Just a note, this is going completely AU from Series 2. :) (Because if i did include any of series two, I'd end up writing yet another angsty Post S2E8 fic, and I think I've done enough of those for the time being.) Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! Thanks to Rolephant as always! Also thanks to Facebook, for creating a group that sounds like something Gene Hunt would say, and giving me an awesome line!

Chapter 2: Loup, Lykos, Ookami, Wolf, Hunt

They stood in the morgue, waiting for the technician to come in. Gene had yelled at her only an hour after they had arrived to go down to the morgue with him.

"Three in a month. Three in a god damn month, Bolls. The journalists are going to be all over us, and they're going to send the city of London into terror."

"They already have."

"And then they'll blame the police. But we have no leads. And all we can do is sit and wait until the next woman comes along."

"Maybe we'll get some leads on this one Guv," she said quietly. She was still a bit freaked out over the woman she had seen this morning.

"What's wrong with you Bollinger Knickers? You're rather quiet today."

"Just thinking"

"Oh God," said Gene, rolling his eyes. "Thinking is worse than talking! C'mon Bolls! Yap at me! If you don't God only knows what you'll come out with next!"

Alex turned to snap at him, but at that moment, the morgue technician walked into the room. "What happened to her?" Gene snapped quickly, before Alex was able to say anything.

The technician pulled down the sheet covering the woman's face. Alex didn't know why, but she had always found this man slightly creepy. Maybe it was because he dealt with dead people for a living, but she had never quite liked him. Besides his creepy demeanour, his physical appearance didn't help any. He was a shade to thin, quite pale with black hair, and had a deep voice that didn't seem like it belonged to him.

"This case is very similar to the other two we are currently dealing with," he said. Alex looked at sadly at the face of the woman. She had long brunette hair, and her skin would have been pale even before death. She was slender, and Alex guessed that she was in her early thirties.

"The cause of death was her trachea being cut open," the technician said. "Just as in the other two murders, it looks as though a normal knife was used to do this, not a kitchen knife or anything of the sort. The edge is clean, so it wouldn't be serrated. It is a very good guess that it is some sort of hunting knife. Before she was killed, however, it seems as though she had been knocked into some level of unconsciousness. There is a laceration on the back of her head that shows it was knocked upon the ground, possibly to force her into submission like the other two women. There is the usual slight bruise over her mouth, where he probably held it tightly so that she wasn't able to scream. And finally, just like the other two, he raped her just before he killed her."

Gene stared at the body angrily. Alex knew that he hated cases like this, he hated for the killer to get away. Gene Hunt had an odd moral compass, but all of his morals were strongly opinionated.

"We've got to catch this bloke, Bolls. Before he strikes again. The press are having a field day already, and I don't want to make it worse! I want this man's scrotum handed over to me on a silver platter!"

Gene stormed out of the room, and Alex followed quietly, still wondering why she had seen what she had that morning, and reflecting on what had happened later.

It had been an odd experience, getting ready in Gene's room and bathroom when she knew he was in the other room waiting for her to finish. There had been an odd tightness of excitement in her stomach the entire time. She had never experienced getting ready with Gene in the same place of residence before. Every time he spent the night at hers after too much alcohol the night before, he was up and gone long before she had stirred.

Halfway through her makeup, she had smelled bacon cooking. When she had finished, she had come out curiously, to see Gene standing over a pan of sizzling bacon and cracking eggs open. It was so domestic, so unlike Gene Hunt, that Alex couldn't help but stifle, even though she knew that he had to eat somehow. He gave her a long look.

"I don't usually do a fry up on a weekday, but since I broke your door down..."

Gene Hunt was apologising. She smiled and he continued.

"Besides you need to get some meat on that scrawny arse of yours! You're wasting away to nothing eating that rabbit food, Bolls."

He gave her a plate of steaming bacon and eggs and toast and she started eating. It was surprisingly good. Alex couldn't believe it. Gene Hunt could cook.

After breakfast, he drove them to work in his usual high risk manner, squealing the tyres as he skidded to a stop.

Now they were sitting in CID, trying to make connections, and trying to figure out the killer.

"What do we have?" Alex asked the room.

"They're all posh," Ray said, his mouth full.

"Yes, Ray. Thank you. Anything else?"

The room was silent. At the moment, the doors to CID swung open, and Viv led in a distressed looking man.

"This man would like to report a missing woman," Viv said.

CID looked up immediately. Alex took control of the situation, as Gene's door was closed. She walked up to the man.

"I'm DI Alex Drake," she said kindly. "I'll take you in to see our Guv." He nodded, and Alex knocked and entered Gene's office.

She looked at him pointedly before speaking. "This man would like to report a missing woman, Guv."

Gene gave her an expression that showed exactly what she had been feeling a moment before, before looking at the man next to her. "First off, what's your name?"

"I'm Sean Grey. My girlfriend, she didn't come over this morning, so I went to her flat, and she wasn't there. It was clear she hadn't been there all night."

"Can you describe what she looks like, Mr. Grey?"

"She's got long brown hair, dark blue eyes. She's a bit shorter than your DI."

"What was she wearing?

"A nice blouse and skirt, we were at a party last night, and she got annoyed with me. She went home by herself. And then she was supposed to call, but she didn't."

"What was her name?" Alex asked.

"Sarah Evans."

"Do you have a picture of her?" Gene asked. Alex knew what he was thinking. Was Sarah the girl on the slab down in the morgue?

"Erm, yeah," Sean said, rummaging through his breast pocket. He pulled out a photo, holding it up for the two detectives to see.

