The Fire Triangle, A Zootopia Fanfiction -- Part One: Fuel - 27

Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.

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The Fire Triangle—A Zootopia Fanfiction

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Part One:

Fuel

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Chapter 3 – Day of Carrots and Blueberries

(Continued...Pt. 19)

"Dad, can you hear me? Judy got stung by a wasp...I said a WASP!"

Stuart Hopps Jr. was holding his cell-phone tightly against his right ear while keeping his left ear plastered to the side of his head with his paw. "Can you hear me?" he said again, his voice becoming high with frustration. "Judy got stung by a yellowjacket, she can't use her right paw. No, I don't want to talk to mom, hello? HELLO?"

A pair of curt 'boops' informed the bunny that his call had just been dropped. He could have thrown that blankety-blank phone into the woods...except that he needed it; whoa, did he need it right now. Somehow he had to get word of what happened to the next hydration station; Judy couldn't miss getting fluid again; he had seen how dried out she already was.

Of course, the obvious thing to do would be to call ahead directly to the next pit stop...except that he didn't know who was stationed there, or even which station was next. Neither did Ben or Joanie; dangit, why hadn't he checked before they'd left to come up here?

Junior looked at his cell again; a single bar was stuttering on and off.

He turned and beckoned with a paw.

"Ben? Joanie? Come here, quick!"

The two young bunnies hopped hurriedly over.

"I can't through to dad," he told them, holding up the cell-phone, "there's barely any reception up here. We need to split up and find a place where we can get ahold of him. Joanie, you go up the road to right, Ben, you go left and I'll head back down the trail we used to get up here. Soon as you see more than two bars on your screen, stop and make the call; tell Dad what happened to Judy and have him warn the other watering holes. And hurry, your sister needs to get some fluid in her, ASAP."

"How about sending him a text message?" Ben Hopps offered, trying to be helpful, "Text works sometimes, even when you can't make a call."

The suggestion earned him an odd look from Joanie.

"A text message...DAD?"

Ben shook his head as if awakening from a deep slumber.

"Right, right right...never mind, let's go!"

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A kilometer up the road, Judy was approaching another obstacle, a rail fence...easily cleared, except this one was placed at the edge of a mud-bog; anyone trying to leap it in a single bound would end up with a face-full of goo. The only way to pull it off would be to jump upwards, balance yourself on the top rail of the fence, crouch down, and then perform a broad jump from there; tough but not impossible.

For the average bunny maybe, but not for Judy Hopps; with her right paw out of commission she'd only be able to get half a grip on the top rail. THAT made things a wee bit more difficult; she'd have to time her jump perfectly, otherwise—here's mud in yer eye, Cutie!

Judy was running strictly on adrenaline now; it seemed be the only liquid left inside of her...and that kind of thing doesn't do much for helping you keep it on an even keel.

Picking up a little speed, she sprinted for the fence, hopped once, hopped again, and then jumped.

She landed with the arches of her feet on the top rail, felt herself beginning to wobble; pulled in fast and leaped out hard. She could see at once that she had enough distance to clear the mud, but that was the easy part. The natural instinct when you're about to perform a face-plant is to throw your arms out in front of you to break the fall.

Not possible with a pawlm full of wasp-venom; the only alternative for Judy was to tuck her head in and try to perform a shoulder roll...and hope she didn't wrench her neck into a pretzel twist in the process.

She hit the other side hard, but not hard enough to do any damage. Now, pull yourself into a ball, roll forward, up onto your feet, and...

And Judy had made it; the only remnants of her move were a fading ache in her shoulder and a cold sensation in her left foot.

Cold...foot?

She looked down quickly. Eww, she hadn't quite cleared the mud-bog after all; one foot was smothered in...wait-a-second—COLD!

Judy spun around, hopped back to the bog and plunger her injured paw into the mud. The coolness didn't stop the pain but it helped...a lot! Instantly, the pulsing shriek dulled to low whimper. Hmmm, maybe her luck was finally starting to...

