Allan still couldn't even begin to process what Stephanie had uncovered that afternoon. It had even shaken her up enough that she'd had to clock out early, once she'd finished throwing up her lunch in the small trash can they kept in their cubical. He hadn't lasted much longer, but had at least managed to keep his food down, barely. He'd called up Nick the second he'd gotten in his car, telling the fox to meet him at his apartment ASAP for a major update. Nick's fur had still been damp from a shower when he arrived over an hour later, his heavy breathing and the backpack slung over his shoulder saying he'd run straight from the gym.

"I got a call from Stripes, too," he said between pants. "If it's enough to make her sick, then it's gotta be bad."

"Oh, it's worse," Allan pulled his laptop from its bag and set it on the coffee table, glancing sidelong at his friend while it booted back up. "I really wish I didn't have to show you this…"

"You and me both," Nick climbed up on the couch and sat close to the edge, his tail tucked in his lap and hanging limp between his knees. Allan had made sure a trash can was well within reach, just in case one of them needed it. "But if it gets us closer to solving this case, then I'm all in."

"Alright," Allan typed in his password and pulled up the email Stephanie had forwarded to him. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

He downloaded the attachments and opened them, bringing up photo after photo, each one out of focus, but even a blind mammal would be able to see what they depicted.

"Oh god…" Nick had seen more than his fair share of insane shit on the streets, it had practically been a way of life, but even the worst hadn't been anywhere near what he stared at now. Reptiles, birds, even some larger bugs, all either cut up at the joints or sewn back together along them, creating spliced creatures straight out of creepy sci-fi films. The tangles of organs and other strips of meat and tissue, along with the blood that was a shining, dripping scarlet backdrop for each of them, had been yanked straight from the most twisted horror movies. He slammed a paw over his mouth when he started dry-heaving, thankful his lunch had already made its way through his system. "W-What the fuck am I looking at?!"

Allan bit his lip, his nose wrinkling as he was forced to imagine what the tiny, rotting corpses must have smelled like.

"The, uh, creations of…" he minimized several pictures, then enlarged a photocopy of a faded, official-looking document. "Tybalt Runes, a medical student that was expelled when one of his professors caught him…experimenting with donated corpses after-hours."

He minimized a few more things, then brought up a therapist's transcript.

"He was first admitted to Cliffside Psychiatric Hospital when he was four, after his parents found him ripping the heads and limbs off all his stuffed toys," he read further, his jaw dropping. "He was admitted again when he was ten, when he was caught gutting several koi fish he'd stolen from their neighbor's backyard pond."

He shuddered and turned the computer toward Nick.

"And it just gets worse from there."

Nick looked at him, then dragged the laptop closer, his eyes going wide as he scanned the rest of the transcript. Tybalt hadn't been admitted again, having gone through several kinds of therapy and been given anti-psychotic medications to help quell his violent urges. It wasn't until he'd been half-way through medical school that his "interests" had reared their ugly heads again, with his experimenting on corpses after class and catching the reptiles, bugs and birds that had become those gruesome little displays he'd been proud enough to photograph. His stomach twisting on itself, he pushed the computer back, eyeing the garbage can between them as he tried to fight down the burning in his throat.

"H-How the hell did that guy even get in to medical school? Don't they check for these kinds of things?"

Allan shrugged, closing his laptop and setting it aside.

"I'm pretty sure cash changed paws to keep all this under wraps. His parents weren't exactly millionaires," he added, scratching his cheek. He wished his fur would just grow back already! "But they did have money, they were both pretty well-known surgeons."

Nick rolled his eyes, having finally gained control of his nausea.

"That explains why his work is so clean, at least in one respect," he spat in the can, then wiped his mouth. "You really think he might be our guy?"

Allan shrugged again.

"I honestly have no idea. He disappeared a few months after the expulsion, and I mean literally disappeared, as in any record of his existence was pretty much erased."

Nick looked at him, then at his laptop.

"But then, how did Stripes…"

"It was attached to an email she got," he opened the computer again and pulled up a copy of it. "But I couldn't begin to tell you what the hell it's supposed to say."

He turned it toward Nick.

"It's like it was written by an alien or something."

Nick glanced at it, then chuckled.

"That's just some weird font, let me see it," he dragged it closer, highlighted the body of text and copied it. "Must be a custom one, because I've never seen it before…"

He open Allan's word processor and pasted the text in, changing it to the first legible font on the list.

"'Heard you're having trouble with the case, officers,'" he read aloud, swallowing the light tremor in his voice. "'Here's the only record left of my life's work, hopefully it helps you win our little game. But don't expect to get any more help from me. Have fun!'"

He couldn't hold back a shudder.

