[Based on a Criminal Minds scene]

While Judy had learned to drive from a very young age – and was surprisingly good at it -, she had to inevitably consider her limitations as a small sized creature.

And today, she was dealing with one of them.

As she skillfully drove the cruiser through a difficult road, Nick sat on the passenger's seat with a loaded sub machinegun in his paws. It was designed for smaller species, but even for him it looked way to big and a bit too heavy.

That kind of gun could not be built to be any smaller without losing its deadliness.

And today, their target was way too dangerous for them to dance into his territory with simple tranq-guns or pistols.

Still… the menacing looking weapon in Nick's arms made her nervous. And not exactly because of its lethalness.

"Try not to shoot that in the car." She muttered, never taking her eyes form the road, paws clutching the steering wheel.

Nick looked at his partner, seeing her ears flop down her back, tense. She unconsciously adjusted herself so her ears were tucked between her back and the backrest of the seat. Her nose was twitching a bit.

The fox looked down at the daunting black sub machinegun sitting on his lap, his paws holding it firmly, the barrel aimed somewhere safe to the ceiling of the car.

Judy would never admit that to her colleagues, but Nick knew she was nervous around gunpowder-powered guns.

"You mean not to deafen you?" He offered a smirk, which never failed to intrigue her with this odd ability of his to pull it off in such tense situations.

Nonetheless, he understood what she meant. "Exactly."

They rode in silence for a couple more minutes, until…

- Shots fired! Shots fired! Suspect is hostile and heavily armed!

- Report your status, Wolford! Are you okay?

- I'm fine, but it's freaking insane out here! Hopps, Wilde! Proceed with caution!

Nick tightened his grasp on the gun. Judy, the steering wheel.

The cruiser roared as she pushed it to accelerate, and it complied without protest, inertia pushing both officers back into their seats.

Soon, the location came into view: an apparently abandoned barn with rusty old machines at the front. From where they were they caught a glimpse of their colleagues in trouble, Wolford and McHorn, taking cover behind the machines from someone shooting at them, hidden in the shadows of the barn.

Nick reached for the radio as Judy pushed the cruiser faster.

"I've got visual of Wolford and McHorn. Proceeding to engage."

- Understood, Wilde. Be careful.

Apparently, their suspect caught sight of backup coming in. He came out into the open riding a quad, balancing an even more menacing sub machinegun on the handlebar. It was a wildebeest.

He drove past the machines where Wolford and McHorn were, gunshots whistling past him. He aimed the quad, and his gun, at their cruiser, and pushed forwards.

"Judy, look out!" Nick warned, her name slipping in place of her usual nickname when danger settled.

"I've got him! I've got him!" She said confidently, squaring her shoulders.

Amethyst locked into brown, challenging one another. Daring one another.

And it started raining bullets.

The cruiser's front became a sieve within seconds. Judy winced and sank behind the wheel when a bullet whistled through the windshield, past the point where her ear would be had it been standing.

Growling deeply, Nick took aim and started shooting straight through the windshield, which pulverized on the spot at the hail of bullets.

The fox never heard Judy's screams, and would have been astounded at her tenacity, keeping the cruiser moving straight ahead while her eardrums felt like they were being pierced by needles.

It happened in a matter of seconds.

The wildebeest fell off the quad, rolling across the ground. The handlebar turned to the side under the weight of the sub machinegun, driving the quad into the bushes. Judy hit the brakes, stopping the punctured cruiser in a bootleg turn.

Nick opened the door and jumped off, propping the gun against his shoulder as he aimed at the fallen suspect. Wolford and McHorn ran towards them, also aiming their own weapons at the wildebeest.

"Are you guys okay?" McHorn asked, still taking aim.

"Yeah." Nick said tersely.

"NO!" Judy snarled, actually bunny snarled, jumping from the cruiser and stomping towards them, glaring daggers at her partner as she pulled, seemingly painfully, at her own ears. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" The stunned look on the fox's face only seemed to madden her further. "You blew out my eardrum!"

McHorn held back a wince at that while Wolford kneeled down to check on the mammal's pulse. Judy and Nick kept fighting, him still training his aim on the suspect and her pulling at her ears, which made McHorn keep wincing.

"What did you want me to do? He was coming right at us!" The fox growled at her, but she remained unfazed.

The bunny's foot started to thump the ground rapidly. "I told you I had him!"

Wolford, ignoring their squabble, looked up at them and shook his head. McHorn and Nick lowered their guns, tension leaving their shoulders.

"He was shooting at us, Judy." The fox breathed out in exasperation, but his voice had softened greatly.

But it was the sound of her name instead of her nickname that gave away the fact that he was still shaken.

Judy's anger dimmed. A little. "You could've given me a heads-up."

"A loaded MP5 and a lunatic shooting at us wasn't enough?" The vulpine looked at her in frustration. "Come on."

Neither wolf or rhino dared to interrupt, but it seemed the disagreement was over with.

Judy walked away, shaking her head to the sides, her ears firmly pressed to her back but still flapping around at the movement. The flesh on the insides was flushed an almost crimson red from her abuse puling on them.

Nick remained where he was, breathing slightly erratic as he frowned down at their dead guy.

It had been a difficult case, and although it was over, the ending wasn't what he was hoping for.

And now, to top it off, Judy was mad at him.

He looked up at his colleagues. McHorn was strolling away, sending a report to the station from his radio about their current situation. Wolford was still kneeling by the dead wildebeest, looking at him as if in waiting.

"What do you think?" The vulpine asked, knowing that Wolford was just waiting his sign to give his opinion. Nick learned that the wolf, usually quiet and introverted, actually had good advices to give to those who needed it.

"Let her cool down." The canine rose to his feet, dusting himself off. "Then buy her some dinner as an apology. We all know she has a very good reason to not like guns."

Nick didn't need Wolford pointing to his own ears to know what he meant. The shot of any gunpowder-powered weapon could be a torture on the average unsuspecting ear nearby, but a bunny's ear was nearly a sentence of death.

Nick would consider Wolford's opinion very carefully.

Maybe he'd need to buy her dinner, lunch AND breakfast to get back in Judy's good favors.

For a month.

I did a thing. I couldn't resist. :3