i actually like this story better than my other one, mainly because it's wolfy JD instead of innocently oblivious JD. and wolfies are always fun! XD

Summary: JD, after disappearing for weeks, is found with the strangest new appearence. He can't 'fix' it and no one but Dr. Cox can know about it, So, can JD hide his big secret or will it leak out? And if it does, will it end up doing more damage than he ever imagined possible?

Rating: I'll stick with the T rating just so I have room to stretch my imagination. No rated M moments, though I might put those parts in a serperate fic so I can keep this one available to the the majority of the fanfic readers.

Regular text.

"Speaking."

Thinking.

(Author's notes within story.)

Chapter Two: My Freedom

JD came awake slowly, his awareness seeping back at a trickle then flooding in at the last moment. He shot straight up, causing blankets to fall crumpled at his waist. His canine ears cocked and pivoted, gray eyes wide and round as he glanced about. Darn it all though, this strange, warm place was oddly familiar.

Clutching confusedly at his cream-colored blanket, JD looked down at his body lying unrestrained on the couch. His hands came up slowly to his neck but there was no heavy, cold collar there to hinder his hands' exploration. Then JD's oddly feral eyes roamed sideways, first registering the couch, then the wall of shelves, then other pieces of furniture and doors.

This was real, JD soon realized. This couldn't possibly be another sedative-induced dream where he suddenly fell safe into the hands of his friends or mentor. No, the ears and the aches on his body told him that he had finally escaped that dark cell.

"Newbie?"

JD spun around to face an open door with a figure standing there, someone JD had hoped and prayed to see for many long, pain filled days. But even as JD looked up at this cautious man's form, he felt a number of emotions that weren't joy. An unexplainable fear spread icy heat through his veins (adrenalin, reminded a doctor-y voice in the corner of his mind). The other feeling though was undeniable fury.

This was surprising to JD himself. Right now, though, it was just raw hurt that his mentor had not shown up to save him. Later it would grow with reason and mix with self-hate and insecurity and would then blossom uncontrollably. Perhaps if someone stopped it now...

"Newbie, would you mind at all perhaps explaining this-" Perry motioned to the ears and tail with his hands, "to me?" The tone of contempt underlying the question made Perry believe that this wasn't a question out of concern but one in disbelief and scorn. That made it all right.

"Wha?" was all JD managed at first. His eyes were stinging with tears as well. This was the first living creature he'd seen in weeks. This was also the first word he'd said in weeks. He discovered within the first few days of his confinement that no one was there to hear his yells, even though they were at the top of his lungs and lasted till his throat was almost bloody from use.

Perry had to admit it. His heart, however small and dark it was, now twisted painfully in pity and concern. There was such a look of total wild confusion and fear on his face that Perry wondered what had possibly happened to push JD of all people to this.

The older man crossed the room carefully, cautiously, so as not to send JD into a panic. Perry had decided over an hour ago when he'd awakened that he play the whole situation be ear. If JD was well in mind enough to talk and move about, then he could get right down to the business of telling what happened. However, if this was not the case and JD was ill, as Perry assumed he was, Perry would just have to approach the situation with as much understanding and patience he could muster to figure out how messed up JD was.

JD instantly forgot his anger. He was free. Did anything else matter at all? JD once again brought his hands up to examine them. He didn't have to squint in the darkness of a cell, nor did he have to be mindful of a heavy chain tying him to the wall. JD made a choked sobbing sound as Perry sat stiffly on the couch., wondering if JD would burst into tears.

"Oh," JD said, realizing the tears had silently come in his joy, "I'm free... Dr. Cox, I'm free!" JD rose up, his eyes wild and joyous. But as he tried to stand, Perry put a hand against his chest and pushed him back down.

"Whoa there, Helen, you're not going anywhere in the state you're in," Perry said warningly, referring both to his deprived body conditions and the dog features. JD's heart fluttered.

The whole time he'd been gone, he'd been through a wide range of emotions, effectively becoming darker and wilder with time. In the beginning, he'd been hopeful and understanding. He knew the chances of his friends finding him in that godforsaken place were slim to none. Really, they were only human! How much could he expect when there were no traces for them to follow, no leads to learn off of?

But then the constant darkness and silence went to his head. He started blaming himself after a little while. Maybe they'd forgotten him by now and moved on. Maybe he would be lost forever while these strangers that kept torturing him. The positive maybes that JD had thought about in the beginning were dwindling.

