-Woodlands; Beauty and Beast's Apartment (Noon)-

Bigby got off the elevator and approached the apartment. He heard Beauty and Beasts voices; from the sound of it they were both arguing, most likely about Beast finding out where Beauty had worked either that or something else entirely. In all honesty he didn't care; the only thing he had to focus was finding the Crooked Man. He knocked on the door; the voices inside ceased.

After but a few moments, the door opened slightly and it was revealed to be Beauty's husband, Beast.

"What do you want?" Beast asked with a glare.

"You called right?" Bigby replied, "Or was it Beauty?"

Beast said to him, "Why would I call you?"

Bigby couldn't help but let out a sigh, "Listen, I've had a shitty night…"

"You think you're the only one?" He said to the sheriff.

"And I really don't wanna deal with the runaround. Snow said you called and wanted to talk to me."

"Well I didn't call you. Must've been Beauty. She's been… surprising me a lot lately."

"Listen can I just-"

"And so have you Bigby. Yet with all this sneaking around and secrets, somehow, I'm still the bad guy in this. I've had to hear it all night long from her." Bigby soon Beauty's voice calling out to Beast, "Who is it Beast? Who's at the door? Is that Garry & Ib?"

Bigby had said to Beast, "Are you gonna let me in or what?"

Beast said nothing to him. He just shut the door and Bigby heard him remove the lock. He opened the door again and Bigby walked inside.

"It's not Garry or Ib." Beast said to Beauty, "It's your pal, Bigby."

"Hi Bigby." She said to him, "Could you excuse us for just a minute?"

Beauty and Beast stepped into the other room, shutting the door behind them. Bigby stepped further into the room surprised to see how nice the apartment was. Just by looking at the luxury sofa, a beautiful painting and many books and drapes, you could swear it was a part of a castle once. "Hm, I guess I really do have the smallest apartment in the Woodlands." Bigby couldn't help but say aloud.

He noticed that Garry and Ib were nowhere to be seen. He couldn't help but wonder where they ran off too. Maybe they didn't want to hear their parents argue he thought to himself. He knew for a fact that neither Ib or Garry never liked to see their parents fight, so they would either do two things; Give them some space or convince them to stop arguing.

Although given the situation, he wouldn't be surprised if they went with the first option.

After what almost seemed like forever, Beauty and Beast emerged from the other room, finishing up their conversation. "Sorry." Beauty said to him, "It's been a long night."

"Yeah." Beast said, "You know what they say, centuries of marriage come with centuries of baggage."

Bigby took another around the apartment, "I gotta say, your place looks… Expensive." He said to them.

"What do you mean by that?" Beast asked him.

"Beast-" Beauty was about to say before Beast cut her off.

"No, really I wanna know." Beast said, "What are you trying to say, huh? Did you come to give us decorating tips?"

Bigby turned to them, "I thought you were having money problems. But it doesn't look like your suffering to me."

He then turned back to Beauty, "Is this about that loan you took out… From the Crooked Man?"

Beauty had said, "I didn't know what else to do, so-"

Beast cut her off again, "We should deal with this on our own. Bigby is just going to complicate things."

"I called him here." Beauty told him, "I wanted to see if he could help us out. Why are you being like this?"

"I'm just trying to do what's best for us. For our family." He replied to his wife, "That's all I ever do."

Bigby said "If you really have a problem, what kind of trouble are you in? Either it's the money or it's something else."

"I gotta know one thing first." Beast said to him, "What if we did have something to do with the Crooked Man? What if we talk and you don't get him and all this comes back on us? We'd be risking a lot. We've seen what happens when you cross the Crooked Man. And I don't know if it's worth it… If you can't give us… assurances."

"You think your the only one that's not in danger?" Bigby told him, "If you have info on that crooked bastard, I need to hear it. Otherwise, I've got better things to do."

"No, please don't!" Beauty begged.

"Than tell me what the fuck is going on!?" The Sheriff exclaimed, "You're so much in debt? Look around you. This isn't the way people short on cash live."

"Look, we're used to a certain kind of… Lifestyle okay?" Beast said, "We couldn't just give that up."

Beauty had added, "We never meant for it to get like this. It's just that… we had nowhere else to turn. And we got in over our heads."

"There's not a lot of work out there." Beast had said, "Who we would've been if we have just lived like-"

Just than the phone started to ring cutting off Beast. Bigby saw both Beauty & Beast tense up when the phone started to ring. The ringing came to a stop at one point and the voicemail to leave a message started.

