. I was kidding." Grabbing her note, she quickly amended it to read [Two (2) Shifts - Hopps].

"And how many cards do you want?"

"Oh! Right... I'll take two. No, three." She slid three cards toward Ben, then snatched one back at the last second. "Two. I'll just take two."

"Okay." Taking her cards, Clawhauser hesitantly dealt two out to the determined-looking bunny, then penned his own note and placed it next to Judy's: [ONE PARKING SHIFT COVERED – BEN]

"Ooh...nice." Keeping up the trend, Wolford grabbed the notepad, scribbled [1 shift worth of paperwork - Wolford], and tossed it in. "Raise."

Eyeing the rabbit with amusement, Delgato pushed all of his chips into the center. "Raise again."

"Dude!" Wolford yelped. "Not cool!"

"Ante up or call it a night, furball." The lion peered across the table. "I'd say a week's worth of paperwork ought to just about cover the difference."

"A week?! That's crazy!" The wolf tried looking around the table for support. "Guys?!"

Ben leaned back in his seat, shaking his head. "Don't look at me, Danny. It's your bet."

Grumbling, the wolf retrieved the slip of paper, amended it and returned it to the pile: [1 WEEK worth of paperwork - Wolford].

"Much better." Delgato smirked.

"So, I heard there's gonna be an open Sergeant's position coming up." Wolford noted, trying to glare at his cards instead of at the lion. "Sounds pretty cool."

"You've only got six years on the job, Danny." Ben reminded him. "I think Sergeant is a little optimistic."

"I'm just saying, it sounds cool." The wolf responded defensively.

"I'm goin' after that one." Grizzoli noted. "Seems like the kind of thing I could get into."

"Could you get into placing a bet?" The lion asked impatiently.

"Take it easy, Del." Ben scolded him.

"Heh... I could just meet the bet..." The bear pushed all of his remaining chips into the pot and grabbed the notepad. Tossing his own scrap of paper into the center, he eased back into his seat while the others leaned in to read it: [1 Blame. -G]. "But I think I'd rather go all in."

"What the heck is a 'blame'?" Judy asked, giving the bear a puzzled look.

He shrugged. "Just what it sounds like. You're all offering to take someone else's paperwork or shift, and I'm offering to take the blame for someone else's mistake."

"Seriously?"

"Yup. I mean, as long as it's nothing too crazy. But if you just did something dumb, I'll be the one to face Hurricane Bogo instead of you."

The rest of the table went eerily quiet, gazing at Grizzoli's note as though it were made of gold.

"Damn..." Wolford whispered.

"Yeah, yeah." Grizzoli chuckled, interrupting their reverent silence. "C'mon, guys. Time to put up or shut up."

"Well, if that's how you wanna play it." Delgato snatched up the notepad, scrawled out a quick message and tossed it in the center - [1 x Favor; NQA – Del]

"NQA?" Clawhauser asked, head cocked to one side as he read the slip of paper.

"No questions asked." The lion clarified, adding. "Y'know, within reason."

"Yikes." The cheetah tossed his cards on the table. "Too rich for this cat. I'm out. Danny?"

"Oh, hell no." Wolford growled, adding a [5 shifts covered - Wolford] note to the pile. "You're going down, Del."

"Judy?"

Snatching her note back from the pile, Judy replaced it with another: [Ten (10) Shifts – Hopps]. "I'm in."

"You're all nuts." Clawhauser laughed. "Well, let's see 'em."

"Since you asked so nicely." Wolford laid his cards out, smiling happily at the row of hearts. "I think a hearts flush qualifies."

Frowning, Grizzoli threw his hand down to reveal nothing but a pair of nines. "God dammit."

"Ha!" Wolford barked, earning himself a dirty look. "Serves you right for trying to buy the pot!"

"Yeah, yeah." Grumbling, the bear gestured to Delgato's cards. "Well?"

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Danny." Delgato chuckled, slowly lowering his cards for all to see. "Full house, aces and eights."

Groaning, Wolford let his head drop to the table. "I hate you so, so much."

"I guess that just leaves you, Judy." Ben turned to the bunny, wincing as she examined her cards helplessly. "How'd you do?"

Judy frowned, shaking her head. "Not even a pair."

The cheetah's shoulder sagged as the other officers glanced uncomfortably at one another. "Nothing?"

"Nope. Just an ace, a king, a queen, a jack, and a ten. But they're all spades - that's good, right?" The other officers gawked at the cards in disbelief, trying to figure out how Judy had conjured such a devastating hand, then looked up to find her smirking at them. "It's called a hustle, boys."

~o~o~o~

"Hold on...you guys let Carrots in on your poker game?" Nick laughed.

Clawhauser shrugged. "She said she wanted to learn how to play poker."

"Learn?" The fox let out another snort of laughter. "And you believed her?"

"Why wouldn't we?!" Delgato growled defensively.

"Guys, the Hopps family doesn't have poker games; they have poker tournaments." He shook his head ruefully. "I fell into that trap once and the devious little rabbit took me to the cleaners."

