-Two Years Ago; Woodlands Apartment-

Garry sat in the Living Room with his little seven-year-old sister watching television. His mother Beauty came in with two plates, which had brownies. "Here you Garry, Ib, fresh out of the oven." She said to them handing each of them a plate containing one brownie.

"Aw sweet!" Garry said with a smile and his eyes just sparkled at the sight, "Thanks mom!"

"Thank you mommy!" Ib said with her eyes sparkling as well.

They took the plates of brownies from their mother and proceeded to eat them; their eyes sparkled even more, which caused Beauty to giggle a little. "Hey mom?" Garry had asked, "Is dad going to take us to the park today?"

Beauty had replied, placing her hand on his shoulder, "Oh, I'm sorry honey. Daddy had to work again today."

"Oh…" Garry said with a pouty look.

Beauty than cheered him by saying, "But don't worry, I'm sure he'll take you and Ib to the park this coming weekend, don't worry."

"Yeah, sure." Garry replied.

Just than they heard the doorbell ringing. "Who could that be?" Beauty had mumbled to herself and she proceeded to answer the door. She opened the door and it was revealed to be-

"Oh, Shadow, Maria!" Beauty said.

"Hi Mrs. Beauty." Shadow & Maria both said.

"What are you two doing here?" She asked the two of them.

"We came here to see Garry." Shadow had replied to Beauty, "Is it alright if we come in?"

"Of course, come on inside." Beauty had said to them, and she lead them to the Living Room.

Garry had immediately took notice of them. He recognized Shadow, but he didn't of course recognize Maria. "Oh hey! It's you again." Garry said to him, "Good afternoon."

"Hey there Garry." Shadow said, "It's nice to see you again."

"So your Garry huh?" Maria said, "It's nice to finally meet you. My name is Maria White."

"Maria White?" Ib had asked, "You were adopted by Ms. White?"

"Yeah." Maria said, "The one and only Snow White."

"What are you guys doing here anyway?" Garry had asked.

"Our parents are at work right now." Shadow had replied, "They said it was okay to come and visit you."

"Really they allow you to do that?" He asked.

"Yeah." Maria said, "So long as we don't get into any trouble."

Maria & Shadow sat down beside Garry as they talked for a little while. Since the day that Shadow had saved his life from the teenage mundies they have been hanging out, or at least try to make the time for it. Considering the fact that Shadow was grounded by Bigby Wolf for pulling what he considers a stupid stunt, and should've at least told him about the situation and thus he was grounded for two weeks. Garry kind of felt bad for getting him grounded, but Shadow told him not to worry about it and had said it was alright.

After the two weeks were up he and Garry were able to hang out, with their parents permissions of course.

Shadow had told Maria about him and had decided to bring her along with him.

They sat and watched the television which had played cartoons as they played the card game old maid.

"YAY!" Ib shouted with glee, "I'M THE FIRST OUT!"

The three were both shocked and amazed. "Oh come on!" Shadow said, "That's the third time she's the first out!"

"Your sister is really good at this game." Maria said to Garry.

"I did tell you guys that she was better at this game than I am." Garry had told them.

"Yeah, and you weren't kidding." Shadow had told him.

As they continued to play the game Maria had said to them, "I've never seen you two around the Woodlands before. Are you both new?"

Garry had replied while deciding which card to take from Shadow's hand, "Actually no, we've been here for a while. We were adopted by Beauty and Beast seven years ago."

"Really?" Shadow said, "You've been here for that long? But I've never seen you around here much, let alone outside."

"Yeah, that's my parents." Garry said, "They can be very protective over me and Ib sometimes, but that's mostly my dad."

"Than what were doing outside of the Woodlands?"

"I was out for a walk at the time, although I didn't count on being beaten by those teen mundies."

"Yeah well, no one pretty much counted on that."

Garry picked a card from Shadow's hand but made an disappointed groan when he got the wrong card.

"That reminds me, is Mr. Wolf still mad about what you did?" Maria asked Shadow.

"Kind of." Shadow said as he proceeded to pick a card from Maria's hand, "He's not as mad as before." "That's good." She said, as Shadow took a card, discarding two when he got a matching pair, "If he's not as mad as before than it is progress."

"Progress?" Garry asked.

"It's kind of how dad is." Shadow simply replied, "Especially when it comes to other people."

"Huh." Garry said, "No wonder mom and dad say he can be at times scary, no offence."

"No, I'm with you." Shadow had told him, "He can be scary when he's angry."