"Uh, let me just…" Beast before going towards the phone.

Bigby stopped him before he could pick up. "We're not done." Bigby told him.

"I should…" Beast said. He looked into Bigby's eyes and he saw that there was point in trying to talk sense into him.

Eventually the beep had sounded, and soon enough whoever was calling had left a message.

"That fucking message!" The person said, "I'm gonna come down there and bash your heads in with that machine if I have to call and hear that fucking message one more time! I've been doing this long enough to know that if you had the cash you would've paid by now. So consider yourselves outta of warnings. It's time to start and thinking about how else you can settle this. Because next time, I'm making a house call."

"What the hell did you get yourselves into?" Bigby had asked the two.

Beauty nor Beast answered him, They just simply looked away and stared at the floor.

The person started to finish the message, "The Crooked Man is gonna get his. One way or another." Thus they heard a click at the other end. Bigby sighed and shook his head. He turned to them, "Look all I care about right now is how to find the Crooked Man? Who do I talk to? Where do I go?"

Beauty and Beast both turned to each other; Both of them equally knowing that there was nothing more to hide from Bigby anymore. They embraced each other.

"The Lucky Pawn." Beauty said to Bigby, still within Beast's arms, "That's where I borrowed the money."

Beast released her from his hold.

"The Crooked Man is behind that place." She continued, "I overheard that people go to Jersey about loans before. So when I needed the money… That's where I went. I didn't know what else to do."

"You could've told me." Beast said to her.

She had replied back, "You had enough on your plate."

Bigby couldn't help but give a quizzical expression to Beauty. Jersey? Why did that name sound familiar to him?

"Wait, who do you deal with it?" Bigby couldn't help but ask.

"Jersey." Beauty replied, "You know, the Jersey Devil."

That pretty much answered Bigby's question to why the name sounded familiar.

"Oh yeah." Bigby said, "That slimy prick. I didn't realize he was back on this side of the river."

Beauty had continued to explain, "The Tweedles were always going in and out, probably dropping off a loan payment they squeezed out of some poor Fable. But never the Crooked Man. Mainly it's just regular Fables. I can see that it was a mistake, but… I'm not the only one who goes there you know. I saw the Woodsman's Axe there just the other day. It was in a display case."

"The Woodsman?" Bigby said with a quizzical look.

"I guess he's hit hard times too." Beast said, "There's been a lot of that going around. Although I can't imagine him having any marketable skills."

Beauty had added, "Sometimes… Fables just don't have anywhere else to go."

"Fucking Bloody Mary must go through there." Bigby said, "She had Woody's axe last night; she tried to kill me and my son."

"Maybe if you go to the Lucky Pawn, you can sort things out." Beauty said.

"I guess I'll go check out it out." Bigby said, "If I can't track down the Crooked Man there, maybe I can make enough noise that the Crooked Man will come and find me."

"Hold on Bigby don't go there." Beast said, "Sounds like you're just going to get Beauty in trouble, and…"

Beast's words started to trail off before he took a sit on the couch; Beauty joined him. "You know that butcher shop?" Beast asked, "The Cut Above? It's the place on Tubman Street. Same block as the baker and the candlestick maker. Well, I've been delivering packages there for a while. The thing is… It's for the Crooked Man. And I don't think it's meat in the packages. You gotta understand, I needed work."

"You have to believe us." Beauty said, "We didn't mean for it to get like this."

Bigby had asked Beast, "Well what are you delivering? What's going on there? How does it fit into the Crooked Man's operation?"

"I couldn't tell you." Beast said, "But I do know this… It's the only meat market in town that doesn't carry filet. I'm not sure how much actual butchery goes on there."

"How did you get involved in this?"

"Johann, the butcher called. He had a problem with the refrigeration unit one night. But when I finished, it was your pal, Mary who showed up to pay me. She said I was reliable, she liked that, and… It's the only thing I picked up. And it's still not enough. I don't want Beauty to have to work. Especially not where she was. It's up me to take care of her, and the kids."

"It's Mary you deal with? Bloody Mary is there?"

"No, Johann is one who hands over the packages. You know, from day to day. But I've seen her around there. She, uh… Gets under my skin, you know? I… I try to avoid her… But I don't need to tell you what she's like."