"Well, that sounds like a completely sane mammal," he passed the laptop back, absently noting how the wolf's gaze lingered on his arms as he did so. "But I kinda knew he was just screwing with us from the start, the sites of the kidnappings have all felt pretty…staged, don't you think?"

"Huh, I actually never thought about it that way," Allan put his laptop aside again, he'd have to charge it soon. "But yeah, I guess it is kind of weird how everything but the fire pit is always completely untouched."

"Because that's exactly what he wants us to focus on," he pulled out his phone when it buzzed in his pocket. "He's been leading us around on a leash this whole time…"

Allan leaned just close enough to see the text: a little plea from Judy.

'I know everyone's busy with the case, but you'd think at least one of our friends would come see me!'

Nick sighed, drumming his claws on his thigh before answering.

'There's another reason none of us have come around, Fluff,' he typed out. Darwin would probably be ticked if he caught her texting him, when she was supposed to be resting. He hesitated at the next line, then hurriedly tapped on the screen, likely so he wouldn't have time to think twice about it. 'We all thought it'd be best to leave you alone for a while, so work would be the last thing on your mind when you're supposed to be recovering.'

He sent it off almost before he'd finished writing it, Allan leaning back when the fox turned to him.

"So, you're not gonna tell her about Darwin's little stunt?"

Nick shook his head.

"No, he had the right idea, he just went the wrong way about it," he winced when his phone buzzed again, his ears going back against his head as he read her latest text.

'You really think ignoring me is gonna keep my mind off the case? It's all I've been thinking about because I'm dying of boredom here! They just won't let me go home!'

'And I know how cold that sounds,' popped up a few seconds later. 'Since I had a miscarriage two weeks ago, but when you have as many girls in your family as I do, you don't have a choice but to get used to that kind of news. And there's a good chance I would've ended the pregnancy, anyway.'

'There's also the worm thing, Fluff,' he tapped out. 'Two weeks isn't nearly enough time for you to be in the clear, and we both know you wouldn't take the meds as long as you needed to if you weren't monitored. This isn't something you can just stop part-way through and forget about.'

He leaned back, biting his lip as he sent it out. He hated having to berate her like that,but sometimes fighting with her was the only way to make her put her stubborn pride away long enough for her to actually get better. It'd already happened more than once by now, and he'd be damned if he let it happen again, especially with something this major. He shoved out a breath when she still hadn't answered a few minutes later, deciding it was time to plead with her a bit.

'Please, just stay there until they say you're ready to go home, I don't want to lose the mo,' he deleted the last few characters. 'My best friend. Please, just listen to them, Carrots.'

He sent it off, knocking his head against the back of the couch. He couldn't believe how close he'd come to slipping up.

"The most important mammal in my life," he muttered, almost too low to hear. "And I can't even tell her that…"

Judy didn't answer this time, and it didn't surprise him. He shoved his phone in his pocket and slid off the couch, landing almost silently on the hardwood floor. He grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder, his claws just about tearing through the strap as he stormed to the door.

"Nick, wait," Allan got up and stepped after him. "Where are you going?"

"I just have to get home," Nick spat, his fangs flashing. "I've got a punching bag there I won't get fined for tearing to shreds."

Allan gulped, his tail darting between his legs as Nick pulled his aviators off his shirt pocket, flicking them open and sliding them on his muzzle. It wasn't often he was afraid, especially of a mammal only about half his size, but the fury he'd glimpsed in the fox's eyes, the growl threatening to overtake that smooth voice, made his blood go ice-cold.

"N-Nick, I…" he trailed off, watching Nick's tail flick and bristle as the fox stormed out, almost punching a hole through the door when he slammed it shut behind him.

Judy paced around her hospital room, her ears tilted toward the door. Darwin was talking in the hall just beyond it, so softly she could barely pick up bits and pieces.

"…don't think it'll work…so stubborn…bunny I thought she'd be…been difficult…"

She finally just tuned him out completely, the tips of her ears grazing the wall as she started another lap. She'd had to hide her phone when he'd come in her room earlier, since he thought she should be spending as much time as she could sleeping, trying to ignore the stress, worry and fear of the outside world. But every second she tried to just made her think about all those things more, the fact she was still stuck here while all those kids were in danger, some of them likely even dead by this point. Just how long were they planning on keeping her here?

It's for the best, Jude, she stopped in the center of the floor and crossed her arms, her foot tapping rapidly in agitation. Nick was right when he'd said she wouldn't have finished the anti-parasitic drugs they had her on if she'd been left to herself. Sure, she might've kept it up another week or two, but then it would've slipped her mind as she'd focused on the case again. That, and trying to sort out the whirlwind of feelings swirling through her head.