"Doesn't it bother you?"

"What doesn't bother me?"

"That you're living with the former Big Bad Wolf?"

Shadow shook his head, which Garry was surprised at it. "You're not?" Garry had asked him. "Nope." Shadow said, "To be honest I don't mind living with the Big Bad Wolf himself. I mean I've heard in the Homelands that he caused trouble, but here once you get to know him, you can see that he's just giving what you would call, tough love."

Ib tilted her head. "You really think so?"

Shadow simply smiled her and said, "I know so."

Just than they heard Maria say, "Yay! I'm the second one out!"

Shadow and Garry eyes both widened in shock and they both shouted in unison, "WHAT!?"


Bigby had entered the Trip Trap while fixing his tie; the bar had contained a single fan and a pool table. When he saw that there were only two people within the bar; which was Holly & Grendel. The two had took notice of Bigby when he entered the surprisingly small bar and they gave him a glare.

"What do you want Sheriff?" The woman who was named Holly had asked him, with attitude and placing her hand on her hip.

"I'm looking for the Woodsman." Bigby had replied to her.

"Well he's not here." She replied while crossing her arms, "So I guess you can go now."

Bigby approached the bar, "Look, I'm not even going to ask where he is right now, okay? I just wanna know the last time he was here, that's all."

"Who?" Holly asked, turning to Grendel for a moment.

Bigby placed both his hands on the bar, "I'm being nice, so try again."

Holly had replied, trying not to make eye contact with him, "He hasn't been here for a few weeks."

"Really?"

"No, maybe… I don't know. But yeah, he hasn't been in here for awhile, if he's been here at all… which… I… I don't know."

Bigby had noticed that she kept making eye contact to Grendel, who would shake his head, whenever she turned over to him. "Don't let him tell you what to do." Bigby said to her, "You're your own woman."

"Well this is me talking Bigby…" She said, "Fuck off."

He soon noticed that there was a half empty glass. Curious to who it belonged to, he had asked Holly, "Who is that?"

"Someone who left." Holly replied.

"Why didn't you dump it than?"

Holly had said nothing; she couldn't answer the sheriff. He heard Grendel answer for her, "If you want to a cleaner place, feel free to get the fuck out of here." Bigby turned to Grendel, "I'm sensing a very hostile tone from you." He stated, "Don't deny it. I'm good at picking up on this stuff."

He noticed a picture of the Woodsman. "He a regular?" He asked Holly once more.

"I don't know who you're talking about." She said turning away from him.

"The one with the bald head and the beard." He said.

She soon turned back to him, "Never seen him."

Bigby knew it would be hopeless when talking to Holly, so he decided to do the next best thing and talk to Grendel. He walked over to him, and took a seat just next to him.

"Lotta stools in this place." Grendel had said not making eye contact with him.

"But there's only one right next to you." Bigby simply replied.

Holly walked over to where he sat, "You gonna order something or you just going to bother my customers?"

Bigby took another look around the bar, seeing how it was empty anyone can practically a tumbleweed just roll by.

"You know what I mean." Holly said to him.

"Gimme a Midas' Gold."

"You wanna lime with that?"

"Sure."

"I think they have some at the bar down the street."

Grendel laughed at what Holly had said to Bigby. "You think it's funny?" The Sheriff asked him.

To which Grendel had replied, "Yeah, think it's fuckin' hilarious." He took a sip from his drink. "It was alright." He said playing along, before saying, "Come on guys. I don't want to be here. You don't want me here. The sooner you answer my questions the sooner I'll be out of your-"

Bigby was soon cut off when he heard a sound of flushing coming from the back room; He heard someone whistling while someone was washing their hands. The doors opened and it had revealed to be the Woodsman.

"Holly you're out of paper towels in the-"

The Woodsman, nicknamed Woody, was cut off when he noticed that Bigby was sitting at the bar. Bigby smiled at him, but Woody had seemed to ignore him as he took his seat by the half empty glass.

"Saved your beer for you." Bigby said to him, "Holly wanted to clear it, but I said, no he'll be back. Now here you are."

Woody had seemed to ignored what Bigby had said. "You and me've been goin' at it for hundreds of years…" Woody said, "I'm through fightin'." He took a sip from his drink.

"Well, Woody, that makes two of us." Bigby had said before saying to Grendel, "You're in luck. I've decided to switch seats."

He got up from his seat. Before he could walk over to Woody, Grendel had stopped him. Bigby turned to him, "I just want to talk. It doesn't have to go like this." Grendel had turned to him to look him in the eye, "Maybe he don't want to talk to you."