Alex and Gene looked at each other. This was the point where they hated the job.

"Mr. Grey," Alex said in her most sympathetic voice. "We think we have found Sarah."

Comprehension filled Sean's face, and a quivering hand moved up to his mouth. "Found? As in her body?"

"We don't know for sure. We need you to identify the body."

Sean nodded, and they led him out of CID.

~(*)~

Alex walked into the women's a few hours later only to be stopped dead in her tracks. Sarah was standing in front of her worriedly.

"Can you see me now?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Alex, slightly convinced she was going mad.

"I've been following you around all day. I saw Sean, but he couldn't see me," she said, tears forming in her eyes. "He was so sad, and I couldn't comfort him!"

"It's not your fault," Alex said, trying to comfort the woman.

"I don't get it! Why can't he see me, and yet you can? I don't even know you!" she wailed.

"I don't know, Sarah. Maybe you're here to help us solve the case. You can tell us what the attacker looks like."

Sarah looked at her, and then down at the floor. "I can't."

"What?"

"I can't help. Something is telling me that you have to solve it on your own."

"Then why are you here?" Alex was getting frustrated. They were getting nowhere fast.

"I don't know!" Sarah said, exasperated. "Maybe I'm a warning!"

"I don't understand."

"The man who did this is still out there. I'm a reminder of what he's done. I remind you, and then in turn the Met, how badly you need to catch this man. If you don't, there's going to be another woman to end up like me. It could be my best mate. Could be your best mate. Could be that typist of yours, Shaz I think you called her. Could be you," she said pointedly. "This man doesn't care who he kills. The brunette and posh is all just a coincidence I feel. He sees a woman he likes, and he takes her."

"But how is three women being posh and brunette just a coincidence?"

"It's not the being posh we have in common, DI Drake. It's the wolf."

"The wolf? I don't understand."

"That's the only clue I can give you DI Drake. Watch out for the wolf."

"Ma'am?" From a distance, Alex heard someone call to her. "Ma'am?"

Alex blinked and turned. Shaz was staring at her nervously. "You okay? You were just staring at the wall when I came in."

Alex shook her head. "Yeah, Shaz. I'm fine," she said, walking out, and running into the new DC.

"Sorry Randall," she said. He nodded at her, and moved on. Alex followed the black haired man into CID. DC Randall Wolfe had moved up from uniform only a month earlier. So far, he proved to be a good DC, and from what he had said, he had a stable family life. Still, Alex thought. Watch for the wolf?

She shook her head. It was too obvious to be him.

~(*)~

"I'm right Bolly! Admit it! You're wrong!"

"No, Guv. I am right on this!"

"You're wrong! So shut up, sit there in your wrongness, and be wrong while I show you how right I am!"

Alex glowered at Gene as he stood up. "OI!" he yelled, getting the attention of CID. "Bolly here thinks that men here prefer beer over scotch or whiskey. I however, say otherwise. Please raise your hand if you would rather have beer."

Not one single person in CID raised their hand. Gene sat down triumphantly. "See? Now drinks are on you. If you had just admitted you were wrong in the first place, you wouldn't have to buy all the drinks."

Alex rolled her eyes as Rodolfo, the new head waiter of Luigi's restaurant placed their food in front of them. "DI Drake, DCI Hunt," he said, putting the plates down in front of him before walking off.

"I don't like him," Gene said.

"You didn't like the last waiter Luigi had either. What was his name? Antonio."

"He was always eyeing you up!"

"I think I can handle a twenty-five year old leering at me, Gene. I just think it's that you don't like anyone but Luigi touching your food."

"No one else gets it right!" he pouted.

"Don't let Luigi hear you," she said. "He might think you actually appreciate him."

"Oi! Not so loud!" Gene hissed.

"Signorina Drake, Signore Hunt, how are your meals?" Luigi had come up behind Gene during their quiet conversation, and the sound of his voice caused Gene to jump nearly out of his chair.

"Christ Luigi! You do that any more often, and you can kiss every single officer here goodbye! They'll all be dead of heart attacks!"

"My apologies, Mr. Hunt."

"Your apologies," Gene muttered as the Italian walked off. "You can show your bloody apologies by getting better stuff than that rubbish you call the house wine. Doesn't matter though," he said, cheering up instantly. "You're buying, Bolly. Oi! Luigi! Bottle of your finest! And I don't mean the house rubbish! I mean the good stuff that you Mussolini brainwashed bastards haven't gotten your hands on!"

"Very funny Mr. Hunt," Luigi said over the din of the room. He returned a few moments later with a bottle of wine, pouring it out for the both of them.

"Good. Now go away."

"You ought to treat him better, you know," Alex said.

"Why is it that all you women do is nag?" Gene asked, swallowing a mouthful of wine. "Why can't you just get laryngitis or something and stop talking for about a week?"

"You'd miss my voice too much Gene Hunt," Alex said, smiling. "You'd be dancing with Luigi the day my voice came back."

"Not bloody likely," Gene shot back. "And just for that, you can buy everyone else a drink too!" He raised his voice on the last part of the sentence, and everyone cheered. Alex laughed, unaware that as they spoke, it was happening. She had not heard a voice from 2008, but soon, all too soon, she would leave CID forever, and this case would be her final journey.

A/N: Loup, Lykos, Ookami, and Hunt are all different forms of the word Wolf. They are French, Greek, Japanese and Estonian, respectively.

TBC!!! Reviews are always appreciated!