She'd been far from sure when she'd agreed to marry Darwin, but so far she'd been fairly happy with him, at least during the little time she'd actually been able to spend with him since they'd come back from their honeymoon. And she'd enjoyed the few nights they'd been able to fall asleep together, whether or not they had sex beforepaw. It felt so nice to wake up in another mammal's arms, even if she still didn't exactly love him, but she knew she'd get there, at least in time.

We'll just have to find time to talk, once this case is over, she turned and went to her bed, plopping down on the edge and burying her face in her paws. Oh god, what is wrong with me?

No matter how often she told herself that he was still getting used to it, she couldn't stop imagining the pain she saw in Nick's deep green eyes whenever they focused on the ring on her paw. Or the mix of annoyance and anger in Darwin's honey brown ones the few times she'd come home smelling like her fox partner. She and Nick had somehow developed a habit of snuggling up together in one of the large chairs in the precinct's break room if one of them needed a quick recharge during a long shift. It comforted her to know he was near, and she knew he felt the same way. They'd both been alone for so much of their lives, though in completely different ways. He'd run away from home, had spent half his childhood learning to hide everything he felt from the outside world. Most of her siblings had tended to avoid her even before she'd announced her dream at that fair, claiming she was too rough when she played. That she told on them for everything from running with scissors to leaving candy on the floor after their trading sessions on Halloween. She'd just been doing everything she could to try and get ready for the force, going so far as abandoning the few friends she did have so she could use every second of spare time she had to study and train. She'd tried to reconcile with them while she'd been home, but unlike Gideon, they'd all acted like she hadn't even existed.

They'd both been subjected to prejudice because of their species, though he far more harshly than her. Even when they were in uniform, mammals big and small, prey and pred, would sneer at them, spit on them, some even straight out attacking them if they happened to be on the same side of the street. Every time, even when that one teenage wolf had almost managed to take his eye out, Nick had acted like it hadn't affected him at all, but it had been one of few times when it had been easy to see through his mask.

The whole time she'd sat in the hospital room with him, his tail had been thumping the bed, puffed in agitation, and he'd kept his lips pressed tightly together to keep from snarling. Their first summer as partners had been especially hot and humid, and he'd gotten his thicker fur cut short to keep from overheating. It had been the first time she'd really noticed how muscular he'd gotten, that she'd spent the time before she'd fallen asleep that night fantasizing how it would feel to be in his arms now, his emerald stare hypnotizing her as she was pressed firmly to his chest. His warm breath washing over her as he leaned closer, the soft lips she'd felt on her forehead so many times by now brushing hers before tender curiosity drove them both to deepen it. Then he'd pull his mouth from hers, his kisses trailing slowly down to her neck, his sharp, dangerous teeth so gentle as they grazed her skin. He'd bite down, so lightly at first she could barely feel it, then harder as she reached for his shirt, his low growl vibrating through her as she…

Oh god!

She fell back on the bed, panting as she came down from the frenzy she'd brought herself to; not quite an orgasm, but close enough that getting her breath back, her heartbeat normal took a few minutes. And she dearly hoped Darwin would stay in the hall until the spike of arousal in her scent faded, terrified he'd know he hadn't been the one to bring her to that state. She'd had romantic thoughts about Nick hundreds of times by now, but they'd never gotten that intense, had never made her question just what the hell was wrong with her.

I'm a married doe, she shouted to herself. I can't think about any male like that now except Darwin!

Except she was already failing miserably at that. The few times she had slept with him, she hadn't been able to see it as much more than an obligation to him, and stress-relief to her. Even during her teen years, one of the most hormonal times of any mammal's life, she'd had close to no interest in sex, not wanting to risk her dream job before she'd even had a chance to get into the academy. She'd dreamt about falling in love, of course, she hadn't been able to help that, but the males in those dreams had always been faceless, almost completely formless if she told the truth. Proof she hadn't given any thought to what she was looking for in a boyfriend or husband beyond them supporting her goals instead of trying to tear them down.

At least, until she thought she'd lost Nick after that disaster of a press conference. The longer she'd been home after giving up her badge, the more frequent those dreams had gotten, and the clearer he'd become in them. She'd chalked it up to guilt at the time, since she'd been begging for his forgiveness more often than she'd gotten intimate with him, and there'd been a huge lull in them once they'd reconciled. But now they were coming back full-force, and there didn't seem to be a thing she could do about it.

If this keeps up, I won't be able to be around Nick anymore, fear shot through her, erasing every trace of heat still left in the air. She couldn't lose him again, she just couldn't!

But if pulling away was what she'd have to do, then she'd do it, no matter how much just the thought of it tore her to shreds.

It's for the best, Jude, she reminded herself, repeating it in her head like a mantra. It's for the best…