Then, for the longest and last phase, JD had whimpered and growled to himself about how this couldn't possibly be his fault, that his closest friends were simply betrayers, perhaps they were even behind this, while inside, JD had either died or closed off that rational part of thinking forever.

But now, as Perry warned him, the slightest trickle of concern and interest in his tone, JD immediately knew that he'd do anything to keep that attention on him. He'd been alone and ignored for so long ...

The tears broke free, tumbling over his cheeks and jaw line. JD slouched forward, ears folded back in the rush of emotions and Perry wondered for a moment what to do. Then finally he knew, since it was obvious that the Newbie he'd known had been replaced by this hurt and unstable person who needed support.

So, as awkward as ever, Perry shifted closer and allowed JD to cry fitfully into his shoulder, one arm comfortingly over the smaller man's back. JD attempted to express how happy and relieved and overwhelmed by it he was but the quiver in his wolf tail and the flattened ears showed all of this at once.

Finally, after a moment, JD sniffled and drew back, hair in disarray and ears back as sudden uneasy embarrassment flushed his skin. Perry seized the moment without hesitation, for giving orders was one of his specialties.

"Now, you feel all better?" Perry said almost mockingly but even he wasn't low enough to strike that low a blow, "So do you care to explain?"

"Yes, sir." The words came unbidden from JD's lips, and, though something inside him made him unable to look Perry in the eye, his ears shot up in surprise at his own words. Where did this sudden obedience come from? Perry wondered then followed the notion that JD may have gotten more than a dog's ears and tail in the trade.

"First, of course, I was with Dan at dad's funeral. That went over well, except for a bit of trouble with the headstone... " JD's brow furrowed as these memories he didn't even know he had came suddenly. "I left but Dan decided to stay. I didn't know how he would hold up but I caught a bus over here. Since Dan wasn't coming, I left him some money and I didn't have enough for a plane ticket," JD explained suddenly, as if Perry had asked. Once again, JD looked a bit bewildered with himself. "It was a long ride and when I got back here, it was night time-"

"What day was it when you got back?" Perry asked, cutting in to his speech. JD looked down in thought, as if concentrating. It seemed his mind had started to slip in the darkness of that cell.

"Um, I think, it was a Tuesday. Yes, Tuesday the 10th, sir." JD, for perhaps that third time so far, looked shocked at what came from his own vocal cords. Perry flashed him an odd look but quickly fell quiet contemplation.

"So I was actually on this road. The bus stop is just on the corner, remember? Well, it's only a few blocks to my apartment from here so I was just going to walk when ..." Then JD fell silent, blinking as he tried to summon those images of faces, or the sounds of their voices. "But all I heard was the car stop behind me and then something hit my head and I blacked out." He reached up to the back of his skull but the bump had long healed. "Then I woke up ... in complete darkness. There was a-a," JD struggled here, as memories started to flood and overwhelm his mind. "There was a metal collar and a chain tying me to the wall. I was in a cell, like a prison cell, but I was alone. I don't know how long for, but it seemed like ages before something happened."

Squeezing his eyes shut, JD covered his ears out of habit. In the time he'd spent in the cell, whenever notions and recollections threatened to drive him nuts, this is what he did. He stayed like this for a few heartbeats and Perry waited in silence, both knowing that he couldn't push him to tell and shock keeping his mouth closed.

Soon, JD continued at a heated whisper, "Then there was a light just beyond the cell bars and a long gun pointed in at me. Before I could even shout, it shot me with a tranquilizer, I think. When I woke up, though, I'd been tossed back into the cell. My head and all the way down my spine to my tailbone burned and ached for ... Oh, I don't know how long. It was such a long time before I could even move and discover these." JD gave a wry smile and a small tug on his left ear.

"So you've been gone for ... Since the ... You've been gone for 26 days! What did they..." But Perry trailed off as JD began to tremble again, remembering those lonely, endless hours of agony.

"After awhile, the p-pain wore away and then the tranquilizer gun would reappear randomly. My chain was too short for me to get a glimpse at whoever was aiming it. They always seemed to ... They always seemed to know which corner I'd backed into."

Perry looked up awkwardly. Never before in his life had he fallen into such a situation. He reached out and patted Newbie's shoulder, JD closed his eyes and seemed to savor the human contact. How long had he gone without it in the terrible place ... ?

"So, JD," Perry said, trying to show how serious he was, "What are you gonna do?"

JD gave Perry a long, confused look, as if expecting some order. Then finally he said slowly, "I don't ... know."

the next chapter will have more fun stuff like puppy-JD and maybe a lovey-dovey moment... :P