A/N: Well everyone here is the next chapter. The epilogue is a quarter done. ^_^ I haven't had time to work on it. This is also the longest chapter... so far.

I will be posting one every Sunday... some time (in the morning it would seem). LOL!

Beta Read by Timmy Sprax, thank you for your help. ^_^

Reviews:

Guest: yay another chapter to cheer up a morning where I got woken up due to loud talking xD *eats those cookies left out by another reviewer so that I don't eat Zona's hand*

P.S. The werewolf comment was about what you were suppose to turn into :P though giving out a detail that Nanoha is a shapeshifter rather than a werewolf for this fic... is a delightful detail that I had the pleasure of enjoying (since most would just class Nanoha at this point as a werewolf) hehehe :P (yummy)

Another P.S. Thanks for the cookies I would leave milk for you, but I am sure milk goes bad after a week passes... so I leave a thank you note instead :P

ZR: Lol. I do that from time to time give out tidbit info. Next time leave a hard cider and I will be all good. ^_*

ZR : To everyone that reviewed thank you. ^_* I'm being lazy by not answering your reviews one on one. Sorry~...

Warning: This story is YURI/Shoujo-Ai; if you don't like girl loving girl then leave.

Disclaimer: I do not own Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha I also do not make any money from my stories. I use the characters in accordance with fair use.

I hear music... and smell tension, could it be?

Hiding in the Shadows

By

Zona Rose

Chapter 10

Hayate's POV

It has been a full twenty-four hours since Nanoha disappeared, and still no word or sign of where she went. There also has not been any word on where Jail Scaglietti went to either. I can only hope that my team and I can find both of them before something happens.

"Commander Yagami, we have a report that there's a disturbance down at the warehouse district."

"All right, let's get a team together and head down there right away. I don't want to waste any more time."

After driving for thirty minutes, we finally arrived at the warehouse that the disturbance had been reported at. My team approached the building cautiously. We surrounded it, covering all exits. Slowly making our way inside the smell of blood could not be mistaken, and by that, there had to be a lot of it, which had me apprehensive, but I couldn't show it.

The scene that we came across was brutal as there was blood all over the place. On the floor, was a man trying to escape, but having a hard time moving. Walking up and rolling him over. It was Jail Scaglietti; I could see the fear in his eyes. I ordered an ambulance to have him taken to the hospital and make sure he was to stay under guard the entire time. He had many questions to answer for.

Signum called out to me, and Shamal, the urgency in her voice had us running. She was kneeling down in front of a chestnut brown wolf, which seems to be barely breathing. This had to be Nanoha she had transformed into the wolf that was now before us. Shamal carefully approached and started checking her vitals.

"We need to get her back to the lab at headquarters, if we don't hurry, there's a good chance we will lose her either the human or, the wolf, as they're both dying."

Signum, and I gently picked up the wolf and set her on a gurney and the medics made a beeline for headquarters. Shamal was in surgery for six hours. When she finally came out and said that she has done everything she possibly can do. The next twenty-four hours will be the hardest.

The wolf has been in and out of consciousness. We've given her the medication, but she is still not transformed back into a human. We may have been too late in administrating it, we may never know.

It's been several weeks now and there still have been no change, other than her injuries have all but heeled. We have our best scientists on the job. Trying to figure out why she has not changed back. Maybe she's afraid that Fate won't take her back again after she finds out what's happened. I've tried to tell her that Fate is still waiting for her, but it doesn't seem to be motivating her into wanting to be back into her human form.

It is now been three months and my higher-ups have said that I need to pull my team as the subject of our protection is now no longer in danger. I've told Nanoha this she whimpers and her ears droop. I told her if she changed back into a human, she wouldn't have to worry about Fate's safety. I can only hope that this has motivated her into becoming human once more.

It has been almost six months now since we found Nanoha transformed into a wolf at the warehouse. Gil Graham, and Jail Scaglietti have both been singing and trying to rat out the other, as the mastermind behind the whole plot to assassinate Fate T. Harlaown. Signum has been training her replacement; I just hope everything will work out.

Fate's POV

I've been waiting for days, but she still has not returned to me and my heart breaks as each day passes. Each night, I sleep alone in my huge bed, but I feel too small for it.

A few days after, Nanoha left me, I found an orange colored wolf at first I thought it might have been her as the wolf had blue eyes, but then I remembered, Nanoha's eyes would turn golden yellow, so I knew it couldn't have been her. She was injured, so I took her to my apartment and nursed her back to health.

She never leaves my side. She even follows me to work, when it's time to sleep instead of being on the bed she'll lay next to me on the floor. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months, and still she is not returned to me as she promised.

Today was no different. Well, all except for the fact that Hayate was standing in front of me in my office and Signum plans on introducing me to the person she's been training to take over her position.

She's been explaining to me the situation about Gil Graham and Jail Scaglietti. It would seem that both men thought they were trying to manipulate the other, when in fact they were working against each other in the end.

She also keeps avoiding my questions about Nanoha, which makes me think she knows something as she has hinted that it was Nanoha that caught Scaglietti preventing him from escaping. I have my fears of why she's not telling me about Nanoha.