As the lion and cheetah continued to complain about his partner, Nick happened to glance past Delgato and spotted the bunny in question. She was all the way at the back of the bullpen, leaning against the wall and chatting with her accomplice.

~o~o~o~

"You were right, Hopps. They never saw it coming."

"Nobody ever does." The bunny laughed, "With a little luck, they'll be too embarrassed to let the story spread outside Precinct One."

"What about that partner of yours?"

"Don't worry about him. He's agreed to keep quiet; for a cut, naturally."

"Naturally." Her co-conspirator laughed. "Speaking of which, I don't want to sound impatient, but..."

"Oh, right." Rummaging through her belt pouches, she quickly produced a small envelope. "Here's your share. I made sure to put in all of your own IOUs. You don't have to worry about being on the hook for anything."

"I appreciate it."

"I also included Delgato's no-questions-asked favor."

Rifling through the envelope, Wolford quickly found the slip of paper in question and held it like a winning lottery ticket. "Awesome."

She gave him a playfully stern glare. "Can I trust you to use it responsibly?"

"You absolutely cannot," the wolf laughed. "That reminds me, I hear there's a few guys from Precinct Eight that get together for a game every other Friday."

"Oh, really." The bunny stroked her chin thoughtfully. "Tell me more."

"Four to six officers, all from the traffic crimes unit. They've got money, tells, and plenty of both. Plus, there's that giant inferiority complex of theirs. They'd be crawling all over one another for the chance to beat Precinct One's best officer."

"Aw! Thanks, Danny!"

"Oh. Oh no, Hopps. I was talking about myself." Grinning, he reached down to pat her on the head. "But don't worry, kid. You're a pretty good cop, too."

"Get off!" She laughed, swatting his paw away. "You're what...two years older than me? You don't get to call me kid!"

"Sorry, rookie."

She punched him in the thigh.

"Ow! Respect your elders, missy!"

"Oh, go harass a tiger, why don't you?"

"Maybe I will." He laughed. "Actually, that reminds me. Sofia and I are gonna be doing trivia at O'Hoggin's tonight. You and Nick wanna come along?"

"Oh! That sounds great! What time should we meet you guys there?"

"Seven, I guess?"

"Awesome. See you then."

"Sounds like a double-date." Francine sing-songed as she passed by, drawing glares from both of them.

"No, it doesn't!" Judy snapped, a little indignantly.

As the elephant walked away chuckling, Judy turned to see the wolf staring at her seriously. "She's wrong."

"Is she, though?"

"Nick and I aren't dating. I don't know where Francine gets these ideas!"

"In her defense, you guys can be kinda..." He gestured vaguely. "...flirty."

"We're friends."

"Whatever you say, Hopps." Wolford shrugged. "Not my business, anyway."

"Seriously though, Nick and I aren't that bad...are we?"

"Yeah, sometimes." The wolf responded, chuckling.

"But you know we're not actually...y'know."

"Yes, Hopps, I know." Rolling his eyes, he smirked down at her. "I'm just giving you a hard time."

"Right." The bunny nodded slowly. "So... O'Hoggin's at seven?"

"Yeah. See you then."

As Judy watched Wolford head off in search of his partner, her ears picked up the sound of familiar footsteps approaching from behind.

"I am so proud of you." Turning, she watched her partner pretend to wipe away a tear. "Judy Hopps, hustling her fellow officers. They grow up so fast."

"Please." She scoffed. "I was hustling mammals at cards long before I met you, Slick."

"Uh-huh. But dragging poor, helpless Wolford into your web of villainy?" Nick looked down at her in disappointment. "For shame, Carrots. For shame."

"You're the last one who should be calling Danny helpless, Nick. I seem to recall him kicking your tail all over the mats during paw-to-paw combat training."

"I maintain that was only because he's much larger than I am." The fox paused, casually examining his coffee cup. "Which, as I recall, is the same reason I beat you."

"Hey! You won on a technicality!"

"Right. I technically whooped your fuzzy butt, Miss I-Can-Take-Down-A-Rhino."

"I have taken down a rhino!"

"Sure."

"There's a video of it!"

"Mm-hm." He nodded, smirking playfully at his partner's exasperated expression. "So, when did you and Wolford get so chummy?"

She cast him a sidelong glare as the turned toward the parking garage. "A little while ago. Felling jealous?"

He smiled, winking down at her. "Maybe."

"Well, if you're so keen to be included, do you feel like meeting him and Fangmeyer at O'Hoggin's tonight? It's trivia night." She added enticingly.

"C'mon, Carrots. When have I ever turned down the opportunity to show off my comprehensive knowledge of useless information?"

"You're not that good, Slick."

"Good enough to kick your tail at Trivial Pursuit." He quipped. "The same way I kicked your tail on..."

"Are you coming or not?"

"Sure, Carrots." He grinned, slipping his sunglasses on as they left the building. "It's a date."

~o~o~o~