"LOOK OUT!"

Judy jerked her head up just in time to see another bunny leaping off the top rail of the fence—coming right at her.

She leaped sideways—she could still make that move—and got out of the way in the nick of time, the other rabbit passing so close, she could feel the changes in the air density as he went by.

"Sorry." She tried to say, but all that came out was a noise like a frog's gargle. The other bunny gave her an unpleasant look, and then accelerated on his way.

Judy would later tell her family that this was the moment was when she came closest to giving up and dropping out of the race.

Instead she got up again and started movingagain.

"It can't be that much further to the next hydration stop," she told herself, "it CAN'T."

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"What's that Stu?"

As Junior Hopps had earlier, Nick Wilde was pressing his cellphone to his ear, while clamping the other one shut with his paw. This was not in order to compensate for any bad reception—Judy's dad sounded clear as an IMINX movie. No, it was to block out the whoops and cheers coming from all around him; the first racers had come trickling past only moments before the call came in and the volunteers were reacting accordingly.

"I said Judy got stung by a yellowjacket." He heard her father saying. "Nasty little things, always turning up where you least..."

"Stu, never mind about that!" Bonnie Hopps cried out in the background.

"Sorry, Sorry," Stu's voice faded for a second and then came back again. "She can't use her right paw Nick. At the last station she dropped every single water bottle before she could take a drink. You've got to get over to the other side of the road so she can try and grab some fluid with her other paw.

"We're on it," the red fox answered, casting a wary eye to his left. By now the dribble of passing racers had become virtual river, a nonstop-bunny parade with no gaps in between. It would be impossible to cross to the other side until the flow thinned out a little. Then maybe they could....

"I see her, there she is!" Erin Hopps cried from somewhere further up the road.

Nick let out a silent groan.

"Oops, she's coming, gotta go." he said, ending the call quickly. Turning to his left he called through cupped paws, "Erin! When Judy gets close enough, tell her to move over to the other side of the road...the LEFT side of the road."

"Wha-Why...?" the young bunny called back.

"Just tell her!" Nick shouted, raising his voice and hoping Erin would do as he said; he didn't have time for an explanation.

"What's going on?" Conor Lewis asked from beside him.

"Judy's paw is hurt." Nick told him, "She can't..."

"Right, I gotcha." The young silver fox answered, nodding quickly, (THIS kid at least would listen to him.) "Only how the heck are we supposed to get through that plinkin' horde over there?" He was nodding at the non-stop procession of bunnies passing by. With so many competitors slowing to rehydrate themselves, a choke-point had formed.

Nick looked around quickly, felt his ears stand up.

"Under there, that's how," He said.

Conor looked, and then looked at him with an ear and an eyebrow raised

"What are you, crazy like a fox?"

Nick was pointing up ahead, towards a bridge spanning a small stream that emptied into the lake.

The stream in question was at least thirty feet below the roadway, at the bottom of a ravine with nearly vertical walls.

"We don't have time to argue kid, grab your bottle and let's go." Nick told him; he spun around and sprinted for the bridge, not waiting for an answer.

Conor answered anyway. "What do you mean 'we' red fox?" he growled, but then snatched up his own sports-bottle and hurried after him.

There was a shelf beneath the bridge, barely wide enough for a woodchuck, and if you fell, there was nothing between you and the creek-bottom but thin air.

Without even thinking, Nick stuffed the precious bottle into his mouth, dropped down on all fours, and scampered out onto the ledge. He did not look back; the kid would either follow him or he wouldn't.

It was slow going, too slow. He couldn't miss Judy, no way. He tried to put on some extra speed...and felt his right foot starting to skitter over the edge with the other one ready to follow. He scrabbled desperately, felt a foot claw catch in a chink in the concrete, pulled himself up and continued on. Nothing to do now but continue on slowly; the other side of the bridge seemed to deliberately stretch away from the fox, as if mocking him. Nick pushed on, feet don't fail me again. Come on other side, where are you? It wasn't going to work, when he exited, Judy would be long past him.

