Your support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)
east
Supernova
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2012
Everyone knows the fables they read in the story books. What they don’t know is that they are far from over. What the mundies know is only the beginning.
This new world was far different from the one that they had known and Valarie Moore, better known as Red or Little Red Riding Hood, was making a grand time of her stay here. She had embraced this new world and all the ways in which it provided her with the means to torment and frustrate Big B, aka The Big Bad Wolf.
There was no limit to the troubles she could cause. On this particular night, she had broken into the Fables bar and was helping herself to the well stocked liquor cabinets. It had been a particularly bad day at her mundie job and she felt like a drink. Only the bar had closed early for some stupid reason. So Red decided that she was just going to help herself and throw a private party for one.
With a bottle of tequila in her hand she moved to the jukebox and put on Rude Boy by Rihanna, her new favorite song in this world.
As the beat kicked up she started to dip her body, roll her hips and pop her ass. Her long ruby hair was tied back in a ponytail with a blue head band that framed her face and kept her bangs in place. It followed her like an obedient dog as she rocked her body to the beat. Her white crop top was indicative of her rebellious nature as it revealed her toned abdomen where her tapered waited drew one's eyes down towards her taut rear and long legs.
Forever young. Despite living for centuries, she didn’t age the way the mundies did.
“Come on rude boy can you get it up?!” Singing along as she danced to the rhythmic beat, taking swig of her drink of choice periodically in between spilling portions onto the floor.
Big B. Wolf, Bigby on most official documents that the fables required was the sherif of the community, when he had been offered the job as a favor by Old King Cole he had been pretty sure that the job would have been simple, after all he was literally the big wolf on campus.
Enter red, the current reason for all of his misery. He had tried to eat her once upon a time, and honestly he regretted failing at this point. When the call came in, and he got in his car he lit a smoke and knew full well what he would be walking into. The broken window left little to the imagination of how she had gotten in. He however just chose to use the front door, having a set of keys to everywhere in the community did certainly help the job. Walking in to the song playing watching Red dance he palmed his face for a moment.
"What is this like the fourth time this month?" He said looking her over. He was in his usual garb, the cheap white shirt, black tie, and brown pants, the same outfit he had been wearing for almost a hundred years now. He walked up to the juke box and killed the song unplugging the thing. "It's three in the morning red, last call was hours ago."
She had done this more times than he could count over the years the senseless rebelion over and over again. It was frustraiting he would admit that, but he always felt responcible and he had managed to do this in the past without hitting her. A remarkably patient feat all things considered.
"So are you going to make me chase you this time? or are you going to go for a drive? cause Bar is closed."
Red didn’t realize that Bigby was there until she turned during one of her dips, finding him mouthing something that she couldn’t hear over the song that was blaring next to her. A smirk instantly pulled on her lips. It was only a matter of time before he showed up, of that she was certain.
“Morning Sheriff” She cooed mockingly as he made his way over, taking another swig of her drink in the meantime.
As he unplugged the juke box her smirk morphed into a scowl. His logic was sound but she didn’t care. She wasn’t here to listen to him and be nice. No, she was here to cause him hell. He had taken everything from her and she would ensure that he didn’t live a day without remembering that.
“ I’m aware of the time Wolf. I’m surprised a man of your age is able to wake up at such an hour.” Sneering as she placed a hand on her hip and swirled the remaining alcohol in the bottle with the roll of her wrist. Red didn’t care to use the name that everyone else did, she like to refer to him as what he was, an animal, a wolf.
Hearing his question her brow cocked. Was it a serious question? She had never gone willingly and tonight was no exception. That same devious look spread across her features as her emerald eyes glistened under the dim lights.
“Take a guess”
With that she threw the bottle at his head before she bolted for the door that he had conveniently opened for her upon his arrival. Her escape from the building was quick and while her start of out the gate was great and progress was made, the tequila was quick to hit her as she ran down the street and turned down an ally. The buildings wavers and the ground seemed unstable beneath her feet but she didn’t stop.
The joke was more or less on her, Bigby hadn't gone to sleep yet. As much as he wanted too curl up in his bed already he didn't get that option and this job often involved a lot of long hours so there was nothing for this call to wake him from. As she loosed the bottle of tequila at his head he ducked, having it smash behind him.
Watching her run off he scowled for a moment he considered getting rid of the glamour considering it limited his speed and power, but a drunken disorderly rarely required that amount of power. Watching her stumble out the door he just took off chasing after her. They didn't get too far, he eventually managed to tackle her when she stumbled from being drunk, pushing her towards the grass and knocking her over for a moment.
Bigby looked down at Red as he pushed her to the ground trying to grab her arms. He really did feel some responsibility to her. Reaching back he pulled out a set of cuffs, at this point he really only ever carried them around for her. He could count the number of others who actually ran or put up a fight on like one hand. The community was rather sleepy most of the time, it was only her who caused him problems. Well Her and Jack, and frankly he was glad that the two of them had never gotten together because that was a mix that felt a little too toxic.
"Can you please just come quietly now, I need sleep just like you Red. Just come to the car, you can sleep off the hangover in the drunk tank." No matter how many times he caught her, he never really charged her. Maybe that was his fault, but he was always worried that if he did than she would get kicked out of the community. Despite not liking red that wasn't something he wanted for her, so he already knew he was going to end up covering the cost of the broken window, and making excuses to Snow as to why Red shouldn't be in an actual jail.
How many centuries could he just call her a kid acting out, especially when she was a legal adult. "How many more centuries are we gonna do this for Red?"
Red tumbled to the ground as he tackled her from behind. Skidding across the grass with a grumble before she found herself pinned beneath Bigby as he questioned her willingness to comply. To which she couldn’t help but chuckle.
During the centuries there was nothing she managed to feel joy about as they lived out their lives in this hell hole of a realm. She had lost it all, not once but twice, and bigby was the one to blame in both cases. He was the source of so much of her pain and the only way she knew to deal with it was to drink and make him feel at least a fraction of what she does.
His questions caused her shoulders to wiggled in a shrug.
“For as long as I live wolf. You will remember.” Her emerald eyes narrowed up at him, the pain evident as she felt the glaze over. She was broken but she wasn’t done fighting. If anything, she would fight till the day she died.
Red wasn’t always this way, life had thrown her a number of curve balls that seemed to shift her life's direction rather dramatically. The most recent of which was the straw that broke the camel's back. She was alone and perhaps her rivalry with Bigby was the only thing she had left to have some semblance of companionship….
Nah… she was just drunk. He was an ass hole and she didn’t need him.
Bigby just glared when she said that they would be doing this forever. There was something in her tone of voice that made him completely believe her. That the two of them would be doing this for a long time to come no matter how much he wanted it too change. Pushing her onto her feet there had been one change in his life. After nearly three hundred years of working along side the world of mundies and taking taxi's in every direction of the city learning all of the street names so he could give directions he had finally been issued a car and told to learn to drive.
The decision had not been something he had taken lightly or even kindly. He had not enjoyed getting behind the wheel. An old dog rarely learned any new tricks, and Bigby was one of the oldest. According to the community's accounting department Bigby's taxi's cost three times what he saved on gass with a car. There had also been a law a while back about not smoking in taxi's or on buses.