The first one is that Nanoha was killed in the attempt to stop Scaglietti. The second one, even though the first one is heartbreaking so is the second one. Nanoha transformed into a wolf, and is unable to become human again. Those are the only reasons I can think of that Hayate won't talk about Nanoha directly just that she helped catch Scaglietti.

"So I see you have a shadow, what's her name?"

"Arf is the only name that she would accept, so that's what her name is."

"That's an unusual name for a dog. I'm surprised you didn't go for something more basic for a name."

"Well, I started off with basic names, but then she would growl at me every time I would say them. After a while, I just said fine how about Arf? She wagged her tail and grinned at me, so that's been her name ever since."

"That's a different way of naming your dog."

"Well, I wasn't the one that named her; she named herself so apparently she likes it."

"I see, so you let her name herself that's an interesting way of doing it."

I am hesitant to ask her again about Nanoha. Every time I have asked, she's danced around the question or ignored it totally. I have to know, I have to know what has happened to the person that has become the center of my world.

"Hayate I need to know what is happened to Nanoha. Every time I have asked you about her, you either avoid it or ignore it totally. I have a right to know what's happened to her and right now you're the only one who can tell me."

"I'm sorry, Fate I was asked not to tell you anything until the time was right, and that time is not here."

"Can you at least tell me if she's all right?"

Before she could, answer there was a knock on the door. 'Oh of all times to be interrupted!' I tried to hide my anger at missing my chance to find out my answer. "Come in its open."

The door opens slowly and in steps Signum. I didn't know I was holding my breath as the door opened. As I started to breathe, again I felt my heart sink as it wasn't the one person I longed for.

"I'm sorry am I interrupting something? I can come back and do this later; I just thought you would want to meet my replacement as soon as possible…"

Hayate stood up and was blocking most of my view of the door, "No Signum you are actually just in time. Is your replacement ready to take on your duties?"

"Yes, I think my replacements ready as ready as they'll ever be."

Every time I tried looking around Hayate to see who they were talking about either Hayate or Signum would get in my way. When finally both of them stepped aside in different directions, their stood a chestnut brown woman with beautiful sky blue eyes. I sat there in stunned silence just staring at her and soaking in every detail in front of me checking to see if I see any injuries.

Apparently, I have been staring too long. I can see a blush tinting Nanoha's cheeks, and she's starting to shift from foot to foot, as if she wasn't sure what to do. I'm having a hard time controlling my heart as it feels like it wants to beat out of my chest. When I felt a cold nose touched my hand, that itself jarred me out of my daze.

I stood up and moved around my desk and started walking towards Nanoha, I could see that she was scared, but I didn't understand why she was scared. When I was almost up to her, I saw tears in her eyes as she started to shrink back from me two chestnut brown ears popped up out of her hair.

Her hands flew to her ears and she started to turn around as if she was going to run from me, but I wasn't going to have any of this. She was never going to leave me again. Not if I could help it. So with speed, I didn't know I had. I encircled my arms around her and pulled her to me.

"Don't you dare ever leave me again, Nanoha. No matter what happens I will always want you by my side, no matter what you look like I will always want you there in my life."

Her arms came down and encircled me as I could feel her body tremble. And then I felt the wetness, and I knew she was crying. I was hoping they were tears of joy and not sadness.

"I could hurt you Fate and that is the last thing that I would ever want. Maybe it's best that I continue to hide, instead of entertaining these thoughts of a life with you."

I tightened my arms around her and I moved my face so that my lips were touching her neck and gently, I kissed her where she had licked me the last time we were together. "Without you in my life Nanoha, I am just an empty shell. You are everything to me."

I felt a rumbling her chest so I pulled away to look into her eyes and I could see they were the beautiful blue with flecks of gold mixed in. She took her left hand, and stroked my cheek, and I closed my eyes and leaned into it so I never saw her approach when her lips touched mine. It was as if the world had stopped, and all that mattered was the woman in my arms and her lips upon mine.

Someone cleared their throat and Nanoha and I jumped apart a little bit, but we continued to hold on to each other. I looked at Signum and Hayate, they both had smirks on their faces, and I could see a gleam in Hayate's eye that made me a little nervous.

"Well, Signum I think your replacements going to be doing a wonderful job. I think she even has her new boss's approval."

I slightly turned, still holding onto Nanoha's waste and looked between Signum and Hayate. "Your replacement… You mean you've been training Nanoha this entire time, and neither one of you told me she was here."

"Actually Fate that's my fault," Nanoha said. She looked slightly sheepish, as her ears droop almost as if she was afraid that I was going to be angry her.

"Why would you want to keep this from me, Nanoha?"

"Well, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do the job or not, and I wanted to make sure that you really wanted to see me again. Hayate and Signum kept telling me that you kept waiting for me, asking about me, demanding to know things that had happened to me. But I was so scared that you wouldn't want anything to do with me after what happened."

"Come sit down on the couch and tell me, tell me everything, Nanoha." With my arm still wrapped around her, we went over to the couch and sat down. Hayate and Signum pulled up chairs so they could be part of the conversation.