"Why don't you let him tell me that?" He asked earning a glare from Grendel.

"It's okay Gren." He heard Woody say.

Grendel looked over at Woody only for a second before removing his hand from his shoulder. Bigby walked over to where Woody sat and took a seat next to him.

"It's funny…" The Sheriff said, "Just a minute ago no one seemed to know who you were."

"Yeah… Well…" Woody said, "Everyone knows you. Big Bad Wolf. Now I'm the bad guy and you're the Sheriff. What kinda fuckin' world is that, huh?"

"Come on Woody." He said, "Why did you do it? No bullshit."

"Same reason people do a lot of awful things." Woody had replied, "For money."

Bigby didn't know what he meant by that until he started to explain it.

"I'd walked past her place for weeks… She didn't look like it, but she had money. I was sure of it. And she wouldn't put up any kinda fight. I was gonna rob her. And the night I finally got the nerve to do it… There you are… Fuckin' things up for me. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wasn't there to save her…"

"What are you talking about exactly?" Bigby asked him knowing perfectly well he wasn't talking about Faith.

"Red Riding Hood." Woody had answered, "Her grandmother. I was there to rob them… When I showed up you were already there… Lying in bed. I only saved her cause' I thought she was going to give me a reward… but she didn't give shit. Cept a buncha people thinkin' I'm something I ain't. I played along as long as I could. Only I managed to get from it was a free drink every now and again… huh lotta good that did."

"I already know this story, Woody." Bigby had said to him.

"You should, you were there." He said to the Sheriff.

Bigby had finally told Woody the reason why he was here, "I'm not talking about Red Riding Hood, I'm here about Faith. She was murdered."

Woody gave a confused look to Bigby, "What? Faith? Who's that?"

"The girl you were beating on this morning." Bigby had replied.

At this point, Woody eyes widened in shock; Bigby clearly saw that panic had started to rise. He practically started to sweat, "No. No. No. No. I was here. I swear."

"It doesn't look good when a girl getting smackin' around shows up dead hours later." Bigby said to him.

Woody had begun to sweat; The panic started to rise in him. "She's dead?" He said with realization; he turned to him, "Bigby listen… I'm a piece of shit, okay… I know that. I hit that girl. I did. I shouldn't've but I didn't kill her. You believe me right? They're gonna string me up, Bigby. Like you said, it looks fuckin' bad, it looks really bad. But I didn't do it."

"He was here." Bigby heard Grendel say, "That's the fuckin' truth Sheriff."

"You see Bigby?" Woody said, "Bigby please. You can't. They'll throw me down the Witching Well. That's what they'll do and I didn't do it. You know that."

Grendel finished his drink, he slammed his drank on the table and got up from his seat. Woody realized what Grendel was about to do, he immediately got up from his seat, "Stop! This isn't what I want!"

"Shut the fuck up Woody!" Grendel said to Woody, "Shit just ain't about you. It's about this fuckin' lap dog. Only comes sniffing around this part of town when the rich fucks in the Woodlands need a shakedown! Ain't that right Bigby?"

"You're backing the wrong guy." Bigby said turning to him, "If you saw what I saw last night, you'd know that."

"What I see is someone who wouldn't be here if I was the one needin' the law for some help!" Grendel had retorted, "Holly's sister goes missing and no one gives two shits about her. Paperwork, waiting rooms, and that bitch Snow White looking right past me, then ushering me out fuckin' door!"

"I wouldn't call her that." Bigby said getting up from his seat, "It's happened before, and it doesn't end well."

"I didn't realize you were the bitch of the bitch."

At that point, Bigby just lost it, without even thinking about the consequences, he had punched Grendel right in the face; the impact caused Grendel to fall over a stool and than to the ground.

Grendel wiped the blood from his mouth, "Is that all you got?" He said while sitting up.

"Seemed to be enough." Bigby had replied.

"Don't be so sure."

Grendel got up from the floor, as he did he changed from his human form to his true form which made Bigby say as he rolled his eyes, "Oh, good."

Grendel was now twice the size compared to Bigby, and because of the small space they were in, he uses his hands to move as well as if he were a gorilla. He got face to face with Bigby, "Should've walked out of here when you had the chance." He said with his voice slightly deep.

"Come on, you're scaring the lady." Bigby said to him.

He heard Holly say, "Don't worry about me."

She changed from her human form to her true form as well; her true form of being a troll.