But the real reason that the taxi's never worked out were the mundy's. When the community got loud it got really loud, and taking a taxi to every crime scene always meant that people asked questions. Red's constant rebellion and bringing her home in cuffs was hard to explain a hundred years ago when he could just say he was her uncle or something and get a passing shrug. These days it looked so much worse than it used too, and actual cops had been called in.
Bigby's car was an old beaten up muscle car. both due to poor driving on his part and the fact that they had gotten it on the cheap. On the inside the interior was old fabric, and the entire thing smelled like an ash tray. It wasn't a police car, lacking any lights, but it did come from a former sherif's department out in the country and kept that dull brown they painted it in. "Watch your head." He pushed Red into the back of the car as he looked around. Walking to the other side he opened the door and started to pull out of his parking space.
As he drove he took his eyes off the road to pull out a pack of smokes lifting one to his lips and offering Red one with his free hand while the other stayed on the wheel. It was late not another car on the road. "So what inspired the party for one this time?" He asked looking over at Red, his eyes still not going towards the road, this driving thing was really not his forte.
With her hands cuffed behind her back, Red put up much less of a fight though the soured expression on her face hadn’t changed. When he lifted her to her feet she was quick to shake his hands from her arm once she was stable and able to walk on her own.
“Paws off”
Sinking into the back of his car she almost gagged. The smell was just awful and truly she didn’t understand how he didn’t get nauseous every time he sat in it, being a dog and all his smell was far greater than hers. This was by far her least favorite part of her fuck with bigby shows.
“Damn it! Why don’t you ever clean your car. This thing stinks.” Ranting on and on about the accommodations as he drove down the street and even giving his chair a kick as he offered her a smoke. It seemed an obvious enough ‘no’ that she didn’t even respond verbally.
His driving wasn’t great.. hell, it wasn’t even good. As he made several quick swerved she felt a rumble in her stomach.
“Pay attention to the road or i’m going to barf all over your shit hole of a car.” Commanding before his question came forth.
Red’s expression quickly went from annoyed to guarded. Emerald eyes shifted out the window and she fell silent for a moment.
“...it's always you.”
While that wasn’t a complete lie. This time it seemed to be a bit different than her usual claims that he was the sole reason for her shitty life. It felt… forced.
Bigby actually chuckled when she told him paws off, and what was more probably enjoyed the fact that she suffered in his car more than just a little. It was practically incentive to not clean his car. He pulled the smoke away when she kicked his seat and put his eyes back on the road like she asked not that it really changed much of his swerving on the road. This was why he needed a deputy, someone who could chauffeur him around in the car so that he wouldn't have to handle to steering wheel ever again.
"You barf in my car, and you will be the one cleaning it." His voice didn't carry it's usual threat, as he looked around for a moment trying to orient himself to the roads and catch which way he was actually going not wanting to miss his turn.
He caught her expression change when he asked her what was up, and when she said that it was him, he shook his head. He had never really bought it over the years, she had the right to hate him a lot of people in the community did just that, but really this time it seemed even less convincing than her usual attacks against him.
Bigby's face softened as he slowed his car and went for the parking lot. He glanced back at Red for a long moment when she seemed to go defensive. Stopping the car he didn't make an attempt to leave it keeping the door locked. "Red..." He sighed and shook his head getting out of the car and opening her door. Whatever he wanted to say he knew she wouldn't listen to him when she was drunk. "You can sleep it off in the drunk tank. I'll bring you some breakfast in the morning."
Red didn’t need anyone anymore. She had managed this long without anyone there to support her, what was another thousand years. Not only that but hell would freeze over before she ever confided in Bigby.
Somehow she didn’t like the way he said her name in the final moments in the car. It almost felt like he had some emotions towards her. Then again it was likely pitty. That thought allowed her to forget it and put it out of her head.
As the door opened she scooted her way out of the car. Taking a deep breath of clean fresh air before coughing the last of the ash smell out of her lungs.
“Sausage Mcmuffin with egg. Coffee, three creams and one sugar”
Flashing a mischievous grin his way as she took the lead towards the station. Red knew that he wasn’t going to get her any of that but Drunk Red very much expected him to.
Once she was in the tank she didn’t waste any time crashing. The world was on the verge of spinning and if she didn’t pass out soon then she was going to barf. So curled up on the stiff metal frame with the thin mattress pad she let sleep take her. The thing she whispered was the name of a person long gone.
‘Hunter’
The wolf watched as Red went into the tank, he shook his head at her demand for food from a chain restaurant. He wasn't exactly sure if she was aware what his Salary was but fast food was a rare commodity on a sheriff's salary. He watched her crash from behind the steel bars, and as he turned to leave he heard her whisper out the name and he sighed shaking his head. He understood it all too well. He just shook his head trying not to focus on it.
Walking up the stairs to his apartment he crashed rather quickly on his bed. Only really stopping to wash his face and poor himself a glass of whiskey, the burn helping to dull some of his senses that would otherwise keep him up all night. Looking out at the city he knew tomorrow was going to be another day, and he had a feeling that it was going to be worse. Outside through the apartment window he looked out at the new York Night, the wind was picking up, and through the open window he could smell a shifting in the wind.
By morning that shifting wind had become a rainstorm. Bigby woke up later than usual, brushing his eyes for a moment before making a breakfast for himself, and then putting an extra two slices of ham and eggs out on a second plate. He made a his usual cup of coffee as black and strong as he could handle, followed by a second cup where he poured some cream and added a cube of sugar to it. Placing it all on a tray as he walked out of his apartment.
Stepping down into the lobby he noticed that his mail box had been used, which was odd because for the most part he didn't even know he had a mail box at the lobby. Certainly no one had ever given him a letter before. What he found was a rather plain looking manila envelop not addressed to him, but rather to Red. He put it under his arm still a little too asleep to really notice what that meant as he walked down to the drunk tank. Holding the tray of food with one hand he opened the door to the tank and placed her food on a table, before stepping back. "Wakey wakey eggs and backey... only I didn't have any bacon, so you get ham fresh from the farm."
He sat down using at a desk next to her cell and placed the envelop down when he started to work on his own breakfast. "Up and at it Red, we got a long day ahead of us, mostly trying to figure out what to do with you."
The night was long and her dreams were far from sweet but the tequila kept her under for the entire durations. Meaning that any unpleasant dreams had to be endured and couldn’t wake from. Perhaps a subconscious punishment she inflicts upon herself.
By the time morning came, Bigby’s voice was the thing she awoke to. Groaning she was slow to lift from her bed. With a throbbing head she sat up and ran her hands through her hair. It still had a few leaves and twigs from when she was tackled to the grown and that left her to wonder how much dirt she had on her.
After another minute she lifted from the bed and made her way towards the table where he had sat her tray. With a gruff sigh she picked it up and moved to sit at the desk where he was eating his breakfast, might as well make him uncomfortable.
“Well I need a shower so my vote is to let me go home and clean up.”
Picking up the fork she stabbed a chuck of eggs and popped it into her mouth. In the middle of her chew her eyes found the envelop with her name on it. The handwriting was the same as all the others….. but why was it here?
