-Two Years Ago, Woodlands Apartment Room 204-

Shadow never thought this would happen but he was bored as hell. Especially at the fact that his father was at work and Maria had something to do and he couldn't see her today. He had already read the dozen books he had in his room, he even reread most of them; that's how bored he was. And what's worse, his father told him not to leave the Woodlands without him or at least without his saying so. It felt like it was a prison.

He now found himself watching the TV, and as always nothing good was on, he didn't even know why he even bothered. He looked at the time and let out a groan.

"I feel like I'm going to croak any second now… If something doesn't come my way, I'm going to be very pissed."

As if he spoke of the devil, he heard cries of pain outside, and the sounds of laughter of enjoyment. Curiosity overtook him and he went to the window to check it out. He saw that there were three older boys picking on a young boy who appeared to be two years older than he was. The young boy had short purple hair and wore a dark green t-shirt, and a pair of jeans that was rolled up showing his ankles and a pair of sneakers.

The young boy was getting picked by three older boys, from which Shadow could tell they were mundies.

He saw them kicking the boy, and shouting names. Shadow knew he couldn't just sit there and watch them beating him like a punching bag. He climbed out the window and on the balcony, and very quietly made his way down to where the boy was.

Garry felt himself being thrown against the a trash can; He wiped off the blood from his mouth. "You gonna cry out to mommy you little eggplant?" The teen boy said, "You gonna sit there and cry?"

"Look, I told you already, I don't want any trouble!" Garry had tried to reason while getting up. However he was kicked down to the ground again. Before they could continue, they heard a voice.

"Back off and you won't get hurt!"

The teens turned to see another boy, a pre-teen who looked to be two years younger than Garry. He wore a red and black shirt with a peace sign and grey cargo pants and red sneakers. The pre-teen had shoulder length black and red hair, and red eyes.

The older teens laughed at him. "Really? You want to play with the big boys you little brat?"

The three teens then started to stalk over him, and the boy got into fighting stance. "What are you doing, get out of here!" Garry shouted to him.

One of the teens try to throw a punch at him, but the boy ducked and then did what appeared to be an upper cut. The teen fell back, onto the other piles of trash, just right next to Garry. The two other teens charged at him and tripped them. He then ran over to Garry. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm alright." Garry replied before saying, "How in the world, did you do that?!"

"I taught myself how to fight." The boy replied.

"But…" Garry said, "There were three of them, against a kid like you?"

"I'm not a kid." He said as he helped Garry up off the floor, "Besides, I just saved your life from a bunch of mundies, didn't I?"

"Well yeah…" Garry said brushing himself off, "And I do appreciate the help. Who are you exactly?"

"My name is Shadow." He replied, "Shadow Wolf. From the Woodlands"

Garry's eyes widened in shock when he had heard the name Wolf.

"You're… The Sheriff's-?"

Before he could finish, he saw one of the teen mundies, holding a bat, and about to hit the boy named Shadow with it.

"LOOK OUT! BEHIND YOU!"

Shadow had turned around only to feel a hard object hit him on the side causing him to cry out in pain and fall to his knees. He was hit by it again and he fell right on his face. Garry ran over to him helping him up, only to find a shadow over them .

"YOU DAMN LITTLE BRAT! YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" The teen Mundy shouted, preparing to strike. Shadow squeezed his eyes shut as did Garry and prepared the intense pain that they were about recive. But the pain never came. Shadow had slowly opened his eyes, and saw that the bat was just near his head and saw that a familiar face had stopped the bat from hitting him.

"Dad?" Shadow said.

It was indeed Bigby Wolf who had stopped the bat from hitting both him and Garry. The Mundy teen had tried to get the bat from his grip; Bigby on the other hand disarmed the Mundy and he hit him with the bat instead. The other two teens rushed him, but Bigby had immediately hit them to the ground. The mundies knew they wouldn't be able to take them after they saw the look in his eyes. So they had immediately ran away with their tails between their legs.

Shadow ran over to Bigby still holding on to his side. "Dad, you don't know how happy I am to-"

He was stopped when he felt him slap the back of his head, which caused him to flinch. Shadow looked up and saw that he had an angry look on his face. Shadow sighed and he asked, "I'm in trouble aren't I?"

Bigby nodded his head and said, "Big time."

