This fic is set after the events of episode 3 but before episode 4
I just had an idea of what if Bigby's father was watching the whole time.
Then I thought, what if Bigby's father had come to visit him while he recovered.
Snow... shouldn't have let them take Crane Bigby thought.
The beast of legend lay on the couch of his apartment. He'd been propped there by Snow before she had left to get Dr. Swineheart
Bigby looked at his disfigured arm and thought about trying to set it on his own but decided against it. He would wait until he was stronger.
"Why didn't you ask for help?" a voice called.
Bigby blinked and weakly raised his head searching for the source of the outburst.
He saw nothing. Just his crappy apartment littered with all the shit he'd left laying around before he'd started another day as Fabletown's Sheriff.
"... I would have helped if you had but asked" the voice called again.
The wind blew across Bigby's face and he snarled. He hadn't left the window open and his fan had been unplugged.
"Father... fuck off" Bigsby snarled.
"You idiot" the voice called again.
If I wasn't bleeding like mad I'd find a way to make you appear and rip you apart! Bigby thought.
He tried to get up but found that he couldn't. So he lay there on his couch waiting for the voice of his father to go away.
The silence stretched on for what seemed an eternity. Then the wind began stirring and the figure of an older man appear before Bigsby.
An older man with long unruly white hair and matching mustache wearing a trench coat.
Bigby Wolf's father, The North Wind had finally shown himself.
The God looked down at his son watching as Bigby made to get up his good arm raised. Bigby stirred trying to become the wolf again.
"Seven times you've tried to kill me, and seven times you failed. Do you truly believe this time will be different?" the North Wind said not unkindly.
Bigby glared up at his father but lowered his hand having failed to turn wolf again. He was too weak to do so.
"... fuck off" Bigsby repeated.
"All these years and your hate for me has never diminished. All this because of your mother" the North Wind said mussing aloud as he began pacing Bigby's apartment.
"You left her. You fucking left her and I had to watch her wither away and die." Bigby said, he didn't snarl. He spoke with an emptiness that he had carried for most of his life.
"Tis my nature" the North Wind said not meeting his son's eyes.
The God paced about the smallest apartment in the woodlands observing whatever was laid about. He would not meet his son's eyes but he did speak.
"The Winds are ever changing. Never staying in one place... always in motion. There was a time I loved your mother, but that time passed and the Winds moved as did I" the God said.
Bigsby twisted as his father turned to face him.
"To fight one's nature is near impossible. You try to be something other than a Wolf or else something other than the son of a God, and what has it brought you? Nothing but misery. Injury after injury, and now you lay near death. You are a Wolf or you are the son of the North Wind, you can not be like the other Fables here. You are the Beast from their stories and they will always see you as such. If you would have joined me you could have been so much more" the North Wind said.
"I changed" Bigsby said weakly.
The North Wind smiled sadly before continuing "the events in that alley prove otherwise."
"Is this what the great God of the North Wind does now? Spy on people like an old pervert and then nag them to death" Bigsby growled.
"There is a part of me in you. If you would but use it, you could have even then. Bloody Mary is nothing to my power and a fraction of that power resides in your blood. Your friend the pig should remember well, as you used it to destroy his house. Yet you refrained from using it now?" the North Wind said.
His name is Colin. I didn't use it because it would have blown the cars away too. It would have broken the glass on every window and there would be no covering it up. You Gods don't get it, you don't understand that we have to hide in the mundy world Bigsby thought.
"Don't pretend it was too risky to use in this world. We both know the real reason" the North Wind said.
I don't want anything to do with you or your power Bigby thought yet he said nothing.
"A simple, 'father help me' and I would have come to your aid. Bloody Mary wouldn't have stood a chance and nor would that idiotic Crooked Man. If you had but asked" the North Wind.
"Fucking hypocrite" Bigsby Wolf snarled.
"You say you could have helped but you didn't. You say all I had to do was ask but we both know I never would. You could have helped every Fable here if you wanted to! With your help we might not have ended up exiled here in the mundy world! But here we are!" Bigby yelled.
The North Wind tilted his head curiously.
"Yes" was all the God said.
"I don't want your help! I don't need it! I am my own man, I don't need your power!" Bigby said managing to get into a sitting position.
Second chances. That's what every Fable was promised when we moved here. Even for someone like me. A chance to be more than just a Beast... something other the Wolf he thought.
The North Wind looked up at him with hollow but not unkind eyes.
"You are set on your path it seems. Set to fight against you nature even if it kills you. I can not save you from yourself, but then again when I could ever do anything for you other than spare you" the North Wind said.
Seven times. Seven times where he could have killed me yet he never did. Should have ended it years ago... I would have if our roles had been reversed Bigby thought.
"The Wind will always be a part of you. As is the Wolf. Fight your nature if you must, but use it when you need to, or you will die. You will not accept my help nor my advice, this I know. Still I had to try" the North Wind.
"I don't want your lecture. If I wasn't dying here I'd have thrown you out already" Bigby Wolf said.
An empty threat, both of them knew he was no match for his father.
The North Wind gazed at his son one last time before he faded away as if he had merely been dust in the wind.
Bigby felt the currents move as his father passed on from the mundy world. No magic here could equal it and all the witches and wizards of the 13th floor combined could not hope to match it, with it gone Bigby felt nothing, no relief or even his usual hatred for his father, he was merely empty.
The door to his apartment slammed open and Snow entered with Doctor Swineheart and Collin trailing after her.
"Bigby? Is everything alright? I could have sworn I heard yelling? Was someone here?" Snow said as Doctor Swineheart took a seat beside Bigsby and opened his medical bag.
"No... no one was here" Bigby said softly.
Dr. Swineheart got to work patching Bigsby up as Snow White and Colin watched. Bigsby heard them worrying about him but had mostly stopped listening, he was tired and weak.
Dr. Swineheart had assured him he would live and that was enough for him.
There are days when I wonder if my father is right, if I will always be a slave to my nature as he claims he is Bigsby thinks somberly.
But then Bigsby looks up and see Snow looking at him eyes filled with concern and he remembers the look she gave him when he had become the wolf again. The look of horror Snow had had when she had seen what Bigby really was.
Only now that look was gone, replaced with concern for her friend.
Snow gave him hope that maybe, just maybe, he could change. That he could be more than just the Big Bad Wolf.