“This mine?” Questioning as calmly as possible while her hand reached up to grab the mail. If at all possible, she didn’t want him to see whatever happened to be in this one.
Bigby took a long drink of his morning coffee turning towards Red as she said that she wanted to go home and take a shower. He shook his head that wasn't happening this time. In the past he let her off with warnings but something had happened last night, there had been some kind of shift that he couldn't tell what it was. Plus he just felt too responsible to her. He was tired of always letting her go so that she could just create more problems for him down the line, if they continued down that path she would loose everything and he would be responsible.
She may not listen to him, but he had to try something to avert that disaster to at least say that he did his best to make sure that Red didn't get thrown out of the community he couldn't just let her go so he shook his head. "Not gonna happen Red. This time we are going to do something. I might end up taking you back to Grandma's bakery. She'll be difficult to convince but she's the last person I can actually think will still put up with you. Family reciepies and all."
When he had first met Red all those centuries ago that basket had been the single sweetest thing he had ever smelt. It was almost a shame she didn't bake anymore.
When she pointed to the envelop he regarded it more awake than he was when he picked it up, he grabbed it before she could get it. "Yeah someone broke into my mail box to deliver this for you." He shrugged his shoulders for a moment he was already building a list at the back of his mind about who it was. "Feels a little heavy, and no return address." He shrugged, before passing it to her. It was her mail after all.
"I haven't opened it, I don't smell anything odd coming from it, so it's just paper. Do you have an admirer or something in the community?"
Modify message
Red slipped the envelope from the desk, placing it on her lap before she went back to eating her breakfast before it got cold. She didn’t have any intentions of opening the letter right now in front of Bigby because she knew that his nosy ass would surely find a way to read it. Just as he was probing now for possible reasons for her to receive it in the first place.
A change of subject was best.
“ You know there is no way i’m going back to the bakery. “ Pointing the fork in his direction “ I think that may be one thing both my grandmother and myself will agree on. I’m better off staying away.. everyone is.”
Withdrawing her weapon she polished off her plate before moving on to the coffee. The caffeine was just the cure for her hangover, that and a bloody mary. Which she surely wasn’t going to get from Bigby.
“ Come on Wolf. You know that it won’t matter.” Leaning back in her chair as emerald eyes lingered on him. “This is who we are, this is how our stories go. You chase, I run. Nothing you do will ever change that. At least we can count on that being consistent”
Red didn’t think he was serious because he had always been all talk with her. Her punishments were barely slaps on the wrists and she didn’t imagine that changing anytime soon. So with that thought she lifted from her chair, coffee in one hand and the envelop in the other.
“I’ll be seeing you around.”
Turning on her heels Red was headed out.
Bigby sighed maybe she was right there was no way to get her back into the bakery. Her grandma had stopped paying Red's fines ages ago and wouldn't even pick her up from the station it probably broke the old woman's heart. Bigby for his part couldn't understand it. Why she had this need to be alone when she had options, but she was right there was no putting her back to the backery and no one else who would work with her. That brought a smile to his lips however as she turned around to try and leave.
"Where exactly do you think your going when you are still locked in a jail cell exactly?" Bigby said leaning back on his chair. He had opened her door to bring her the food, but it had remained firmly locked once he had left and that was before she had even woken up. He just raised an eyebrow towards her amused with a chuckle.
"I thought our story ended with me at the bottom of a river having to pass heavy loading stones." The amusement from his eyes faded slightly at the memory. Yes Red had been one of the ones that had gotten away from him. The day that They had cut him open and removed that old woman from his gut only to then fill his gut with load stones and push him into the river. It had been the closest anyone had ever gotten to killing the big bad wolf, and he remembered the pain like it was yesterday.
"Even if that was the end of the story back then, we can't survive that way now. I'm tired of chasing you, and this time I caught you. Since no one else is going to take care of you, I'm assigning you community service. You have a licence to drive right?" He got up from his seat and walked to the bars of the cell his eyes narrowing for a moment. "One way or another you are not getting out of here without me."
Red’s hand went to pull the cell doors just as bigby questioned where she was supposedly headed. The door rattled and protested her attempts to open it as it remained quite locked.
“What the fuck wolf!?”
He had never actually locked the door before, she just walked right out when she was ready. Sassy emerald turned his direction as she gave him her best dirty stare. This was bullshit and the fact that he was laughing about it only served to piss her off more. She had been rather cordial thus far, well as much as she ever could be with him.
As he brought up their past she scoffed.
“Don’t act like you were the victim. You ATE my grandmother and were going to eat me. Thank god Hunter was around to stop you.”
Red was pissed, she didn’t like being in here and being forced to stay around him longer than was necessary. Her anger was boiling over and she was on the verge of throwing everything possible.
“Community Service?!”
Her gaze followed him as he moved to stand before her, challenging her with that look in his eyes. Red had her own look, one that suggested that she wasn’t going to back down and that her fight with him was far from over.
“This is bullshit. It’s not going to change anything. I’m not going to do it.” Crossing her arms as she took a stance. Red truly believed she had a say in the matter.
"Your grandma is fine! I buy cookies from her every now and then. You just said you didn't want to go back to her bakery so you don't get too hold that over me." Bigby waved off the fact that he had in fact eaten the old hag, he just didn't chew his meal very well from back then. He huffed for a moment his cheeks puffing up in a childish display of anger. "I mean if she doesn't hold a grudge than you shouldn't get too either. I only tried to eat you after all."
Bigby puffed out his chest but refrained from going and blowing down the house after all the iron bars were keeping her in not him out. She could throw around the past, try to hurt him all she wanted. Instead his brown eyes just matched her challenging glare. He did enjoy this moment. It was for Red's own good. He crossed his arms as the disaproving figure he had to be in the moment.
"I'm done Red. I can't keep trying to claim I'm okay with the status quo. I know you can do better, hell if I could change and learn to live in the community than you can easily get your butt in line. Don't want too work alongside me for the community service, then you can stay in there till you agree to my terms." It was a slight abuse of power, but considering that she had burned every other bridge in town she wasn't exactly going to get anyone elses help here.
"I think we just went from Little Red and the big bad wolf too Beauty and the beast, and to borrow a bit from Adam this is the part where I say your my prisoner until such time as you agree to my terms."
“Maybe if i only had the eating thing to be pissed about then I would be able to forgive you but I have so much more than that.” Her voice cracked near the end and her gaze turned away. She hadn’t talked about Hunter this much in… well forever. He was always on her mind but she rarely said his name.
Hearing him give her an ultimatum she darted her gaze back in his direction. To make it worse, he compared her to Bell.
“God, please don’t compare us to those two….Least of all me to her” Red didn’t consider herself anything like the Bell, at least the Bell of today. All the money and power she held in the home world had gone to her head. She went from a simple girl seeking adventure to a pompous princess who thought she was better than everyone else and now her marriage was on the line and nearly broken.
“At least in our relationship we can openly say how much we hate each other.” Smirking now as she leaned against the bars, her fingers twirling with the envelope as she fell silent.
Red knew he was serious, he wasn’t going to let her go until she agreed to serve her time, a punishment far worse than exile.
“How many hours?”
Her gaze remained on the envelop as she questioned him. The tip of her finger playing around with the sealed lip, gently picking at it as she wondered what this one had to say.