-Present-

Shadow had felt himself slowly come to after the pain he had suffer from Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. As soon as the image cleared up through his eyes, he found himself in a car; In a cab which was van instead of Garry's car. He rubbed his throbbing head and moaned in pain; He heard a voice that was all too familiar to him which made him freeze.

"Good to see that you're finally awake."

Shadow turned and jumped when he saw who it was, "Gah! Dad!"

"Yeah." Bigby said to him as he glared, "It's me. You're father. Bigby Wolf."

"But I thought you were still at Mr. Toad's place! How did you even-"

"Maria called me right when we were going to leave Toads apartment. She told me what happened over the phone and in person."

Soon enough he saw Maria turn from the seat in front of him.

"Maria!" Shadow said, "I thought I told you that-"

"I know I'm sorry!" Maria said putting her hands together as if she was praying, "But Garry and I found you unconscious badly injured! I didn't know what else to do!"

He then heard Bigby say, "What part of don't do anything stupid do you not understand?"

"Dad look I can explain-"

"When I tell you to stay at the office, I fucking mean stay at the office! You're lucky to be alive after what you just went through!"

Snow who was sitting next to Maria in the front seat turned to him and said, "Bigby is right Shadow." Snow said to him, "You could've been killed. You should've told us that you were going there!"

"Mom, we wanted to call you!" Maria said, "We really did but Shadow said that-"

"I know you mean well, but Shadow doesn't get to make the decisions." Snow said turning to her stopping her at mid-sentence, "You know that."

"But I-We just thought-"

"Maria, I know you, Shadow and Garry were just doing what was right, but you gotta understand we just don't want to see you get hurt, just don't do it again, okay?"

Maria nodded her head, "Yes mom, it won't happen again."

Bigby was getting back to the matter at hand with Shadow, "Snow does make a good point, you can't go making rash decisions like that!"

"So what?" Shadow said, "You make rash decisions all the time too!"

"THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S PART OF MY JOB AS BEING SHERIFF OF FABLETOWN!"

"THAN AS LONG AS I'M A PART OF THE WOODLANDS, THE BUSINESS OFFICE AND FABLETOWN, THAN IT WON'T BE JUST YOUR JOB!"

Shadow managed to calm himself as did Bigby, "Look." Shadow said, "I broke a rule, you're mad, I get it. In fact it's completely understandable to why you're pissed at me, but just hear me out. This case… This dead girl Faith… There might be more to it than meets eye."

At this point both Bigby and Snow got curious to what he was saying, "What do you mean, more to it?" Bigby asked raising an eyebrow.

"I'm just saying this couldn't be just a simple murder." Shadow replied, "You said it yourself last night, whoever left her head on the doorstep was trying to give us a message. I can't say for sure, but it's possible that this could be bigger than any other case that you and Ms. White did over the years."

Bigby at this point was silently and really thought about what Shadow was saying. "What exactly did Lawrence tell you?" Bigby had eventually asked both him & Maria.

"He didn't say much." Maria replied to Bigby, "All he said was a name."

"A name?" Snow asked her.

"Someone named Georgie." She replied.

Bigby asked them, "Georgie?"

"We wanted to ask who he was, but we couldn't, since that man Dee showed up to the apartment." Shadow replied.

"Anything else we should know about?"

"Actually yeah. First of all Lawrence was asking Dee who killed his wife. He acted like he knew Dee from somewhere. Second, Dee said he was looking for the Woodsman for his employer. I tried to ask who his client was, but he refused to say anything, said it was confidential."

"Is Dee a detective?"

"He told me he's a private investigator. He gave me his business card to prove it."

Shadow took the business card out of his pocket and handed it to Bigby; He took a look at the card, before placing it in his pocket.

"Did he say where Woody was now?" He asked Shadow.

"He said he was at the bar, the Trip Trap." Shadow replied, "He told me he was going to go over there to get Woody. To see if he knew anything."

"Alright, I guess that's where we're heading next." Snow said to Bigby, "After that I'll have to take you both home. Garry and Ib will meet us back at the Woodlands. Maria we'll talk about this when we get there."

"And don't you think I've dropped this discussion with you either." Bigby said to Shadow.

The two teens had decided to not say anything, since they knew they couldn't argue with their own parents and plus they didn't want to make things worse for themselves.

The cab driver had taken them over to the Trip Trap, where Bigby had gotten out of the cab. But before he could even approach the front door, he was stopped when he heard Snow. "Bigby, can I have a word with you?" Snow asked as she exited the cab leaving the two teens inside.

