Chapter 2

It had been now officially been two years since the Crooked man case! Snow was now rather relieved that it was now that far behind them. It wasn't much in Fable terms, but at least it was over. And with all of her hard work she finally felt like she was making some progress in this town.

She looked around the busy office as she waited for Bufkin to bring in the next fable she needed to help. She briefly wonders if she should check on Bigby before quickly pushing that thought out of her mind. Two years and she was still avoiding the poor guy, and she refused to think that she was in the wrong about it! Bigby had gone against all of her orders, so clearly their less than professional relationship they had to go in place of the distant one that had now.

She's pulled out of her head by a duo approaching her desk. That duo consisted of Grendel and the woodman. The sat before loudly trying to explain their grievance to Snow. At first, she couldn't clearly understand the two, with them talking over each other, but she does hear a few key words like 'Sheriff' and 'Bigby'. She puts a hand up to stop their ranting, "Wait, what was that about Sheriff wolf? And only one of you explain please."

The woodsman explains, "We're worried about him Ms. White! He been actin' a bit off lately, well he has been for a while now…"

"What do you mean he's 'acting a bit odd'?" Snow clasps her hands together with a serious expression, "Has he been acting out violently?"

Gren shakes his head, "No, Bigby bein' an asshole is normal. We're here because he isn't bein' like that. "

The woodsman elaborates, "Yeah, usually we get drunk and we have our fights, but Bigby hasn't been like that! If anything, he's been real quiet…"

Snow sighs, "Boys, that's an improvement. I don't thing we have anything to worry about in regards to the sheriff- "

"Normally I'd agree Ms. White but, I know something is up with him! Colin was just by the trip trap the other night talking to us about it too! Colin was going on about how Bigby hasn't been eating or drinking anything for months! He's not even smoking those shitty Huff and Puffs anymore!"

Gren growls, "Yeah it started a few months ago, he was walking through fabletown, and he wasn't lookin' good at all. I tried to say hi to the fucker and he just walked right by me, like I wasn't even there! He's gotta be sick or somethin'."

Snow blinks, now that was a cause for concern, she couldn't have Bigby not taking care of himself, and the cigarettes were also quite a bit concerning. Like, when was there ever a time where she didn't see the wolf smoking that crappy brand? She stands, "Alright, alright. I'll have someone go check on him. Will that put your concerns at ease?"

They look at each other before nodding, "Only if you come and get us if you need our help with him."

Snow agrees before letting Bufkin lead them out the door. Once they were done Snow calls Bufkin over to her desk, "Have you noticed anything with Bigby?"

"Well I know he's been holed up in his office or his apartment for most of this week, but I don't go to see him very often these days."

"I see…can you get Beauty to go check on him?"

Bufkin nods before flying off to send Beauty out. She had recently been hired on as an assistant in the office. Snow watches as beauty goes out before returning to her own work.


A few hours pass and Snow White hears nothing back for Bufkin or Beauty. She gets up from her desk and starts to clean up while dismissing Bluebeard for the night. It was about time that she goes and see what's happening with the sheriff herself.

Once everything is nice and tidy, she grabs her keys and heads over to Bigby's office. She knocks before entering to find nothing but a mess of paperwork. She leaves the office and worriedly rides the elevator to Bigby's apartment. Once on his floor she can clearly hear yelling. Beauty and Colin, they were clearly arguing about Bigby but Snow couldn't really understand without context so she goes to the door of room 204 and knocks, "Beauty? It's me!"

Beauty doesn't take long to answer the door, "Snow! Please come in come in. I think we could use your help."

Snow walks in and surveys the apartment. It was as small as unkempt as it usually was. Colin sat by the tv glaring at the pair of women. He scoffs, "So now her highness finally sees fit to grace us with her presence!"

Snow crosses her arms, the quip was very much unappreciated, so she ignores it. She turns to see Bigby in his chair, seemingly sleeping until his nose twitches and she lifts his head to look at Snow. He looked awful, he had bags under his eyes and just looked utterly defeated. For a moment he seems troubled before sighing and rubbing the back of his neck, "Snow, I'm sorry for causing such a fuss."

Snow sighs, "Can you please explain what's going on so I can get back to work? People are getting worried and I'd like to be able to tell them it was a false alarm."

Bigby nods, "It's a false alarm. I'm fine."

Colin scoffs, "Now that's the biggest lie I've ever heard! Snow don't listen to him! I'm tellin' ya he needs help, like right now." Colin looks to beauty for support and Beauty nods and pulls Snow to the kitchen and quietly recounts her report, "I think colin is right Snow… I found Bigby in his office unconscious Snow. I had to drag him up here to get rest, I think he must be ill…We should take him to see Doctor Swineheart…I already had Bufkin go and call the men so they can help us …But maybe you can convince Bigby to go…? He insists that he's fine…"

Snow sighs, "Alright, I'll try…" She goes back to Bigby and kneels down to be eye level with him, "Come on Sheriff. You're clearly not fine, we're going to have Swineheart take a look at you okay?" She doesn't give Bigby a chance to refuse as she calls the doctor in.