He pulled himself out from under the bridge and up the opposite bank. It was futile exercise and he knew it, but still....Wait, there she was—and on his side of the road, YES! Nick hurried over and began to run with her.

Judy only stared at him with a blank, almost hopeless expression. He wondered why; never fear, the cavalry's here. Ohhh but she looked bad though, like an extra from the Migrating Dead. Well he knew how to fix that. He took the sports bottle from his mouth and....

Empty...the lid had popped! It must have happened when he nearly went over the precipice. He failed her after all; he had...

"NICK!"

Conor Lewis had just emerged from beneath the bridge, sports bottle waving high in his paw. Nick saw him rear back and fling it as hard as he could, saw the bottle arcing towards him, end over end. He reached up to catch it, trying hard to estimate the distance. Dangit, football had never been his game. Not yet...not yet...NOW!

He closed his paws around the bottle, felt it slipping; grabbed it again. Yes, this time he had it. Moving it to his right paw, he held it out to Judy. But then his foot hit a rock and he tripped, feeling himself starting to pitch forward.

And at that instant Judy snatched to bottle from his grip, seizing it with both paws and clutching it to her chest like an icon.

Nick fell forward on the roadside, scoring both of his pawpads on the rough gravel.

He didn't care; it had all been worth it, on the other side of the road he could hear Erin Hopps cheering up a storm.

"Go Judy, go Juuuudiiiieeee! Wooh-hoooooo!"

A shadow fell over Nick and he looked up to see Conor offering him a paw...and a puckish grin.

"You really are crazy like a fox."

Nick took the paw and let the boy help him to his feet.

"What can I say, kid? It runs in our species."

Conor frowned thoughtfully for a second and then nodded and cocked a finger.

"Point."

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50 yards ahead of them, Judy Hopps was tossing the empty bottle to the side of the road.

The effect of the switchel had been not unlike the effect of a can of spinach on Pupeye; she felt almost completely rejuvenated. Even the throbbing where the yellowjacket had tagged her seemed to have lessened a little more.

Nick....that silly, wonderful, DUMB fox; only he could have come up with Hail Mary stunt like that one. Judy could only hope he would think to notify the bunnies at the stops up ahead that they needed to wait for her on the left, not the right-paw side of the road.

Oops, never mind that for now; more straw bales, dead ahead.

There were five barriers altogether, set up in a pattern called a 'dealer's choice'. The runners could either hurdle them or go around...the latter option taking them on out-of-the way detours of varying lengths and degrees.

This was where Judy's plan to 'run smarter' came in; most racers, when confronted with a dealers choice set-up reacted in either black or white, meaning they either jumped every hurdle or avoided them all.

Ahhh, but a canny competitor would have seen that declining the difficult jumps took you only a little bit out of your way, while the loops around the easy ones sent you on a journey from here to Timbucktoo.

And so Judy took the simple jumps and detoured around the tougher ones...and in so doing made a gain of another ten yards.

Maybe she still had a shot at this after all.

From there the course took her through a series of low, rolling hills and then a jump over another watercourse. Several other racers were stopping to grab a quick drink, and Judy was sorely tempted to join them—that one bottle of switchel was already beginning to wear off. She might have, except for a voice inside her head, one that sounded eerily similar to that of Nick Wilde.

"It's called a hustle, sweetheart."

Thus did she tell the stream 'get thee behind me' and vault it without stopping, immediately wondering if she'd made the right call.

The answer came around the next bend in the road, directly ahead of her was another hydration stop. While Judy was immensely grateful for it, at the same time she couldn't help wanting to know who the heck had designed this race-course, the Spanish Inquisition? (She was tempted to survey the underbrush for any red-clad figures skulking about.) When the racers who HAD stopped to drink saw those tables crammed with sports bottles—'Sucker!'

But Judy still didn't know if she'd made the correct decision, and there was only one way to find out.

