A/N: A slight warning… an assault takes place in this chapter, but hope it'll have some cheering if any are inclined to do so. Thanks to "cactolith" for your reading and editing insights! Seriously, some portion of this chapter gave you "shivers?"

Italics are thoughts and internal dialogue between Jane and Lupine… yep, they talk to each other!

Boston PD Academy

"… Remember, Reasonable Suspicion is NOT the same as Probable Cause." The instructor motioned towards the chalkboard where other, undoubtedly important, notes were written. "While Reasonable Suspicion is enough to search…"

The instructor's voice faded from Jane's mind as her thoughts wandered to the park earlier that morning. Even though Lupine was dominating their collective bodily form, they both found the woman on the bench intriguing. Neither of them could stop thinking of her. Both Lupine and Jane could not recall ever seeing her before- either in the park or in the city. She must have been a visitor or a new resident relocating from elsewhere.

Despite sensing mild fear and surprise, the woman mainly exhibited curiosity when they both stared into each other's eyes. Both Jane and Lupine were quite taken by her. She exhibited true genuine characteristics- they had never caught a human scent that smelled so… natural. While humans had their own unique scent similar to fingerprints, Jane and Lupine both with their combined sense of smell, could detect even the subtlest of differences to each person. They could discover nearly every aspect of their lifestyle. The type of foods they ate, their hygiene… or lack of it… and even on occasion, their type of work or career. And with the increase of artificial additives in the food industry, more people being prescribed medications and the abuse and use of illicit drugs, both Human and Wolf often struggled to not become overwhelmed by the toxic scents resulting from all of the increased artificiality in everyday life.

In fact, certain metals and metallic compounds were toxic to Lupine's health. Prolonged exposure would cause Jane's human health to suffer in varying allergy symptoms and could even cause Jane being unable to shift into wolf form. Ever since she was a child, Jane would break out into rashes of varying severity by the mere presence of the dangerous metals. A part of Jane's mind would always feel to "shut down" and half of her senses would "disappear" during these toxic periods. Lupine would essentially go into the equivalent of a human coma in order to recover from her exposure to a toxin. The longer and more severe the exposure, the longer the recovery/coma period.

To their relief, most of the training equipment at the Academy was safe for them both. The handguns, though older models of what the standard issue weapons regular cops carry, actually had wood grips on the handles. The handcuffs had some mild toxic compounds, yet a good sweat from a run usually rectified the allergy by purging the toxins through elevated body temperature. Thankfully, after being fully sworn in as police officer, Jane would have the option of purchasing handcuffs of her choice. So aside from the "training abuse," graduation from Academy had even more appeal. But sometimes it seemed that day would never arrive.

"RIZZOLI!" A shout thundered into her thoughts.

Jane automatically arose to her feet in attention, staring straight ahead and into the hardened eyes of the cadre.

Crap! Now I'm screwed! Jane mentally chastised herself as the cadre's eyes continued to glare into hers. She struggled to focus on a point beyond him. Lupine growled within Jane, wanting to take him down for being singled out, not sensing any justification on the cadre's part for his anger towards its human symbiant.

"Cadet, do you think daydreaming is going to give you enough to justify a vehicle search?" the cadre asked. "You might as well lay down on the floor right now and play dead cuz the perps just shot you!"

Play dead?! Lupine roared at Jane. I will NOT do stupid dog tricks!

Calm down! Jane snarled back. Don't make this harder than it already is.

"Cadet, have you lost your ability to speak?"

"No sir!" Jane automatically replied.

"Then what to you have to say for yourself?" the cadre slightly paced in front of Jane.

"Nothing sir. I'm not going to waste any of your time or mine with excuses," Jane answered, feeling a ripple of Lupine's boldness flow through her.

A small collective gasp, ever so slight, sounded among the other cadets. The cadre abruptly stopped his pacing, snapping his focus back on Jane. Jane maintained her bearing and focus, welcoming Lupine's internal strength.

"Then drop and give me fifty," the cadre replied plainly.

Jane promptly "dropped" to the floor and started meting out pushups. The cadre proceeded to walk back towards the front of the lectern. "Perhaps that'll help you stay awake, Cadet Rizzoli."