Bigby felt her cold stare for a long moment his breath loosing touch as there was a flicker of something, if not regret it was some other type of painful emotion. There had been no love lost between him and Hunter, but in the adversaries days the attack's and the formation of the resistance movement things had been very different. While he had never counted Hunter as a friend he hadn't left as an enemy either.
It was a brief moment of understanding between the two before they started to cover it over with humor, looking at Adam and Bell's dying marrage, he had always kind of been impressed by how they had managed to last together over the centuries, but he had been called in on more than one domestic dispute over the years to know that no one could love someone well and truly over their long life spans, well no one except Red, somehow she had managed to hold onto a man who didn't even exist anymore for centuries. For that she had his admiration.
"I don't hate you Red." The words were soft as he leaned against the opposite walls. He started to compound some numbers in his head.
"You cause more problems than Jack you know that?" He thought about all of the years that had gone by with almost monthly incidents that he had to cover the cost of. If he was serious about rehabilitation than he knew he had to stick her with him for as long as it would take, which could very well have been the rest of their very unnatural life spans.
"In hours, too many to count, but I'm going to say I have sway with Snow and Cole to get you under my wing for... two hundred years." His brown eyes seemed to glimmer with mirth at the number he tossed out. "With time reduced for good behavior of course."
His eyes however drifted down to the envelop he was curious about it. Wanted to know more, he didn't move closer to it but he was continually eyeing it with the curiosity of a cat rather than a wolf.
Red could only chuckle at he denied hating her. “If you say so.” Some part of him had to hate her, if not for what she had done in the past, surely for what she did in the present. It was something best not dwelled upon, she could live with him hating her. That was just fine.
Though hearing him put her as a step above Jack she truly laughed. Her emerald eyes twinkled in the dim light and she scratched her head as her laughter died down. “ That’s mighty impressive. I think i deserve an award for that. Damn. And here i was thinking i would never out shine him.” A gentle shake of her head as she leaned against the bars.
As Bigby started answering her question she watched him, trying to figure out where he was going with this when he said that it was to many hours to say. Then he threw the brick at her.
“Two hundred!” Red was stunned and it took her a moment to find her tongue again.
“I got robbed. No tequila is worth that amount of time. Two months” She countered, gaining back the determined look of hers as she crossed her arms.
There was no way in hell should could make it a year with him, let alone two hundred. Shit, it would be a miracle if she could make it a day. Why did he insist on punishing her in such a cruel way? Wasn’t he tired of dealing with her, why would he want her around even more?
"Oh your stunt at the Bar probably only gets you a month, but." Bigby reached to one of the pockets of his long coat, pulling out a small brown book. He opened it flipping through pages and showing Red all of the dates that were on the pages, each date showed a different crime listed. Everything on the list was petty, a lot of disorderly conduct, plenty of assaults, and his personal favorite the one that occurred every single time that he took her name down. Fleeing a police officer.
"Your right you run, and I chase, but running from a cop is still a felony, and this book... it's only forty years old. You robbed yourself." Bigby put the book back in his pocket showing that he was the one holding the cards in this conversation. Bigby paced the hall in front of her cell, walking up and down the steel bars. "But I'll cut you a deal because even I don't want to have babysit you forever. Two years provisionally serve the time with good behavior and I remove time, act out and I add time."
He was tired of dealing with her every month, and he knew this was a sacrifice of the highest order. He would be giving up every minute of his spare time to get this work done. It was a horror show honestly. Something that he didn't want to deal with, but if he didn't the only other line that would come down would be exile, and then Red's life would literally be his fault.
He didn't really know why but he wasn't willing to give up on her in that regard. He wasn't willing to let her just walk away. There was something about her that he understood maybe it was the loneliness the sense of misery, but he couldn't live with himself if he didn't try to make a difference and the soft approach hadn't worked. Now it was time for the hard line approach to this problem. "You will be getting a paycheck. I can't justify taking all of this time as volunteer hours. Technically you will be my deputy once the paperwork clears, but in practice your my errand girl."
As Bigby pulled out the book her brow arched, watching as he flipped through page after page of what she knew to be her escapades over the years. It impressed her that he had actually kept up with all the shit she put him through and from the sounds of it, that was barely a fraction. What wasn’t impressive was him holding it over her head.
Then as the offer for a drastically modified sentence was brought to the table she leaned forward, clearly intrigued by his compromise. Now that he was actually being reasonable she wasn’t as opposed to the idea. Though she knew she would find little ways to irritate him to death, till he released her early.
With a smirk she nodded. She hadn’t expected him to pay her as well.
“You know i have a mundie job too… though i guess if you're paying me then i can quite.” Shrugging slightly as she moved closer towards Bigby.
“And you make me breakfast once a week” Extending her hand with a sheepish grin. “You’re cookings not half bad. Better than cold pizza” So she wasn’t completely opposed to tossing a dog a bone.
He had no intention of letting her off easy. The provision was simple that he could add or remove time for her behavior and given Mrs Moore's penitent for bad behavior. She wasn't goinig to be getting out of his sight for a long time to come. Still it seemed the two of them reached an accord of sorts. She would take up the job he needed her to do, and he would end up finally trying to put her back on the right path.
He was so getting the worse end of the deal for this.
He walked forward facing her at the cage when she extended her hand. He didn't mind the occasional breakfast. Sharing and company were things he didn't have a lot of but had gotten used too here and there. Considering he was going to have to watch Red like a hawk he knew that she would end up probably getting more than a few meals off of him that was a small price to pay, but it did come with a counter offer of it's own. "You want my cooking quid pro quo you bake me something lets say once every two weeks."
He extended his hand and took hers giving it a firm shake. "I doubt your job will be sad to see you go."
His smile could not have gotten any more smug, but his eyes went back to the envelop before he opened the door, though he did take the keys out of his pocket. "You going to open that?"
Red didn’t have the chance to disagree with his request for her to bake him good before he had taken her hand and was giving it a firm shake. Damn him. Her eyes narrowed as he pulled a fast one on her. Then she smirked, knowing that there had to be some treat that he didn’t like. Perhaps something with chocolate.
And just incase she was starting to feel guilty for wanting to find ways to get under his skin, he went and made another jab regarding her job.
“As a matter of fact they all loved me there. I was quite popular” This time she was being completely honest as she smiled like she had a juicy secret.
Though as he brought the focus around to the envelop her smile faded and her gaze lowered to the envelop she was still twiddling with in her hand.
“It’s nothing… just these stupid letters i keep getting.” While she tried not to sound concerned, it was hard to hide because this one was much larger than the rest. That coupled with the fact that it came to the station after she had been arrested.
Red glanced at Bigby for a moment before sighing “Might as well get it over with i suppose.” Delicate finger slid under and the paper seal. Reaching in she pulled out a piece of paper and a handful of photos.
Through knitted brows she eyed the images that were of her last night, breaking into the bar, dancing alone, running from bigby and even her sleeping in the drunk tank. A chill start to run up her spine as her gaze moved to the letter.
Little Red has been a bad girl
And will play nevermore.
