When Bigby stepped into the Business Office that morning, Snow felt her stomach sink. He was downright chipper and that could really only mean one thing.

"How did things go with Helen?" Blue asked, propping his feet up on his desk and leaning back in his desk chair.

"She was very drunk and got very sick. She'll be fine."

"She's lucky our livers can handle it. You seem mighty perky for a man who spent the evening with a sick girlfriend."

"Those are all the details you're getting, Blue."

Blue grinned evilly as Bigby blushed slightly but he let it drop. Snow would have given anything to have been able to punch then both in their stupid faces. Her eyes landed on a clipboard on her desk.

"Bigby! Beast!"

They both joined her and she handed the clipboard to Beast. "We have two days of work to do today. Those are items we are reasonably sure exist in Bluebeard's apartment. You need to catalogue them and bring them down her with proper identification for Buffkin."

"Can't Bufkin come with us?"

"He's been drinking as well so no, he can't."

The look Bigby gave her made her wish she could take back the dig but she stood her ground and kept eye contact.

"When you're done with what's there, you're free to go."

"And if we can't get it done?" Bigby growled.

"Then you may have a long day ahead of you. You should know better than anyone that we aren't safe as long as Bluebeard has those items."

"Come on," Beast coaxed. "The sooner we start, the sooner we're done."

Helen waited. Bigby had said he would be in at the normal time.

The normal time came and went.

She kept waiting.

She waited well into the night.

He had not called, not sent any word with anyone else. She had no reason to assume he was in any danger so she had gone from worried to increasingly angry with every passing hour.

Eventually she locked everything up and went to bed, alone and furious.

When Bigby and Beast finally finished the insane list they had been given, it was approaching noon the next day.

"No..." Beast moaned as he realized the time. "Beauty's going to kill me!"

At the mention of Beast's wife, Bigby immediately remembered his own promise to Helen. He swore loudly, dashing into his office and practically diving for the phone.

He listened to the rings and eventually Helen picked up.

"Hello?"

"Helen! It's Bigby! I-"

There was a click and the line went dead. His stomach dropped and he knew he was in serious trouble.

Bigby didn't feel like it could really get any worse if he delayed so he caught a nap on his couch and changed into a less rumpled version of what he always wore.

It was three in the afternoon when Helen looked up from her book to see him walk into her bar.

Bigby felt his temper flare as she gave him a look of disgust and turned her back to him.

"I'm sorry I didn't make it last night," he offered, leaning against the bar and watching her clean glasses.

"Were that the only problem I suppose that would make me feel better."

Her voice was clipped and he could scent the fury and anxiety seeping from her.

"And what other problem is there?"

"Why didn't you call?"

"We were chest deep into Bluebeard's weapons and loot."

She turned to face him dangerously slowly. "Did it even occur to you to let me know?"

The look on his face made it clear he had not.

"Damn you, Bigby!" Helen finally erupted. "How am I second to your job?!"

"There are things that have to be dealt with sometimes. You know what I do!" Bigby's voice dropped to a growl.

"I know that they tell you how important you are and dismiss you when it's convenient. Something I have never done."

She watched his hands ball into fists and knew that he was as aware of this as she was.

"My place in this community is dependent on my ability to do this job," Bigby tried to explain, thinking of how he still could not visit the Farm. "It is unpredictable but -"

"In what world is going through weapons an immediate security priority?" Helen cried, throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation. "You've been Snow's lapdog so long you can't even see it anymore!"

It did not occur to Bigby, even for a moment, that Helen was clearly and obviously jealous and hurt. It seemed like Snow had everything that Helen would never have, including Bigby's undivided attention when she wanted it.

"That is not true."

"Yes, it is," she spat at him. "She's still got talons in you because you still care more about pleasing her. If she asks you to jump you leap into the very stars!"

Bigby could not stand any more of this. Pissing off Snow could result in his expulsion from this world, and Helen would not be any better served by that. And his job was important to him; it was redemption and service after hundreds of years of self-serving violence. He needed this role as much as Fabletown needed him to fill it.

"If I have to neglect my job to prove something to you then this isn't going to work!"

"This isn't about your job! This is about your priorities!"

"And you think that drunk kisses make you a priority?!"

Helen went dead silent and stared at him. Never in a million years would anything like that have ever come out of her mouth, and Bigby knew immediately he had gone too far. This was far more than just drunk kisses and they both knew it.

She stared at him with her eyes becoming glassy and red, and when he reached out to touch her and she violently pulled away from him.

"Fuck you, Bigby Wolf," she hissed at him. "After all these years, you're just like every other man."

Her words were like getting punched in the stomach; he knew the men in her life and what they had done.

He needed to get out of the Mortar and Pestle before it got even worse so he stormed out of the bar without another word.

Once he was no longer in sight, Helen dropped her head onto her arms and began to cry.