"You're damn right you don't. I don't need a run down on her reputation. If Mary works there, I need to look into it…"

Beast said, "Look, all I wanted was to provide for my family. Give them the kind of life they deserve."

Beauty had added, "We shouldn't have to live like this. Scrapping to get by."

"None of us should." Her husband said, "We were royalty once. Beauty and I were accustomed to a certain lifestyle. All we want is to make this place feel a little bit like home. I'm sorry to say this but… You wouldn't understand what that's like."

Bigby shook his head, and replied, "No, probably not. If what you say is true about your business, I'll head to the Cut Above first, before the Lucky Pawn."

"You know Bigby, once you go there, word is going to spread." Beauty said, "There may be nothing left for you to see if you go to the Lucky Pawn after."

"Well, I guess I'll find out." Bigby said.

He stepped out of the apartment and entered the hallway. He was about to get into the elevator when he was stopped by Beauty and Beast again.

"Wait." Beast said, "I don't know what you're planning to do when you find the Crooked Man, but… Is there any way you could… Help us out?"

All Bigby did was give a quizzical look to them, "What do you mean?" He asked.

Beast said, "Well, maybe you can just, make this all go away."

"We would really appreciate it." Beauty added, "What do you say?"

"Can you help us out?" Beast asked him.

Bigby put together what Beauty and Beast were saying to him, or at least, what he thought they were saying to him. "You're asking me to kill him aren't you?" Beast asked them both, "Is that what you think I do?"

"What? No!" Beauty denied immediately, "Of course not!"

"I don't know where you would get that idea." Beast said, "We just know that the Crooked Man is dangerous. To all of us. To Fabletown. "

All Bigby told the two of them was, "I'm gonna do my job. Lucky for you, that might just solve your problems anyway." He turned and approached the elevator. "Thank you Bigby." He heard Beauty say, than Beast, "I'm sure you'll do the right thing." Bigby entered the elevator when it arrived, and proceeded to go down to the library.

As he waited, he wondered about the whole case entirely. Especially when Beast had said Crooked Man was dangerous to Fabletown. He couldn't help but wonder, who else could be under the Crooked Man's thumb, and how long exactly the problems like what with Beauty and Beast have been going on exactly, and just how many people are involved. It bothered him so much, it was pretty much the only thing on his mind other than the case.

The elevator doors opened, and stepped out. Before he could turn to the door, he suddenly felt someone throw his arms around him. He soon realized it was-

"Maria?!" He exclaimed, finding Maria's arms around his neck. He felt her cry into his shoulder; He pushed her out of the hug and asked with concern, "Hey, what's wrong?"

Maria couldn't answer him, she just continued to sob. Just than Garry ran through the front doors along with his little sister Ib. He was pretty much out of breath. "BOSS!" He exclaimed, catching his breath, "OH, THANK GOD WE FOUND YOU!"

"Garry? Ib?" He said questioningly, "What are you two doing-Hey, wait a minute."

Bigby looked around and realized that, someone was missing. His son wasn't with them!

"Shadow, where is he?" Bigby asked them.

"Boss, we were really stupid!" Garry said with guilt in his eyes, "We did something really stupid! We thought we could handle it, we thought we could find the Crooked Man without the mirror but-God I'm so sorry! I should've done something to stop it!"

"Whoa, whoa, hang on a second!" Bigby said stopping Garry, "Just calm down and just explain to me what's happened, why are you apologizing to me? And where is Shadow, I thought he was with you Maria?"

Maria wiped away her tears and the words that she said to Bigby had struck him like a blade.

"Shadow... His... His been kidnapped."

Hello, Tenshi here, and thanks for reading this chapter :)! I'd like to apologize about how long it took me to post this. Originally I was hoping to post the chapters during the summer, but due to the fact that college was starting around that time, and I was working my other works (Mainly the original stories I came up with) it took me longer than expected so again, I apologize in advance for this.

I'd also like to say to all that are reading this, those who are following and those that reviewed thank you so very, very much for being super patient with this. It means so much that you're still reading this even it took me this long to update, I know it must've killed you to wait so long, so I hope it was worth it if you enjoyed this chapter.

And shoutout to WritingIsMyHobby, thanks so much about your review of my story so far, it means so much to me, and it brings me joy that people like you enjoy my story this much X3. And I agree it's a great game, I love it so much.

So yeah, that's all for now, I'm still alive people and still working on this, so hopefully, more chapters of this will be coming soon!