She put out her paw, her left paw, and immediately three bunnies stood up along the left side of the road with sports bottles at the ready. Yes, yes, bless that fox, he HAD gotten the word out.

Snatching an offered bottle with both paws, Judy pulled it in tight and pushed onward, buoyed by the chorus of cheers and whoops resounding in her wake.

"I'm going to take this." she vowed to herself.

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Down below at the finish, Nick, Erin, and Conor were just then straggling in; the return trip might have been a downhill course, but it had been anything but an easy one. More than once the red fox hard nearly come tumbling down the hillside in the manner of Jack and Jill.

He heard a voice, "Nick? Erin? Over here."

A short distance away Bonnie Hopps was waving them over.

"Where's Dad?" Erin asked when they caught up with her mom. Nick Wilde was also looking around. Yeah, where was Stu? There appeared to be no sign of him.

"Your father had to leave to go help judge the Tastiest Carrot contest," Bonnie explained with a sigh. The younger bunny looked a little disappointed, but Nick couldn't help but be impressed by Stu Hopps' devotion to duty. He wondered for second if that was where his daughter Judy had gotten it from, and then decided, 'probably, yes.'

That reminded him of something; "Any word on how Judy's doing?" he asked her.

"A lot better the last I heard," Bonnie answered, pointing a finger up the road, "Mary says she might even have chance at finishing in the top ten."

"Yep, she should be hitting the final stretch any second now."

Another voice called from over on their left. Nick turned and saw Stuart Hopps Jr. coming his way.

"Did you really almost fall into a ravine trying to get Judy some switchel?" he said, staring at Nick with his nose twitching as he came closer.

The red fox felt his ears rise up. How the heck had he...?

And then he noticed Erin Hopps, standing off to the side and making a very conspicuous effort to look every single direction but his. Uh-huh...right.

He looked at Junior again and tried to wave off the question "Noooo," he said, but then Conor Lewis rolled right over the top of him.

"Yes you did, I was right there behind you."

Nick sighed, shrugged, and spread his arms, glaring at Conor for half a second. "Et tu, silver kid?"

"What can I say?" he finally told Junior, "Crazy like a fox."

The bunny laughed and thrust out his paw. "Best day's work my little sister ever did when she took you on as a partner." he said.

What Judy was working on right then was the final obstacle before the sprint to the finish, (if you could call a K-and-a half run a 'sprint.')

She had done well after the last pit stop, gaining ground slowly but steadily.

It wasn't that she'd been going any faster; it was that she'd been able to maintain a steady pace while the bunnies up ahead of her had been slowing down or sometimes dropping out, unable to go on any further. (Right after that last hydration station, Judy had passed by Neela N'Kula, pulled up lame on the side of the road, while a pair of volunteer medics attended to her.)

Now she found herself coming up on another series of switchbacks and hairpin turns, only this time with 'vive la differance.'

It was another dealer's choice; the runners could either take the road or bypass it, vaulting straightaway down the hillside. In theory taking the shortcut sounded like the way to go. In practice the majority of the runners were sticking to the road, and with good reason; the few bunnies that had opted for the direct route were find it slow going to say the least. You could either take it a snail's pace or risk landing on your face every time you made a jump, the short way down was just that steep and treacherous.

...except for one rabbit, that is; away down the hillside Judy could see David Macleap, the Scottish Mountain Hare working his way downwards at a steady if not a brisk pace. Well, what did she expect? If any bunny could that move quickly down a hillside, it was him.

Not Judy however; she had already decided to stick to the road when she felt her ears stand up in a 'V'.

What if there was a third option? What if she bypassed the road but instead of going straight down the hillside, she took it at an angle, a diagonal course? The way down wouldn't be nearly so steep then.

If you can't run faster, run smarter—only was this a smart move or a dumb bunny move?

Once again, there was only one way to find out. At the first hairpin turn, Judy plunged off the road and went leaping down the hillside on an angular course. She couldn't move at full speed, she had to gauge every leap and landing, (this was sloping terrain after all,) but she was moving way faster than the bunnies taking the direct way down, and her course was much, much shorter than if she had stuck to the road.