With Bigby distracted, Grendel made his first move. He hit Bigby with brute force causing him to stumble backward. Luckily Bigby stopped himself from falling, by hitting the bar instead of falling to the floor. He attempted to use a beer mug to hit Grendel, but Holly acted fast and forced Bigby to put the beer mug down, slamming on the wood.

Grendel grabbed him from behind and slammed Bigby on the ceiling breaking the fan. He continued to do this until Bigby grabbed the ceiling fan and slammed it right on his head; But he quickly came to regret that when he collided with the floor.

Grendel picked him up off the ground and through him across the room. Bigby quickly recovered; he saw Grendel push the pool towards him. He acted fast and he jumped up so that he was now on the table; He punched him again, but Grendel hit Bigby which sent him flying towards the exit door due to his strength.

Bigby shook the pain off and got up, but he found himself ducking when Grendel through a chair at him; a table managed to hit him.

Grendel grabbed his leg, and he swung him around like a rag doll, letting him hit the wall, the ceiling, and floor. Grendel had then proceeded to drag Bigby back over to the bar, but soon was stopped.

He turned and saw claw marks trailing over to Bigby's hands. Grendel picked him up and threw him across the room again.

Bigby around revealing his eye had changed to yellow and coated with black. He growled revealing his fangs; he was slightly more hairy from his arms to his beard and chest. He had his hands open revealing that he indeed have claws.

Grendel charged at him and Bigby punched him to the ground causing him slide across the floor and squirt a little blood. Before Grendel could get up he kicked him in the stomach, so that he fell face flat on the ground.

Grendel had then tackled him. Bigby sunk his claws in his right shoulder causing him to cry out in agony, drop him, lose his balance and collide with the wall.

Bigby jumped on his back; Grendel had tried to shake him off but to no avail, Bigby held on tight. He then scratched his neck causing him to cry out in agony; he then scratched his neck. He tried to get Bigby off by hitting him into the wall, but instead Bigby grabbed a broken pool stick right in the shoulder.

Grendel fell to his knees, and Bigby got off of his back and hit him right in the leg, breaking it.

The sheriff ignored Woody's voice, despite the fact that he was telling him to stop. He grabbed a hold of Grendel's arm.

Just when he was preparing himself to rip off his arm clean off, he soon heard a voice which he recognized yell out to him, "STOP!"

Bigby turned and was shocked to see his son Shadow standing right there in the bar. "What is he doing here?" Bigby couldn't help but wonder.

"He's already got the message!" Shadow said running over to him, "There's no need to take this any further!"

Bigby turned back to Grendel and turned back to Shadow who was now by his side. In the next moment he let go of Grendel letting Shadow sigh with relief. He then walked over to the bar, to a frightened Holly.

"Whiskey." He said.

Hesitantly, Holly got the bottle of wine and a small cup, but Bigby threw it to the side causing to the break.

"Double." He said.

Once again hesitantly Holly got out a twice the size of the smaller cup. She poured the whiskey into the cup. Bigby drank his drink in one gulp and once he placed the cup down on to the table he was back to his old self.

"All this. Never happened." Bigby said to Holly.

She was about to pour him another drink, "I'm good." He said stopping her as he paid for the drink.

Woody was slowly making his way towards the back door, the same way Shadow came in. "Don't even think about it." Bigby had said to him with a glare.

"Is this the kind of treatment I can expect if I let you take me in?" Woody had asked Bigby shooting a glare back to him.

"Hey, he started it." Bigby said.

"You hit him first!" The axeman said to the sheriff.

"Yeah, but he was being an asshole." Bigby said to him.

He then turned to his son Shadow who just stood there just on the other side of the bar. Shadow smiled and waved awkwardly to him, knowing that he was in a whole lot of trouble. Before Bigby could ask what he was even doing here, he heard the entrance to the bar open up and came another voice.

The person that came in the bar revealed to be Tweedle Dee.

"Alright, I got a hundred bucks for the first bloke that can tell me something about a girl named-"

Dee was cut off when he saw Grendel on the floor grasping his shoulder. He turned and saw Bigby and Shadow (Who was giving him a death glare). Bigby turned to Dee.

"Fuck." Dee said.

Just than in a single moment both Woody and Dee started to make a break for it and the whole world just seemed to go in slow motion. Bigby let out a growl as he was unsure who to go after.

Shadow on the other hand, wasted no time of who to go after. He immediately charged at Dee, and grabbed a hold of his arm. Once again despite his size he kept him in place but that soon stopped when Dee punched in the place where he and his brother kicked him, causing him to fall to his knees as he cried in agony, "GAH! SON OF A BITCH THAT HURTS!"