Snow and the others wait outside the hall while Doctor Swineheart performs a check-up on Bigby inside. As the three are waiting Beast, Gren, the woodsman, and Holly show up. They rush over, Beast detours to check on beauty while Holly goes to Snow, "What's going on with Bigby? Is he inside?"

"Yeah. Doctor Swineheart is checking him right now. He should be done shortly. "

Gren huffs, "See? We fuckin' told you he wasn't fine."

They don't have anytime to star to argue as Swineheart comes out and looks upon the groups, "I see, is this everyone or should I wait?"

"No please, tell us what you found."

Swineheart sighs, "Well Ms. Snow. This isn't something that I can cure. Only time can do that, and even then, it's likely that he'll only get worse. I'm well versed in treating physically wounds, but this is more so rooted in his mind. All I can tell you to do is to give him sometime and try getting him to talk about it, but we all know that he's too stubborn to do so, and I imagine that you want him back on the job as soon as possible. So, I suggest taking him to the thirteenth floor. Maybe they have something to help him."

Gren scoffs, "So you're saying he's just fuckin' sad? That's all?"

Swineheart frowns deeply, "No, if he was just 'sad' he wouldn't be starving himself as he is now. This is much worst and it's only going to keep getting worse. I can't really do anything about it other than give a few tips considering that I don't have much knowledge in psychology, let alone wolf psychology." He checks his watch, "Well I've told you how he is and what you can do, if you don't mind, I have other patients to attend to." He briskly walks to the elevator and leaves them to ponder their situation in silence.


After a bit of an effort, and a lot of coaxing from Snow, the group was able to convince Bigby to go up to the 13th floor. Unexpectedly, he was very resistant to the idea, but gave in when Snow pleaded with him. Now, she was very concerned for him, she couldn't understand what could possible be dragging him down like this. She took at glance at him and found his sharp eyes glancing back. Normally there was some sign of elation, and something she couldn't put into words, in those eyes when they looked at her. She couldn't deny that a small part of her loved that about the wolf. And Snow was vaguely aware of how Bigby felt for her, but she merely thought it was lust or attraction. Most certainly not love. But she's been wrong before.

Snow blinks and turns away when she abruptly notices that she's been staring. Bigby on the other hand looks in response, instead casting his gaze downward to Collin, "This isn't necessary. I'm not depressed or whatever the hell Swineheart was bullshitting you about."

The whole group stops and looks at him and Bigby continues, "Why are all of you even here? Since when do all of you actually give a shit? This isn't fucking new! I've been fucking miserable in this damned town for a long as time and now you decide its time to 'fix the wolf'. "Bigby reaches into his pocket and tries to dig around for his signature cigarettes but growls when he finds none.

Gren growls back, "Well sorry for trying to look out for one of our own!" holly stops Gren before he gets violent and takes over, "I'm not sure about the others, but me and Gren are here because you like us Bigby, and we its hard to watch you keep strugglin' like have been. Like we have at one point or another…And I know where this road your takin' goes, and that sure as hell isn't what we want for you." Holly pats his shoulder, she was always surprisingly considerate like this, and for a second her mini-speech seems to work as Bigby seems to soften up to her before smacking her hand off.

"You don't know jack shit about me or what I'm fucking going through. So you can fuck off with that. In fact, all of you can." Bigby pushes away from the group and tries to rush back down to his apartment.

Gren and Woody move to grab him, but in a shocking turn of events, Beast steps up and decks Bigby in the face. The Force of which was enough to knock the poor wolf down and out. Beast gasps, "Shit! I didn't mean to knock him out!" Instant regret painted all over his face.

Beauty smacks his shoulder, "What the hell Beast!?"

Gren and Woody heave Bigby up as Collin snickers, "Well at least now he won't fight us about this…"

Snow pinches the bridge of her nose, this was a complete disaster already, she didn't know why she every expected this not to be a total disaster, "Lets just hurry, the witches should just be a little-ways down the hall now…"

The group finally finishes their trek to the door of the witches. They go around asking the various Witches if they knew anything that could help their Sheriff, but most of them either refused to help or plain didn't know how. They finally find help in the form of Aunty Greenleaf.

Greenleaf rushes them in, "Hurry up, I Don't have all day! And set Mr. Wolf on the couch right there, I'll have a look at him in a minute." They obey her commands for now and get out of her way as she gets to work, which now just consisted of looking over the wolf quietly.

She stares at him for quiet a while before looking at them, "Okay, so what do you want me to do to him exactly?"

Snow crosses her arms, "Help him." She demands a bit too harshly, "…or at least help us figure out what's wrong so that we can…" she lowers her tone to a more respectable one this time.

Greenleaf scoffs and starts doing something by her tree, the group tries to look but can't quite make out what she's doing until she has a mess of herbs in a bowl. She quickly plucks a few of Bigby's hairs to add to the mixture, then lights the aforementioned mixture with a small flame. They have little time to protest before she crudely blows the smoke from the bowl into all of their faces, and the world suddenly goes black for all of them.