This could work—but she was going to have to make it work.

Judy leaped, landed on top of boulder, leaped again, found a patch of grass. Another jump, this time onto ...whoa-ooaaah, loose gravel, loose gravel! She could feel the ground giving way under her feet. Quick, hurry, jump again. She leaped, managing only a short hop, but she made it before she lost her footing and landed on solid ground. She jumped again, landed on grass. So where to...? Wait, how about that tree over there? She leaped again, compressed her feet, ricocheted of the trunk and down again. She landed on packed earth, leaped again, another rock but smaller than the first. Oh, ohhh, balance, balance, baaaalance...jump again, quick before you fall. Hit the ground crouch again and jump. A tree stump, jump again, take it at a flying leap, there's the road, almost there. No don't jump that way, more loose gravel. Land in front of it then jump over it, YES!

She came to earth aimed down the road in the direction of the finish line. David was in front of her but she had momentum behind her.

However that wasn't all Judy had behind her. A second later she heard something hit the ground about ten feet to the rear. She risked a glance, it was Tess Hazelton. All's fair in love and Rabbithons; on the first switchbacks, Judy had borrowed one of Tess's tricks and now the other bunny was returning the favor.

And here she came, coming on strong, determined to overtake Judy and catch up with David.

Judy almost put it into overdrive, but then held back at the last second, the lightbulb going on above her head once more.

She held herself in check and let Tess go by her, but she wasn't conceding anything, not by a long shot. Instead she watched carefully as the bunny teacher caught up with David. He immediately put on an extra measure of speed. And then the two of them begin to move towards the head of the pack with all deliberate speed.

That was when Judy finally began to pick up her feet, keeping pace with, but not trying to overtake the other two bunnies, always staying within striking distance. Clusters of spectators were beginning to appear at the roadside now, clapping and cheering as the racers went by. They reserved their biggest cheer for when David and Tess fought their way into the lead positions.

The instant they broke from the pack, the pair began to duel it out in earnest. Tess pulled out ahead of David, David caught up with Tess and passed her; Tess put some speed on and overtook him again—almost; he pulled away at the last second. But then he faltered for an instant and she took the lead back again, while all along the road side the spectators whooped and cheered up a storm. (There's nothing like a close-fought race to get a crowd fired up.)

What almost none of them noticed, was the other bunny, the one in the ZPD running togs, hanging back and waiting for just the right moment.

Not yet, Judy told herself, not until the last half kilometer—or unless either Tess or David fell back or quit. For now, let them knock themselves out trying to beat each other.

"Go Judy!' she heard from the side of the road, and saw three of her siblings waving.

They were getting closer to the finish now, she needed to be ready. Here there were no more turns or obstacles—which was good; the downside was that with nothing else to distract her, Judy Hopps was aware of every sensation in her body. Her arms were leaden, her joints were aching, and now her whole body felt like a wasp sting; the air in her lungs had turned to thick, hot syrup, and time seemed to be flowing like molasses as well.

But then all at once, she was alert again; there was the marker, ½ k to the finish. Now, go for it, make your move!

Judy hunkered down and gave it all she had.

She didn't have nearly as much left as she'd hoped, she managed to break free from the pack, but then she was closing on David and Tess by only inches at a time. Dangit they should have been spent by now; what were they, cyborgs?

She gritted her teeth and kept pushing...saw them getting closer, closer. And then Tess dropped back, nothing left in the tank; Judy caught up with her and passed her, but then David turned to look—and for the first time saw the other rabbit closing in on him. He put on a last ditch effort while Judy pulled up her last reserves and went after him. Ahead she could see a swarm of bunnies, whooping cheering and thumping their feet. But where did the road go from there? Wait, there was no more road, they were coming up on the finish line.

David was still ahead of her, but she was slowly gaining ground. Closer...closer, the spectators were screaming in her ears, she couldn't hear the words.

