Okay, so I'm not completely happy with this chapter, but I never am. I just needed to get through this part in order to get the story rolling again.

Kinney both loved and hated living alone.

She loved it, because after a day of feeling like everyone was watching her 24/7, it was nice to relax in her oasis of solitude. Privacy was worth the lack of room, the dreariness of the location, the distance from the city, and even the slight infestation of mold.

When she was alone, she could cheat on her vegan diet with the zeal of a T-Rex, watch bad reality TV, read trashy romance novels, listen to music too mainstream to be cool, and occasionally dance around her kitchen like an idiot.

There were downsides, though. Loneliness was a side-effect of seclusion. She had no family to speak of, no siblings, dead mother, estranged father. It was a prime recipe for her loneliness.

Then there was the fear too. A spiked heart rate accompanied every strange noise, oddly shaped shadow, unfamiliar face in the hall, unexpected knock on the door, and nightmare infested sleep.

So, it stood to reason that a bloodcurdling scream from the street outside would make her sit up, a choked scream of her own lodged in her throat. A long howl followed, and Kinney covered her ears, and she wished she was brave.

"What if we could save someone's life by getting involved?" Jacobs had said. His words had been ringing in her head for two days. He had refused to look at her, much less talk to her. It stood to reason he was disgusted. She was too. Being a coward was easy, but it was lonely.

Kinney was anxious about something, more so than was normal. Her knee was bouncing, and usually she tried to be still to draw as little attention as possible. She was also constantly swiveling her chair to face his desk only to open her mouth, close it, and swivel back to her own desk.

Jacobs knew he hadn't been completely fair in his dealings with her lately. Could be, she was finally gonna confront him about that, but that was as likely as his girlfriend not being a bitch, so not probable. Still, something was on Kinney's mind.

His suspicions were confirmed twenty minutes later when she piped up with a, "Can we talk?"

He raised an eyebrow, the disdain returning. Unfair or not, he had reason to not be her biggest fan. What kind of person must she be to abandon people she could save?

"I was heading to get coffee," he said, figuring she would retreat. She never so much as went to the bathroom for fear of running into other agents and having to talk.

"This won't take long," she assured him.

"Alright, what do you have for me?" he asked, expecting a demand for him to act nicer or something.

"I think I heard someone die last night."

Jacobs's jaw dropped.

Kinney, not wanting to give Jacobs time to disregard her, dove into the case facts. "Okay, so these deaths are similar to others around the nation. Vaguely canine DNA, missing hearts, but no known bite marks. Despite all the unknowns, the deaths are always classified as animal attacks, so it makes investigation difficult. Hard to start a conversation with 'Did your deceased relative anger any monstrous dogs?' right?"

Jacobs nodded, blinking and seeming to come out of his daze. "Yeah, I've been struggling to come up with a list of standard questions for this kind of case. Everything I come up with is out there."

Kinney bit her lip. "Maybe it should be."

"What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "I don't really know. Just, maybe it doesn't have to be within our usual lines. For instance, what if we said we were dog catchers or animal control and wanted to know where the victims had been in their last few days. Instead of working through motive for murder-"

"We work on the basis that it is an animal attack, which might lead us to a human killer," Jacobs finished for her.

Kinney smiled. "Exactly. Only…"

"What?"

She frowned. "I dunno. It's weird. The attacks do seem animalistic in a way, and what's weirder is they all occur during the full moon."

Jacobs snorted. "Please tell me you're not really suggesting it could be a monster after all."

"Okay, then why are there so many across the country happening at the exact same times, and why do they go back as far as two-hundred years ago according to our archives, and why do they start and stop suddenly only to pop up again later?"

"That's where the investigative part comes in," Jacobs stated. "That way we can answer all those questions. Besides, it could be as simple as a cult or something, especially with the missing hearts and stuff."

"Cults aren't so simple," Kinney pointed out. "And even if they were, it doesn't match up. Cults usually have a purpose or an end goal, not to mention a hierarchy. This is random and unstructured."

"It's still no reason to go crying wolf," Jacobs cautioned her.

"That's it!" she exclaimed. "It's matches werewolf lore. Or at least, some of it does."

Jacobs shook his head, trying to forget she just said the word 'werewolf'. "You need to slow down, Mulder. First things first, I need coffee. Then we'll come up with question I can use tomorrow when I interview the families. We'll go from there, okay?"

Kinney nodded, a little disappointed to have her theorizing cut short. He was right, though. They couldn't jump to conclusions.

Then he popped his head back in. "Sorry, just to clarify, someone died near your place, and you think it's connected to this?"

"Yep," Kinney confirmed, deciding to leave out the howl she heard too. No need for him to think she was crazy or something.

He frowned. "You have a gun?"

"Yes." She hadn't used it in ages, but it was there, and she was qualified by SHIELD to have it.

"Okay, good. Keep it on you at all times." He frowned like he wanted to say something else. "Good job, Kinney."

Kinney tried not to feel happy at his praise, but she couldn't help but be pleased. Maybe she wasn't useless after all.