Flashback Nanoha's POV

"Leaving you Fate was the hardest thing I think I've ever done. The look in your eyes told me not to leave. Even though I knew, I had to. I had to make sure that you were kept safe. No matter what happened to me.

"I made my way to the warehouse district, as I knew that's where he had a secret laboratory. I had to come and save her, my oldest and dearest friend, Arf. When I got to the warehouse, Jail Scaglietti was not there, but I found Arf in one of the cages. She was injured, as well as drugged so I knew I had to get her out of there before he returned.

"I told her to look for you Fate and to keep you safe until I could return. Then I headed back to the warehouse, as I was running I could feel the wolf within me wanting to get out needing to tear him limb from limb. I tried to stay as human as I could, but in the end, I failed.

"When I returned to the warehouse, Jail Scaglietti was in a rage tearing things apart, smashing things, demanding to know where his greatest subject went to. When I stepped out into the open, he looked surprised, but then the surprise turned to a sneer and before I knew it, he was attacking me.

"At first I cowered taking the abuse with each blow I could feel myself submitting to his dominance like I always did. Then he started saying that he wasn't done with you Fate and that he was going to make sure that the next attempted assassination would be successful, even if he had to be the one to do it.

"At that moment something inside of me broke and I unleashed my wolf, within seconds I was tearing him to pieces. He got in quite a few good shots himself as blood was splattered all over. When he finally stopped moving, I stopped attacking him and slowly made my way over into a corner, wishing desperately I could get back to you. But knowing I would never make it.

"I remember hearing voices familiar ones, and then I was being moved the next time I awoke I was in a hospital bed with bandages wrapped all over and I was still in my wolf form. It took quite a while for me to heal. But even after, I was healed. I couldn't turn back into a human, no matter how hard I tried.

"After several months Hayate told me that she and her team were going to be pulling out because you were no longer in danger anymore. I wanted to be with you, but I was afraid that you would reject what I had become, as I was no longer human. I redoubled my efforts in trying to become human again. Eventually I was able to get most of my humanity back."

End Flashback Back to Fate's POV

"I had asked Hayate, and Signum keep my condition secret. After a while, Signum asked if I wanted to replace her as the Vice President of Testarossa Corporation. She said it would be a better position to be able to protect you in, if I was in a position that was almost equal to yours. So I agreed and I've been training for the past few months."

As I was trying to absorb all of the information that Nanoha had just told me, I must've stayed quiet too long as Nanoha started to fidget and her ears began to droop. It was so cute I wanted to cuddle up to her and let her know that everything was going to be okay. But first things first I needed to know what would make her think, I didn't want her in my life no matter what she was.

"Nanoha the day you left out that window. I was wondering what I had done wrong, that you would want to leave me and not come back, especially after what you did before leaving. You had promised to come back to me, but you didn't come right back to me. You waited; you waited six months to finally come back. I would not have cared what you were a wolf, human, or the person that you are now."

I took in a deep breath to calm my nerves. I didn't want to scare her any more than she already is. "Nanoha, what I'm trying to say is no matter what I want you in my life, because without you I am nothing."

Nanoha's ears perked up and she tackled me down onto the couch, burying her face in the crook of my neck, breathing in deep and sign with contentment. I looked over at Hayate and Signum, with a smile on my face.

"Signum, if you don't mind I'd like to take my new Vice President home and be able to reconnect with her."

Signum smiled and nodded her head yes and when I glanced over at Hayate; she had that gleam in her eyes again. Nanoha made herself presentable and the three of us headed home. In the taxi ride, Nanoha was giving Arf some much needed attention, as she didn't get it at the office.

There is a new doorman his name is Verossa Acous. When Arf gave me her approval, I knew he would be a good man. If Arf does not give her approval on someone, either I end the meeting, I have him, or her dismissed. It may sound silly to take my cues from a dog but she's a more intelligent and extremely perceptive for a dog.

When we got up to the apartment Nanoha and I changed into comfortable clothing. Nanoha had to rip the whole in a pair of shorts for her tail and she let her ears pop out. We cuddled up on the couch and just held each other. That's all I want right now is to know that she's not going to disappear on me and I think, Nanoha is thinking the same thing.

Arf made her way over to her favorite spot in the living room, which was right in front of the fireplace, where she curled up and fell asleep. Right now I'm feeling that my family, this family is complete I have Nanoha and Arf, and that's all I need. As long as they don't leave me, I will be happy and content for the rest of my life.

A/N: Well everyone that is the end of chapter 10. I don't know when I will have the last chapter done... I will try my best to have it for next Sunday. lol ^_*

Reviews, I love getting them. ^_^ Sorry I have not replied to your reviews, but I love reading them. So thank you for the reviews. *_* And SS thank you I'll work on it.

I'm on Facebook as Zone Rose if you find young NanoFate hugging as the profile pic then you have found me. I do spotlights on yuri anime's and more on it so stop on by and friend me. ;) I know some of you have found me there.

Until next Sunday...I hope, enjoy the read.

In Love & Light,

Zona Rose };-