Beacon Hill of Boston

Maura reached for another book she had piled on one end of her long desk as she slowly sipped her red wine. Her several sets of Encyclopedias had yielded only so much information on wolves in general, so she had checked out as many relevant books as she was permitted from both the nearby and main libraries in town. It had been only a few days since Maura had first saw the black wolf, and though she had kept up her early morning routine at the park, she had not seen it again since that fateful morning.

The doctor would have been inclined to dismiss the sighting as a hallucination… mild hypoxia was known to cause a person to imagine things that would feel very real. That, and the early morning sunlight with a lot of shadows and other dark areas could play tricks upon the senses and mind alike.

Maura sighed, pushing the open book off to the side, and reached for her notebook. She wrote a few notes before turning to towards the side table near the desk where 4 plaster casts were spread out. There were no hallucination or a trick of the early morning sunlight. Maura had discovered tracks near the pond's shore where the wolf had been. It had been fortuitous that the ground was soft; yet firm enough to retain decent paw prints. Maura had been able to return a few hours later with the necessary supplies to make cast imprints of what she could determine of both the front and rear sets of paw prints. She had taken photographs of what she could find of the wolf's route through the wooded area, yet eventually lost the trail. Either that or the wolf had possibly concealed any indications of where it had proceeded to go after reaching a safe distance within the forest.

What was most interesting was how large these particular paw prints were. Applying the necessary mathematics for the moisture content of the soil and the weight of the plaster, Maura concluded these prints were at least a half size, possibly larger than any known species of wolf. Could this one black wolf be another breed? Perhaps a hybrid of a wolf and another of the Genus Canis? Maura could only estimate the wolf's height and body length from just one sighting. She was anxious at the possibility of making another.

Perhaps it was time to expand her search area. Surely there were other wooded parks where a wolf could roam and still remain hidden from human interaction. Maura took another sip from her wine as she arose from the desk, walking over to her dining table where various parks and topographic maps were spread out. Once she found where the park was located upon the topo. map, Maura searched for the nearest park that had forest area connecting to the park where she met the wolf.

Retrieving her notebook from the desk, the scientist extrapolated the longitude and latitude coordinates and calculated the distance between her home and Northridge Park.

Northridge Park

Jane picked up her pace slightly as she approached a hill of one of the bicycle trails throughout the entire park. It had been another tough day at the Academy- Jane wondered if the instructors had decided to put all the cadets through some kind of "hell week." Thankfully none of the cadets were singled out for either "torture" or "favoritism," yet Jane struggled with the feeling that she was being picked on the most. Nothing she did or answered when an instructor gave her a verbal pop quiz seemed to satisfy them. As a result, Jane would have to "drop and push" (pushups) or do some other exercise until the instructor deemed it good to allow Cadet Rizzoli to stop.

It was extremely rare for Jane to struggle with Lupine like when the wolf first burst forth when she was eleven, but they had both especially struggled to maintain their sanity today. Though Jane disliked any form of unfairness, the wolf despised it even more intensely. Whenever Jane experienced severe emotion, especially anger, it took every once of concentration to keep Lupine from taking over and shifting her into wolf form. Just as it had in her earlier years, today it seemed like everything would ignite her emotions.

Jane glanced down at her watch as she approached a mile marker sign where the trail fork appeared. She sighed, wishing more time had passed than it actually had. It was likely going to be an all night run for both her and Lupine. Slowing her pace as she neared the fork in the trail, Jane wondered if she should go to the right and leave the wooded area or should she go to the left and resume her run for another 5 miles through the woods.

Jogging in place to maintain her elevated heart rate, Jane pulled her water bottle from her fanny pack and took a slow gulp. Then she heard a scream.

Maura approached the tree line as the trail entered into the wooded area. Removing the map of Northridge Park from her notebook, she double-checked the bicycle trail, wondering if she should either enter the trail here or look for the trailhead so she would not be double backing on areas she had already looked over.

Suddenly she was grabbed from behind and Maura released a shriek as she lost her footing, dropping her map and notebook. "Hey, sweetie," a heavy, rancid breath half-grunted

"Let me go!" Maura screamed as she struggled against the arm holding her upper chest. A fist suddenly met her jaw at high velocity and Maura cried out in pain.

"A screamer, huh?"

Maura's vision cleared to see the face the voice belonged to. "You're a rich snob, ain'tcha? They all whine, they all scream!"

"Yeah, scream some more!" the third thug standing near the second grabbed at Maura.

"No!" Maura screamed as all three of them surrounded her, one tearing off her shirt.