"What is it?" Bigby asked turning to her.

"I just wanted to talk to you about this whole case." Snow replied, "Every-time I think we're getting a handle on what's really going on… Things just seem to get more complicated. It just feels like we're always one step behind."

Bigby had replied, "The Woodsman is one of the only leads that we have. He was one of the last one to see Faith alive. Getting answers out of him will start to clear things up."

"I hope you're right. Because if what Shadow said about Dee looking for Woodsman and Lawrence is true than, we can't let him get to him first."

Snow stood there for a moment in silent, unsure if she should ask anything else.

"Do you have anything else you wanted to ask?" Bigby asked her.

"Yeah." Snow said, "Be honest with me… Who do you think did this, really?"

Bigby gave a quizzical look to her, wondering why she would ask her that particular question.

"I know it's still early." Snow said, "But… I just feel a step behind. It's an uncomfortable feeling."

Bigby had decided to give her his honest opinion, "If I had to say… Those two that attacked Shadow, Dee & Dum. They might have something to do with all this."

"You think so?"

"I don't how or why just yet, but if you're asking… It's a hunch."

Meanwhile within the cab, Shadow had tried to move to get a better look as to what Snow and Bigby were talking about, but as soon as he tried to move he felt pain on his right side, the same place where Dee & Dum had kicked him.

He let out a groan and grasped his side when he felt the pain.

Maria who now sat next to him had said to him as she helped him sit up, "Don't push yourself." She said with concern, "You're just going to make it worse."

"Don't worry. I'll be fine." Shadow had told her, "I've dealt with worse, remember?"

"I know." She said, "But still with all the things you do, you worry a lot of people."

"Well…" He said, "It's really worth the trouble."

Maria then turned her attention to Bigby and Snow who were still talking outside.

"What do you think they're talking about?" She asked him.

"Don't know. Probably about this whole case." Shadow had said. "Or worse, our punishment."

"You did disobey Mr. Wolf's orders."

"And if I didn't Lawrence would've probably been dead by the time they got to his apartment. Besides you did the same thing. Is Lawrence still-"

Maria nodded her head, "He'll be fine. While you were unconscious Ib said that Swineheart had gotten there in time. He said he'll be alright."

Shadow gave a sigh a relief, "Thank god." He said, "At least one good thing came out of doing this." Maria gave a small smile, "Yeah, I guess you're right about that." He had noticed that Maria's eyes had changed. It was a familiar vibe that he was getting off of her. "Hey." Shadow said, "What's the matter?"

"I'm wondering…" Maria said, "Are you, going to be taking more risk like this?"

This made Shadow confused by her question. "What do you mean?"

"I mean about what you said before. About this case being bigger than what my mother and Mr. Wolf have been able to handle. Do you think it might be true?"

"Maybe, maybe not. I don't know it could be."

"Than will you be taking more risks like this?"

"If it comes to it. Than yes, they're probably going to be more risks like this one. Why? You planning on stopping me?"

Maria shook her head, "I know there's no point in trying to once your mind is set on things like this, but…"

Shadow raised an eyebrow, "But…?"

She once again let out a small smile, "No, it's nothing, just promise me you'll be careful, and not get yourself killed?"

She held out her pinky to him, letting Shadow's eyes widen. He knew Maria would at times get concerned about his safety, but what she has been saying just now, she was basically granting him permission to keep taking the risks in the whole case. This was pretty new for him to see Maria act this way. He couldn't figure out what it was though.

Eventually he let his pinky intertwine with hers and he said, "Promise."

They than proceeded to both say a rhyme.

Pinky, pinky bow-bell

Whoever tells a lie

Will sink down to the bad place

And never rise up again

"There." Maria said with a smile as she pulled away her pinky, "Now I know you'll be able to keep the promise, just like when we were kids."

"Glad to see your so trusting." Shadow said jokingly.

They had both proceeded to laugh.

After awhile Snow had gotten back into the cab, with Bigby escorting her. He shut the car door the minute she had got in. Bigby turned around and once again before he could enter the front door, he was stopped by Snow.

"Bigby." She said.

Bigby turned back to her.

Snow had then said hesitantly, "I… Um… Just be careful, please."

Bigby had then replied letting out small smile, "The same goes for you."

"I will." Snow said, smiling back.

Thus the cab had left, and Bigby descended down the stairs to enter the Trip Trap.