"I know you can understand me," Jo scolded the black wolf. He was sprawled on his back, belly exposed. It was a position of total submission—except that he was blocking the door, preventing her from leaving, and the submission was completely self-serving, just a way of getting what he wanted.

She was seated cross-legged next to him. He responded to her scolding by rolling back to his back and wiggling his way into her lap.

"Oh, you." She grabbed his head, firmly but gently, and turned his eyes to face hers. She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to make her fiercest canine glare. "I want to find out what's going on," she complained. "Carter and Alison and Henry and Fargo and probably Taggart by now are all in there, working on curing you, and I want to know what they're doing. How can I find out if you won't let me leave?"

The wolf responded by trying to lick her face. She pulled her face back hastily. "Damn it, Zane, are you trying to turn me into a wolf, too? No licking!" The wolf panted happily at her. She couldn't resist smiling back. If he'd been a real dog and she hadn't been worried about saliva exposure, she'd have kissed his wet nose, but as it was, she roughed up the fur around his neck, and then buried her face in the soft fur. "Damn, you're cute," she murmured. She almost had a moment of wishing he'd be stuck this way forever: she could picture a life with an incredibly smart, routinely disobedient, completely loving dog and just the thought made her guiltily happy.

The door started to slide open and stopped after a couple inches. "Um, can you move please?" came a soft voice from outside.

Jo scrambled backwards, trying to pull Zane with her. "Dr. Glenn!" she said, surprised. She knew the vet was working with the others, but she would have expected Carter or Fargo to be the first person to come to update her.

"I think you can call me Emily now." Dr. Glenn squeezed through the narrow space. "How's it going?"

Jo looked at her. Dr. Glenn's pale skin was flushed with color, and her eyes were bright with excitement. The formerly calm and serene vet was practically quivering with suppressed excitement.

"Um, okay, I guess," said Jo. "Has Taggart shown up with a way to turn Zane back?"

"Oh, uh, erm, not really." Emily frowned.

"What does that mean?"

"Well, Dr. Taggart is here. But he's of the opinion that the virus is going to be fatal. Within…" Emily looked at her watch, "…about the next seven hours for Dr. Donovan."

"Seven hours?" Jo felt as if she'd just taken a hard hit to the solar plexus. She couldn't breathe. She looked at Zane, whose tail was leisurely wagging, as he watched the vet placidly. She put one arm over him and hugged him ferociously. No, no, no.

"Oh, but no, no," Emily said hastily. "I don't agree. Don't worry. Please don't…I mean…well, worrying is natural, but…" she gestured with her hands, as if trying to wave the whole thing away. "I'd actually like to start treating Dr. Donovan right away." She regained her footing as she focused on her work.

"Treating him how?" Jo asked numbly. Seven hours. Seven hours was…so much less than a lifetime. Seven hours was only four hundred and twenty minutes, only twenty-five thousand two hundred seconds. Seven hours was disaster. Seven hours was not enough time.

"Well, I think it would make the most sense to bring him to the infirmary, so that when he changes back, he's in a comfortable place. Either that or my lab: I don't think there should be any problems, but I'd like to be able to watch his heartbeat while the treatment is working. I don't really know how the transition will go. It ought to be fast, but I admit I'm a little worried about the risk of organ failure if it takes too long. But I think that as long as we can keep the heart beating that…Jo? Ms. Lupo? Breathe!" Emily knelt next to Jo and shook her shoulder. "Stop that," she ordered.

Jo took in a gulping breath of air. "Seven hours?" she whispered, looking Emily in the eye. The wolf whimpered, finally picking up on her distress.

"No," Emily said firmly. "He's going to be fine within the hour. We need to get him to a room with a heart monitor and an IV set -up, and then you need to convince him to be obliging while I hook him up to the IV. And then he'll be fine."

Jo closed her eyes. Fine. She nodded numbly.

"I'm so sorry I scared you," said Emily. She looked at the wolf. "This is Dr. Donovan, right? Zane Donovan?"

Jo nodded again.

"The one that you throw in jail all the time?" Emily's voice was plaintive.

Jo bit back a smile. She nodded.

"I do find people so confusing sometimes," Emily sighed. "Animals are so much easier. I apologize again for scaring you. I didn't realize that…ah, well, that I would be scaring you."

"It's okay," Jo shook her head. "I'm sorry I froze there. So what do we need to do?"

"Sheriff Carter's daughter has been helping me work up the solution. She's waiting for the IV bags to finish filling and then she's bringing them up to the infirmary. If we could get Zane into the infirmary and up on a table—next to a heart monitor—that would be a good start."

Jo pushed herself off the ground, keeping one hand on Zane. "I can't say he's going to understand much," she said. "As far as I can tell, he's working off his own agenda. But I think he'll come to the infirmary if we want him to."

Dr. Glenn pulled the door open. "Well, that's a start," she said cheerfully. "As long as he doesn't attack anyone on the way, we should be good."

"