Jane skidded to a halt as she neared the crest of the hill overlooking the mid trail entrance. Three thugs were attacking a lady, tearing off her clothes. Catching a glimpse of her face, both Jane and Lupine growled when they recognized it was the same woman they saw several days prior at Westgate Park across the pond. These thugs' scents reeked of drugs, alcohol, and adrenaline with homicidal intent.

Quickly stripping her sweatpants, sweatshirt, and t-shirt, Jane allowed her anger to rage- shifting into wolf form. Her blood boiled as her hands shifted into paws, her joints realigning as black fur burst forth on her skin as her dark head of hair reversed in growth as her face transformed. Rumbling another growl, the black wolf charged down the hill towards the struggling woman.

Maura screamed as the attackers jerked her towards the tree line. Her shirt already torn away as they tried to force her down onto the ground.

"Go on," one thug loosened his belt, "this is gettin' fun!"

"Yeah, baby it's about to get good!"

Maura tried to scream until she felt another fist collide with her cheek.

One thug tore her pants. "Don't fight much and we might go…"

A loud growl roared out from the woods. Maura saw a dark blur appear from her right and suddenly felt the hands restraining her disappear. The growling continued, added now to the sound of struggling, shouting and cursing. Feeling herself completely free, Maura half crawled and half rolled away. She gasped when she finally recognized a large black furred creature standing between her and the three attackers.

Its head slightly lower than its shoulders, ears swept back and the fur bristled. The wolf snarled towards the thugs as they struggled to get back on their feet. One began reaching behind him as another whipped out a butterfly knife. The wolf charged at him before he could grasp the entire handle completely and screamed as the wolf's jaws clamped upon his wrist, sinking its teeth into the skin. Jerking its head to one side, the wolf emitted a satisfied grunt as it heard the bones snap in the assailant's arm.

Releasing the screaming man's arm, the wolf turned towards the remaining two, noticing one pulling out a revolver. The wolf charged at the unarmed attacker, who then dashed towards the gun wielding one allowing the wolf to leap at them both. Snapping and growling, the wolf slashed an arm with its claws, drawing blood from the pistol bearer's wrist. The gun fell harmlessly to the ground.

"C'mon," the second thug screamed to his injured companions, "let's get outta here before that thing kills us! Don't worry, it'll finish her off!"

Grabbing the gun and the knife, the three attackers scrambled away as the wolf maintained its defensive posture in front of Maura. After a while, unable to detect their retched scents any longer, the wolf turned towards the lady and lowered its head, softening its gaze as the woman slowly met its eyes.

Maura could barely register what all had happened, everything just went so fast and now she was looking into the face of the black wolf that had haunted her thoughts for the past several days. The same wolf had just defended her against three thugs, driving them away with such ferocity. Now she saw that fierceness change into a gentle regard as she gazed into the wolf's eyes.

A brisk breeze suddenly blew, the chill startling Maura out of her mild trance. She suddenly felt very self-conscious as she realized the remains of her clothing were no longer adequate to keep from violating public decency laws. Maura began to wonder how she was going to make it home before realizing the wolf had vanished.

Trying to keep the anxiety from overwhelming her, Maura struggled to find some semblance in an attempt to cover herself and get home. Feeling tears well up in her eyes, Maura suddenly sensed a presence nearby. Hesitantly glancing about and over her shoulders, she gasped to see that the black wolf had returned. Slowly turning, Maura found herself holding her breath as she noticed the wolf holding what appeared to be a set of clothes and a fanny pack by the strap in its mouth.

Gradually approaching her, the black wolf's eyes maintained gentle yet steady contact with Maura's. Nearing closer, the wolf graciously lowered its head, laying the clothes and fanny pack in front of her, never ceasing its unwavering gaze with Maura. Slowly backing away several feet, the wolf sat down and tilted its head to one side as if encouraging Maura to take the clothes.

Hesitantly reaching out, Maura's fingers trembled as she grasped the sweatshirt and quickly pulled it over her head, threading her arms into the sleeves. She struggled to keep the pent up sob from escaping, feeling the comforting warmth as she pulled on the sweatpants. However, the sob escaped as Maura furiously rubbed her eyes with the sleeves only to have more tears escape. Unable to contain the next sob, the doctor broke down completely, not noticing the wolf had moved closer, allowing Maura to embrace it as the sobs racked her body.