Then she and David were abreast of each other, she passed him for a second, but then he passed her again, sprinting for the finish with his last ounce of energy...and then he too began to fall back. Judy pushed forward, they were neck and neck, but that was all the Scottish Mountain Hare was willing to give her, he refused to surrender another inch of ground.

Judy's vision was filling with dancing black spots, her lungs were stuttering like a car with a bad cylinder. She couldn't make it, she couldn't...wait why was everyone cheering like that? Huh, she was across the finish line? When had she crossed the finish line?

She collapsed into a crouch, paws on her knees, mouth open, chest heaving. Someone was patting her on the back; she hardly felt it.

When she looked up, David was there, down on his knees and wheezing like an antiquated bellows pump.

"Who...won?" he asked her, staring with almost vacant eyes.

"Dunno." Judy managed to gasp, "Thought...you ...knew."

David staggered to his feet and pointed. "You...better...have that paw...looked at."

Judy just nodded, and then they heard the PA crackling.

"Attention...your attention please, we have the results from the finish line camera; in first place, Mr. David MacLeap, in second place, Ms. Judy Hopps.

A ginormous cheer went up all around them.

Judy somehow managed a crooked smile.

"That's officer Judy Hopps....of the ZPD," she gasped,

"...And...Sergeant David MacLeap, National Park Ranger Service, if you please," the other bunny added breathlessly with a lopsided grin. He reached out and offered her a paw, (wisely, his left paw). "Good race."

Judy got up and took a step forward to accept it...and at that instant they both collapsed, breaking their fall at the last second by throwing their arms around each other.

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Watching from the sidelines, Nick Wilde felt a shaft land home.

Dangit, what the HECK? This wasn't what it looked like; he knew that. They'd fallen into each other's arms out of heavy fatigue, that's all.

So why did he want to rush over and grab Judy away from that other rabbit? He couldn't have if he'd wanted to; the only animals allowed in the finish area were competitors and support fursonell, everyone else had to stay behind the barriers, including him. Heck the place was getting crowded enough as it was with all the other racers coming across the finish line. (Tess Hazelton had managed to squeak in for third place.)

Dangit, he had to move away from here; put some distance between him and Judy; that might cool his jets. He could only hope that none of her family had seen him just now, especially Erin.

He turned and slipped away through the crowd, trying not to be noticed, parking himself a good twenty feet further away.

The first thing he saw was David and Judy hugging each other, and this time, it wasn't to keep from falling. He bit his lip and forced himself to think. "Take it easy Wilde, that's just a friendly embrace between toe competitors—and anyway, he's already married, and even if he wasn't, Judy's only..."

"Haw, Haw, Haw, Hawwwww."

The deep, rumbling laugh from behind and to his left brought Nick Wilde's teeth gnashing together and made his eyes clamp shut as if HE had just been stung by a yellowjacket.

"Aggggghhhh, grrrrr, where the heck did HE come from?"

"I don't believe it, you jealous Nick!" Finnick slapped his paws together with hearty bonhomie, loving every second of it, "You jealous on that bunny."

Nick turned and looked down at the fennec-fox with as cool an expression as he could muster.

"That's right Finnick, a bunny." He informed the fennec fox calmly, "And I'm a fox. Judy's my partner and my friend, nothing more."

"Oh yeah?" Finnick's eyebrow went up like signal flag and then he guffawed again, and pointed to Nick's rear. "Tell that to HIM, boy!"

Nick turned and saw that his tail was frizzing out as if he'd just stuck his toe in a light socket. Errrrgh, stinking, bushy traitor!

"You got it bad, Nick." Finnick was warming to his subject now. "You got a crush on that rabbit." He slapped the red fox on the knee. "You gonna have to learn to like carrots now. Bwa-ha-ha-haw-hawwwww!"

That finally did it, Nick Wilde's cool façade melted away like a snowball in a ceramics kiln.