Something about this felt more real than the others, this was a true threat and not just some creepy stalker letters. An ounce of panic started to set in, taking root in her gut where she suddenly felt nauseous before it worked its way our. Sending a tremble into her hand as is spread, her chest tightened and her breaths grew a bit ragged.
Come to think of it for all the times that he had done this song and dance with Red, he had no idea what she did. He had no idea what her job was, just that whenever she ended up having a bad day he ended up paying for it when she did one of her frankly stupid stunts. He wanted to ask but as she started to open up the letter he paused looking at her and then to it.
He watched the spectrum of emotions that crossed Red's face seeing her shift from annoyance to fear. He reached out to take the photo's after she was done with them and upon seeing the one of her in the drunk tank he shook his head. That shouldn't have been possible. Only three people had the key to this room.
One was firmly in his hand, along with the keys that unlocked each jail cell. Another was upstairs in the lobby with Flycatcher so he could do his Janitorial duties though his keys lacked the ability to enter the individual cells, and were more used for maintence and occasionally delivering food when they had a long term guest. The third was with Snow, and her set allowed full access to any room in Woodlands, but it would also be the hardest to get too. He supposed the Camera could have been slipped between the bars, but the fact that she was locked up was the reason that Red was still with him today instead of him invistigating a missing person.
There was a small shudder that crossed his back when he realized what could have happened if he hadn't locked the door to her cell this time.
As Red had a panic attack, Bigby opened the cell door for her. He didn't touch her, touching was always bad in a panic attack but he offered her a way out of the jail cell a less confining space. "Okay Red, you are going to come with me to my office, and we are going to go over this."
From suspect to victim in less than five minutes. He had to admit that was pretty well a record for his line of work. He guided her gently towards the exit taking her up the stairs. "We will figure out a safe place for you to stay as well." He had a guest room in his apartment that had been used only once or twice when Colin had escaped the farm, and would willingly offer it to red, but he knew she would rather die than share a place with him, aside from actively commanding her from her own safety he needed to figure out how to get her to take up such an offer so that she could be safe.
Red was still so focused on the words typed on the page that she didn’t even realize that bigby took the photos from her hands. What kind of game was this? Better yet, who would be sending her these things? Sure, she could be a pain in the ass but to warrant this kind of attentions.
Hearing bigby's words she nodded lightly though she said nothing. Her brain was still raking over the possibilities of what this could mean. Slowly she moved out of the cell, trailing behind Bigby as he led the way to his office.
When she heard him mention finding her a safe place she chuckled only it wasn’t filled with humor so much as disbelief.
“Clearly that doesn’t exist because they got in here didn’t they? Isn’t this place suppose to be safe.” Snorting in annoyance as she was starting to move past the fear by hiding behind her anger. It was easier to be mad than it was to be afraid. At least anger gave her a false sense of security, that was better than being alone and scared.
“.. Just… don’t tell Snow”
Looking to him with a pleading gaze. The last thing she wanted was her sister putting her nose in her business. They weren’t on great terms either and anytime she got a whiff of Red’s exploits she came barging into her life like a bat out of hell. Making demands on how she thought Red should live her life.
Bigby for his part just rolled his eyes when she started to get mad. He understood why she would, it was probably easier for her part. On the other hand he had to deal with this trying to find out who had been stalking her, today just became a long day, and as he walked he reached into his Jacket and pulled out a smoke lighting it, as he offered another one of his cheap smokes to Red despite having turned him down earlier.
When she asked him not to tell snow he exhaled a puff of smoke as he thought about it. Snow was his boss, which meant that if he did tell her everything that she would turn around and hound him for results. She would probably even accompany them on the job, which would be distracting for a number of reasons. Thankfully Snow's attention should be elsewhere. "She will be focused on the gala, and the fact that your brother in law is back in town."
He said waving off the idea that Snow would barge into both their lives as he reached his office and opened the door for him and Red. Like every room Bigby spent time in the place smelled of cheap smoke. His desk had an ash tray that was half full, and his windows only opened so far. Going to his desk it was a mess. It was like the Wolf used his cigarette smoke to mark his territory or something. Sitting down he pulled out some paperwork to take notes on.
"I can't completely lie to Snow. I will need to check the security footage from last night which is in her office, and I will need too check that she still has her master set of keys. I have mine, so that leaves Fly Catcher and hers as the most likely being stolen to get into the cells. Most likely it was fly catcher because his set don't open individual jail cells, but either way locks will need to be changed and new keys made for the entire room. That's not something I can just write off."
He supposed he could go to Cole rather than Snow, but if she ever found out that he went over her head on something of that importance. "Frankly Red, Snow scares me a lot more than you do, but I want to get this job done without her breathing down my neck every step of the way as well."
"So tell me about these letters." His tone was uncharacteristically kind for what their conversations usually consisted of.
Modify message
Red turned away the smoke once again. “I’ll take a drink if you got it” Running her hands through her hair as tried to calm her nerves. This was all too much and she didn’t know where to start with this. On top of that, Charming was in town. If there was ever a bigger douche bag than him, she didn’t want to meet that person.
As they entered the office Red crinkled her nose and glared at him. Why did everything have to smell like smoke.
“You must be getting old if you can’t smell how horrible this place is.”
Chastising under her breath as she moved through the room, following him to his desk. As many times as she had been arrested by Bigby, she had never been into his office. It was always the drunk tank or the car.
Hearing that he couldn’t hide everything from her sister she grumbled, plopping down in the worn leather chair that sat across from him.
“Don’t tell her i’m the one involved then. Say it’s someone else… someone she wouldn’t care about. You know her better than me”
With the focus moving to the letter she closed her eyes, trying to think back to when this all started.
“Lets see. It started about a three months ago. I started getting little letters in my mailbox. At first they were just odd little poems that didn’t make any sense to me. Then they started to talk about me and mentioned things i had been doing. You know, breaking into places. Stealing things. Dancing. Stuff like that. After awhile i just started throwing them away and they stopped coming for two weeks. Now this one.”
Dark emerald moved from the photos he still had to meet his gaze. She didn’t want to admit she was worried or afraid and part of her knew she wouldn’t have to. He was a wolf after all, couldn’t he smell emotions or something?
When Red asked for a drink Bigby opened a locked drawer of his desk with a key from his set and pulled out a bottle of whiskey and two short glasses, pouring one of each he pushed one of the glasses towards Red and let her take it. "I won't have to chase you down the street this time will I?"
He tried to joke, tried to put it all in some kind of good humor that showed that nothing was changing but it was. All at once he was dealing with a red that spoke and talked to him differently than what he was used too over the past infinity that they had been doing this together. When she said that he knew snow better than her, there was some truth to that statement but it was also painful as it meant that Red really didn't take advantage of the family she had.
"Did you by any chance happen to keep any of these letters?" They could have helped him get a scent if they had. Sitting down at the chair he knew he could work this out, but for now it was more important than ever that he keep Red close to him. The community service was a step in the right direction, but he was most worried about the night.
"Okay Red, we won't tell Snow that you were involved, but on one condition. You are going to sleep with me." He paused for a moment the way it sounded made it so much worse and he quickly put a hand to his face brushing as he let out a sigh. His brain was still waking up after all. "What I mean is, you will be spending the night in the guest room in my apartment, I will be on the other side of the door in the living room. If the guy comes back he has to get through me. If we told Snow than you would just end up with her doing the same kind of thing, only she isn't nearly as equiped for protection detail."