Dee ran straight for the door only to be rammed right into it by Bigby who got him pinned. "Fuck man!" Dee said, "That's not necessary!"

Bigby saw Woody run out the back door in a panic. "Shit…" He said under his breath.

"He's the one you want not me!" Dee said to Bigby. It wasn't long to he felt cuffs around both of his wrists. Bigby went over to Shadow dragging Dee along with him. He helped him off the floor with his free hand.

"You alright?" Bigby asked him.

Shadow nodded his head, "Yeah, more or less."

"Hey kid!" Dee said to Shadow, "Tell your old man that he's got the wrong guy!"

Shadow shot another death glare at him as he said, "Your brother won't be able to help you this time around."

Bigby showed Dee out the door with Shadow following behind him, "C'mon, you're under arrest."

"I told you, I didn't do it!" Dee said.

"Than you got nothing to worry about." Bigby reassured him.


With Dee in custody Bigby walked down the block with Shadow by his side. Throughout most of the walk they were both silent, they didn't say a word to each other. He noticed that he was holding to his side and hissing in agony after what he just endured from Dee.

Bigby finally broke the silence between them, "You sure you're okay? You've been favoring your side for a while now."

"Yeah." Shadow said, "I just didn't expect it to hurt this much."

"What were you doing at the Trip Trap anyway? I thought you had gone home with Maria and Snow."

Shadow rubbed the back of his head, unsure if he should answer him. "Well…" He started to say.

"Don't make me force the answer out of you." Bigby threatened, "You know I can do that."

Shadow finally let out a sigh and replied, "I snuck out of the cab before it drove off and snuck in through the back of the Trip Trap. I figured that you might needed some back up."

"Does Snow know you're with me?"

"...Probably."

Bigby sighed as he rubbed his eyes, "Look, I appreciate the thought but it's bad enough that you put yourself in danger whenever something like this happens, hell you almost got yourself killed today just trying to catch this douche bag."

"Hey!" Dee said.

"But would you cut me a break here Shadow? I've got enough to worry about in this case."

"With all due respect dad, I don't think I can, not after what I've seen today. Lawrence, that poor girl Faith, I'm sorry but I can't let that go, I've already made up my mind on this."

"Shadow listen you gotta understand, this case is different than the ones you and your friends have been able to handle before. I'm not saying to just drop the case entirely, I'm just saying you should just take a step back and let Snow and I take care of it."

"I think I'll be able to handle what comes my way. Besides I said it before didn't I? It's not just your job anymore, it's mine as well."

Bigby gave an annoyed sigh and just thought to himself, "Why can't he understand that this case is different than what he's been able to handle. Besides if he were to get hurt or worse from this than. God I don't want to have to think about it."

Bigby was soon bought out of his train of thought when he heard Shadow.

"Dad?" He said, "There something wrong? You had your thinking look on."

Bigby turned to him, "Well it's obvious I can't stop you from getting involved in this case than you already are, and since we're short on hand anyway I'm going to let you continue to help out. But you have to promise me that you won't do anything stupid, and not go anywhere related to this case without me or Snow."

"Promise." Shadow said, unknowingly to Bigby that he had his fingers crossed behind his back.

"Good." He said to him, "I'm glad we have an understanding. Now hopefully when we get back to Woodlands we'll get closer to figuring out about what's-"

"What the hell?" Shadow suddenly said cutting him off.

Bigby turned his to where it caught Shadow's eye. Shadow ran ahead, with Bigby soon following. As soon as they turned corner to reach the Woodlands, they found police just parked at the front with "Caution Tapes" around the entrance.

"The Mundy Police?" Shadow said, "What are they doing here?"

"Don't know." Bigby said.

He then proceeded to cuff Dee at a nearby light post. "Do anything stupid, and I'll throw you down the Witching Well myself." He threatened Dee. He turned to Shadow, "And you stay put, I mean it this time."

"Scouts honor." Shadow said to him while saluting.

Bigby had then walked over to the front gate. As he did saw a police walk away from the scene trying real hard not to throw up. Bigby managed to get under the tape since most of the officers were distracted by Beast who had just came just around the corner.

He went over to the front door as the whole world around him went slow once more. He saw that most of the other Police Officers were towering over something. He leaned over the shoulders of the Officers, only to find his eyes widened and jaw drop by what he never thought he would see.

What he saw before him, was the head of Snow White.