"This is your revenge for that business with your cell-phone camera isn't it Mini-Me?" he snarled, regarding his former partner with a pair of unsheathed fangs.

"Dang straight, Nick." The desert fox answered, offering him a beaming smirk and a big thumbs-up, "and I'll get the kid back too."

He turned and toddled off, just jollier than old Saint Nick.

Nick Wilde meanwhile was sorely tempted to chase after the fennec-fox and boot him for a field goal. (He'd do no such thing of course; if he'd given into that urge every time Finnick had yanked his chain, he'd have kicked the little guy to death ten years ago.)

Then out of the corner of his eye he saw Judy making her way to race course exit where her family was waiting for her. Whoo, he'd better not be absent without leave when she got there; he dropped down quickly onto all fours and scooted in that direction. It was a wise move, because when he stood up again, the first thing he heard was, "Nick? Where's Nick?"

Judy was sitting on a camp chair, surrounded by the members of her family. Junior and another bunny were massaging her shoulders while Erin held her uninjured paw. The others just stood off regarding her with adoring eyes.

Nick felt a warm lump rise into his throat. All those Hopps bunnies, and he was the one she was asking for. What was it he'd been upset about after she'd crossed the finish line again? He couldn't remember for the life of him.

"Right here Carrots!" he called waving vigorously.

"Oh there you are,' she said, and started to get up. Nick immediately waved her back; no, he would go to her. And so he began to push his way through the crowd, with the Hopps bunnies making way to let him pass. In mere seconds he was with her, gazing raptly down at the bunny.

Judy folded her arms and thumped her foot, gazing up with a stern eye

"You dumb fox, I didn't ask you to try and kill yourself for me!"

Poof! Just like that, the spell was broken. Well what do you know? No good deed does go unpunished.

"What can I say, you're welcome." he answered with a growl.

"Ohhhhh Nick," Judy was shaking her head as if over an errant child, "Don't you understand? Even I'd won, it wouldn't have been worth it if YOU got hurt."

That wasn't enough to completely re-kindle the fire...but it helped.

And besides that, she was right.

"I'm sorry Carrots." Nick told her, trying not to shuffle his foot. "Really... I just didn't have time to think of anything else."

This hurt-little-fox act, (it wasn't an act,) turned the trick. Judy's manner softened like a stick of butter.

"It's okay Nick," she said, taking his a paw and patting it, "And thanks."

Nick immediately pulled away, not because he felt embarrassed or uncomfortable but because he had seen her wince just now.

"You sure that paw's all right?" he asked.

"I'll be fine Nick." She said, waving her other one, but then another voice spoke up from behind her.

"Uh-UH Judy, you need to go and have that looked at." Nick craned his neck and saw that David MacLeap had just arrived on the scene. This time however, the red fox felt no pang. Possibly that might have had something to do with the fact that David's wife was there, assisting him with an arm around his shoulder—and with a very possessive look on her face.

"I'm all right David." Judy insisted.

The Scottish Mountain Hare was having none of that.

"You may be all right for now, eh?" he said, "but those wasp stings can get infected if you're not careful, I've seen it happen. You need to get over to the first aid station and have them check you out."

"Look, I..." Judy started to say, but then the thump of another rabbit's foot interrupted her.

"No Judy, he's right. Go on over and let the medics take a look at that paw."

Judy turned in her chair.

"Mom I don't need to..."

Bonnie's paws went straight to her hips and her voice became heavily starched.

"Judith Laverne Hopps, you get yourself over to that First Aid station this instant."

Judy's voice became mixture of exhaustion and exasperation

"Mommmmm, not...."

Bonnie's finger shot out to the right like a lightning bolt.

"You heard me...march!"

Judy groaned, sighed, got to her feet and then shuffled off in the direction of the white tent with the Red Cross emblem on the canopy.

By rights Nick should have found the spectacle amusing. Instead he was practically squirming; Bonnie Hopps had sounded uncomfortably similar to someone else he knew just now.

He shook it off and went sprinting after his partner.