"Plus on the bright side you can fus about how much you hate me, and that always makes you happy right?"
Without missing a beat Red caught the drink that was pushed her way. Just before she took the shot she heard Bibgy’s words and couldn’t help but smirk. Raising the glass just slightly as if cheers him “ I’ll do my best but no promises.” Afterall, sober Red couldn’t make promises for drunk Red.
The shot was quick and the burn that the liquid gold offered was more than welcoming, almost like the warm embrace of an old friend. Her palm hit the table as she swallowed.
With a exhale she looked to him now, it was much easier to get lost in the bottle than it was to deal with this shit but she knew that the drink had only been a courtesy shot. She doubted he would let her keep at it, but just incase he did, she pushed the glass back in his direction as she answered his question.
“I might still have them. Can’t say i remember emptying the trash in my place after i tossed them” Red wasn’t entirely sure if they were or weren’t still in the trash. Only way to find out was to go to her place.
As Bigby gave her the conditions for his silence she arched her brow. Did she just hear him correctly? Was this a joke? Before she had the chance to vent her disbelief in him, Bigby corrected his statement. It was likely apparent on Red’s face that she was about to blow up on him.
“So that’s how you’re going to play it….” Sighing as she looked around the dump. “Does the guest room smell like a filthy ashtray too?” It might be worth taking her luck with Snow if she had to live with this smell everyday…
“Why don’t you stay at my place instead?” At least this way she would get to sleep in her own bed. “I’ll just burn the couch once this is all done” Smirking as she glanced his way.
"Because I live and work here, my apartment is on the sixth floor of this building with exactly one entrance that i can sit down in front of and watch, and thanks to the terms of your community service it's now also where you work, and since our job is 24/7 you are stuck with me." Bigby wasn't exactly about to defend the state of his room, it did stink, but it was a small price to pay for if he was actually going to keep her safe. There were other reasons she would have to stay near to him as well, but as far as he was concerned at this point it was the lesser of two evils and the only way to move forward with any plans the two may have had.
"As for the smell your just going to have to get used to that, and I can't allow you to open a window either, just encase the person doing this has some form of magic or is a good climber." He had to think tactically he knew the layout of his home better than he knew the layout of hers.
"That said your place is on the list of places to visit to check if I can pick up anything more about this person from the letters, first though we're going to visit Snow so we can watch the security camera." He smiled for a moment as he finished his drink and his smoke. "Next stop is across the hall."
He got to his feet not wanting to listen to Red's protests but knew he would be getting an ear full anyway. There was one more thing however, and he slid some paperwork in front of her. "By the way these are the terms for the community service. I will be the arbiter for your case. Able to act as judge and jury in how much time is either reduced or added, it's my job to rehabilitate you so you follow my orders and we get along fine... Of course that is a lark and a lie, so just sign the papers and we can start getting this over and done with already."
This new world was far different from the one that they had known and Valarie Moore, better known as Red or Little Red Riding Hood, was making a grand time of her stay here. She had embraced this new world and all the ways in which it provided her with the means to torment and frustrate Big B, aka The Big Bad Wolf.
There was no limit to the troubles she could cause. On this particular night, she had broken into the Fables bar and was helping herself to the well stocked liquor cabinets. It had been a particularly bad day at her mundie job and she felt like a drink. Only the bar had closed early for some stupid reason. So Red decided that she was just going to help herself and throw a private party for one.
With a bottle of tequila in her hand she moved to the jukebox and put on Rude Boy by Rihanna, her new favorite song in this world.
As the beat kicked up she started to dip her body, roll her hips and pop her ass. Her long ruby hair was tied back in a ponytail with a blue head band that framed her face and kept her bangs in place. It followed her like an obedient dog as she rocked her body to the beat. Her white crop top was indicative of her rebellious nature as it revealed her toned abdomen where her tapered waited drew one's eyes down towards her taut rear and long legs.
Forever young. Despite living for centuries, she didn’t age the way the mundies did.
“Come on rude boy can you get it up?!” Singing along as she danced to the rhythmic beat, taking swig of her drink of choice periodically in between spilling portions onto the floor.
Big B. Wolf, Bigby on most official documents that the fables required was the sherif of the community, when he had been offered the job as a favor by Old King Cole he had been pretty sure that the job would have been simple, after all he was literally the big wolf on campus.
Enter red, the current reason for all of his misery. He had tried to eat her once upon a time, and honestly he regretted failing at this point. When the call came in, and he got in his car he lit a smoke and knew full well what he would be walking into. The broken window left little to the imagination of how she had gotten in. He however just chose to use the front door, having a set of keys to everywhere in the community did certainly help the job. Walking in to the song playing watching Red dance he palmed his face for a moment.
"What is this like the fourth time this month?" He said looking her over. He was in his usual garb, the cheap white shirt, black tie, and brown pants, the same outfit he had been wearing for almost a hundred years now. He walked up to the juke box and killed the song unplugging the thing. "It's three in the morning red, last call was hours ago."
She had done this more times than he could count over the years the senseless rebelion over and over again. It was frustraiting he would admit that, but he always felt responcible and he had managed to do this in the past without hitting her. A remarkably patient feat all things considered.
"So are you going to make me chase you this time? or are you going to go for a drive? cause Bar is closed."
Red didn’t realize that Bigby was there until she turned during one of her dips, finding him mouthing something that she couldn’t hear over the song that was blaring next to her. A smirk instantly pulled on her lips. It was only a matter of time before he showed up, of that she was certain.
“Morning Sheriff” She cooed mockingly as he made his way over, taking another swig of her drink in the meantime.
As he unplugged the juke box her smirk morphed into a scowl. His logic was sound but she didn’t care. She wasn’t here to listen to him and be nice. No, she was here to cause him hell. He had taken everything from her and she would ensure that he didn’t live a day without remembering that.
“ I’m aware of the time Wolf. I’m surprised a man of your age is able to wake up at such an hour.” Sneering as she placed a hand on her hip and swirled the remaining alcohol in the bottle with the roll of her wrist. Red didn’t care to use the name that everyone else did, she like to refer to him as what he was, an animal, a wolf.
Hearing his question her brow cocked. Was it a serious question? She had never gone willingly and tonight was no exception. That same devious look spread across her features as her emerald eyes glistened under the dim lights.
“Take a guess”
With that she threw the bottle at his head before she bolted for the door that he had conveniently opened for her upon his arrival. Her escape from the building was quick and while her start of out the gate was great and progress was made, the tequila was quick to hit her as she ran down the street and turned down an ally. The buildings wavers and the ground seemed unstable beneath her feet but she didn’t stop.
The joke was more or less on her, Bigby hadn't gone to sleep yet. As much as he wanted too curl up in his bed already he didn't get that option and this job often involved a lot of long hours so there was nothing for this call to wake him from. As she loosed the bottle of tequila at his head he ducked, having it smash behind him.
Watching her run off he scowled for a moment he considered getting rid of the glamour considering it limited his speed and power, but a drunken disorderly rarely required that amount of power. Watching her stumble out the door he just took off chasing after her. They didn't get too far, he eventually managed to tackle her when she stumbled from being drunk, pushing her towards the grass and knocking her over for a moment.
Bigby looked down at Red as he pushed her to the ground trying to grab her arms. He really did feel some responsibility to her. Reaching back he pulled out a set of cuffs, at this point he really only ever carried them around for her. He could count the number of others who actually ran or put up a fight on like one hand. The community was rather sleepy most of the time, it was only her who caused him problems. Well Her and Jack, and frankly he was glad that the two of them had never gotten together because that was a mix that felt a little too toxic.
"Can you please just come quietly now, I need sleep just like you Red. Just come to the car, you can sleep off the hangover in the drunk tank." No matter how many times he caught her, he never really charged her. Maybe that was his fault, but he was always worried that if he did than she would get kicked out of the community. Despite not liking red that wasn't something he wanted for her, so he already knew he was going to end up covering the cost of the broken window, and making excuses to Snow as to why Red shouldn't be in an actual jail.
How many centuries could he just call her a kid acting out, especially when she was a legal adult. "How many more centuries are we gonna do this for Red?"
Red tumbled to the ground as he tackled her from behind. Skidding across the grass with a grumble before she found herself pinned beneath Bigby as he questioned her willingness to comply. To which she couldn’t help but chuckle.
During the centuries there was nothing she managed to feel joy about as they lived out their lives in this hell hole of a realm. She had lost it all, not once but twice, and bigby was the one to blame in both cases. He was the source of so much of her pain and the only way she knew to deal with it was to drink and make him feel at least a fraction of what she does.
His questions caused her shoulders to wiggled in a shrug.
“For as long as I live wolf. You will remember.” Her emerald eyes narrowed up at him, the pain evident as she felt the glaze over. She was broken but she wasn’t done fighting. If anything, she would fight till the day she died.
Red wasn’t always this way, life had thrown her a number of curve balls that seemed to shift her life's direction rather dramatically. The most recent of which was the straw that broke the camel's back. She was alone and perhaps her rivalry with Bigby was the only thing she had left to have some semblance of companionship….
Nah… she was just drunk. He was an ass hole and she didn’t need him.
Bigby just glared when she said that they would be doing this forever. There was something in her tone of voice that made him completely believe her. That the two of them would be doing this for a long time to come no matter how much he wanted it too change. Pushing her onto her feet there had been one change in his life. After nearly three hundred years of working along side the world of mundies and taking taxi's in every direction of the city learning all of the street names so he could give directions he had finally been issued a car and told to learn to drive.
The decision had not been something he had taken lightly or even kindly. He had not enjoyed getting behind the wheel. An old dog rarely learned any new tricks, and Bigby was one of the oldest. According to the community's accounting department Bigby's taxi's cost three times what he saved on gass with a car. There had also been a law a while back about not smoking in taxi's or on buses.
But the real reason that the taxi's never worked out were the mundy's. When the community got loud it got really loud, and taking a taxi to every crime scene always meant that people asked questions. Red's constant rebellion and bringing her home in cuffs was hard to explain a hundred years ago when he could just say he was her uncle or something and get a passing shrug. These days it looked so much worse than it used too, and actual cops had been called in.
Bigby's car was an old beaten up muscle car. both due to poor driving on his part and the fact that they had gotten it on the cheap. On the inside the interior was old fabric, and the entire thing smelled like an ash tray. It wasn't a police car, lacking any lights, but it did come from a former sherif's department out in the country and kept that dull brown they painted it in. "Watch your head." He pushed Red into the back of the car as he looked around. Walking to the other side he opened the door and started to pull out of his parking space.
As he drove he took his eyes off the road to pull out a pack of smokes lifting one to his lips and offering Red one with his free hand while the other stayed on the wheel. It was late not another car on the road. "So what inspired the party for one this time?" He asked looking over at Red, his eyes still not going towards the road, this driving thing was really not his forte.
With her hands cuffed behind her back, Red put up much less of a fight though the soured expression on her face hadn’t changed. When he lifted her to her feet she was quick to shake his hands from her arm once she was stable and able to walk on her own.
“Paws off”
Sinking into the back of his car she almost gagged. The smell was just awful and truly she didn’t understand how he didn’t get nauseous every time he sat in it, being a dog and all his smell was far greater than hers. This was by far her least favorite part of her fuck with bigby shows.
“Damn it! Why don’t you ever clean your car. This thing stinks.” Ranting on and on about the accommodations as he drove down the street and even giving his chair a kick as he offered her a smoke. It seemed an obvious enough ‘no’ that she didn’t even respond verbally.
His driving wasn’t great.. hell, it wasn’t even good. As he made several quick swerved she felt a rumble in her stomach.
“Pay attention to the road or i’m going to barf all over your shit hole of a car.” Commanding before his question came forth.
Red’s expression quickly went from annoyed to guarded. Emerald eyes shifted out the window and she fell silent for a moment.
“...it's always you.”
While that wasn’t a complete lie. This time it seemed to be a bit different than her usual claims that he was the sole reason for her shitty life. It felt… forced.
Bigby actually chuckled when she told him paws off, and what was more probably enjoyed the fact that she suffered in his car more than just a little. It was practically incentive to not clean his car. He pulled the smoke away when she kicked his seat and put his eyes back on the road like she asked not that it really changed much of his swerving on the road. This was why he needed a deputy, someone who could chauffeur him around in the car so that he wouldn't have to handle to steering wheel ever again.
"You barf in my car, and you will be the one cleaning it." His voice didn't carry it's usual threat, as he looked around for a moment trying to orient himself to the roads and catch which way he was actually going not wanting to miss his turn.
He caught her expression change when he asked her what was up, and when she said that it was him, he shook his head. He had never really bought it over the years, she had the right to hate him a lot of people in the community did just that, but really this time it seemed even less convincing than her usual attacks against him.
Bigby's face softened as he slowed his car and went for the parking lot. He glanced back at Red for a long moment when she seemed to go defensive. Stopping the car he didn't make an attempt to leave it keeping the door locked. "Red..." He sighed and shook his head getting out of the car and opening her door. Whatever he wanted to say he knew she wouldn't listen to him when she was drunk. "You can sleep it off in the drunk tank. I'll bring you some breakfast in the morning."
Red didn’t need anyone anymore. She had managed this long without anyone there to support her, what was another thousand years. Not only that but hell would freeze over before she ever confided in Bigby.
Somehow she didn’t like the way he said her name in the final moments in the car. It almost felt like he had some emotions towards her. Then again it was likely pitty. That thought allowed her to forget it and put it out of her head.
As the door opened she scooted her way out of the car. Taking a deep breath of clean fresh air before coughing the last of the ash smell out of her lungs.
“Sausage Mcmuffin with egg. Coffee, three creams and one sugar”
Flashing a mischievous grin his way as she took the lead towards the station. Red knew that he wasn’t going to get her any of that but Drunk Red very much expected him to.
Once she was in the tank she didn’t waste any time crashing. The world was on the verge of spinning and if she didn’t pass out soon then she was going to barf. So curled up on the stiff metal frame with the thin mattress pad she let sleep take her. The thing she whispered was the name of a person long gone.
‘Hunter’
The wolf watched as Red went into the tank, he shook his head at her demand for food from a chain restaurant. He wasn't exactly sure if she was aware what his Salary was but fast food was a rare commodity on a sheriff's salary. He watched her crash from behind the steel bars, and as he turned to leave he heard her whisper out the name and he sighed shaking his head. He understood it all too well. He just shook his head trying not to focus on it.
Walking up the stairs to his apartment he crashed rather quickly on his bed. Only really stopping to wash his face and poor himself a glass of whiskey, the burn helping to dull some of his senses that would otherwise keep him up all night. Looking out at the city he knew tomorrow was going to be another day, and he had a feeling that it was going to be worse. Outside through the apartment window he looked out at the new York Night, the wind was picking up, and through the open window he could smell a shifting in the wind.
By morning that shifting wind had become a rainstorm. Bigby woke up later than usual, brushing his eyes for a moment before making a breakfast for himself, and then putting an extra two slices of ham and eggs out on a second plate. He made a his usual cup of coffee as black and strong as he could handle, followed by a second cup where he poured some cream and added a cube of sugar to it. Placing it all on a tray as he walked out of his apartment.
Stepping down into the lobby he noticed that his mail box had been used, which was odd because for the most part he didn't even know he had a mail box at the lobby. Certainly no one had ever given him a letter before. What he found was a rather plain looking manila envelop not addressed to him, but rather to Red. He put it under his arm still a little too asleep to really notice what that meant as he walked down to the drunk tank. Holding the tray of food with one hand he opened the door to the tank and placed her food on a table, before stepping back. "Wakey wakey eggs and backey... only I didn't have any bacon, so you get ham fresh from the farm."
He sat down using at a desk next to her cell and placed the envelop down when he started to work on his own breakfast. "Up and at it Red, we got a long day ahead of us, mostly trying to figure out what to do with you."
The night was long and her dreams were far from sweet but the tequila kept her under for the entire durations. Meaning that any unpleasant dreams had to be endured and couldn’t wake from. Perhaps a subconscious punishment she inflicts upon herself.
By the time morning came, Bigby’s voice was the thing she awoke to. Groaning she was slow to lift from her bed. With a throbbing head she sat up and ran her hands through her hair. It still had a few leaves and twigs from when she was tackled to the grown and that left her to wonder how much dirt she had on her.
After another minute she lifted from the bed and made her way towards the table where he had sat her tray. With a gruff sigh she picked it up and moved to sit at the desk where he was eating his breakfast, might as well make him uncomfortable.
“Well I need a shower so my vote is to let me go home and clean up.”
Picking up the fork she stabbed a chuck of eggs and popped it into her mouth. In the middle of her chew her eyes found the envelop with her name on it. The handwriting was the same as all the others….. but why was it here?
“This mine?” Questioning as calmly as possible while her hand reached up to grab the mail. If at all possible, she didn’t want him to see whatever happened to be in this one.
Bigby took a long drink of his morning coffee turning towards Red as she said that she wanted to go home and take a shower. He shook his head that wasn't happening this time. In the past he let her off with warnings but something had happened last night, there had been some kind of shift that he couldn't tell what it was. Plus he just felt too responsible to her. He was tired of always letting her go so that she could just create more problems for him down the line, if they continued down that path she would loose everything and he would be responsible.
She may not listen to him, but he had to try something to avert that disaster to at least say that he did his best to make sure that Red didn't get thrown out of the community he couldn't just let her go so he shook his head. "Not gonna happen Red. This time we are going to do something. I might end up taking you back to Grandma's bakery. She'll be difficult to convince but she's the last person I can actually think will still put up with you. Family reciepies and all."
When he had first met Red all those centuries ago that basket had been the single sweetest thing he had ever smelt. It was almost a shame she didn't bake anymore.
When she pointed to the envelop he regarded it more awake than he was when he picked it up, he grabbed it before she could get it. "Yeah someone broke into my mail box to deliver this for you." He shrugged his shoulders for a moment he was already building a list at the back of his mind about who it was. "Feels a little heavy, and no return address." He shrugged, before passing it to her. It was her mail after all.
"I haven't opened it, I don't smell anything odd coming from it, so it's just paper. Do you have an admirer or something in the community?"
Modify message
Red slipped the envelope from the desk, placing it on her lap before she went back to eating her breakfast before it got cold. She didn’t have any intentions of opening the letter right now in front of Bigby because she knew that his nosy ass would surely find a way to read it. Just as he was probing now for possible reasons for her to receive it in the first place.
A change of subject was best.
“ You know there is no way i’m going back to the bakery. “ Pointing the fork in his direction “ I think that may be one thing both my grandmother and myself will agree on. I’m better off staying away.. everyone is.”
Withdrawing her weapon she polished off her plate before moving on to the coffee. The caffeine was just the cure for her hangover, that and a bloody mary. Which she surely wasn’t going to get from Bigby.
“ Come on Wolf. You know that it won’t matter.” Leaning back in her chair as emerald eyes lingered on him. “This is who we are, this is how our stories go. You chase, I run. Nothing you do will ever change that. At least we can count on that being consistent”
Red didn’t think he was serious because he had always been all talk with her. Her punishments were barely slaps on the wrists and she didn’t imagine that changing anytime soon. So with that thought she lifted from her chair, coffee in one hand and the envelop in the other.
“I’ll be seeing you around.”
Turning on her heels Red was headed out.
Bigby sighed maybe she was right there was no way to get her back into the bakery. Her grandma had stopped paying Red's fines ages ago and wouldn't even pick her up from the station it probably broke the old woman's heart. Bigby for his part couldn't understand it. Why she had this need to be alone when she had options, but she was right there was no putting her back to the backery and no one else who would work with her. That brought a smile to his lips however as she turned around to try and leave.
"Where exactly do you think your going when you are still locked in a jail cell exactly?" Bigby said leaning back on his chair. He had opened her door to bring her the food, but it had remained firmly locked once he had left and that was before she had even woken up. He just raised an eyebrow towards her amused with a chuckle.
"I thought our story ended with me at the bottom of a river having to pass heavy loading stones." The amusement from his eyes faded slightly at the memory. Yes Red had been one of the ones that had gotten away from him. The day that They had cut him open and removed that old woman from his gut only to then fill his gut with load stones and push him into the river. It had been the closest anyone had ever gotten to killing the big bad wolf, and he remembered the pain like it was yesterday.
"Even if that was the end of the story back then, we can't survive that way now. I'm tired of chasing you, and this time I caught you. Since no one else is going to take care of you, I'm assigning you community service. You have a licence to drive right?" He got up from his seat and walked to the bars of the cell his eyes narrowing for a moment. "One way or another you are not getting out of here without me."
Red’s hand went to pull the cell doors just as bigby questioned where she was supposedly headed. The door rattled and protested her attempts to open it as it remained quite locked.
“What the fuck wolf!?”
He had never actually locked the door before, she just walked right out when she was ready. Sassy emerald turned his direction as she gave him her best dirty stare. This was bullshit and the fact that he was laughing about it only served to piss her off more. She had been rather cordial thus far, well as much as she ever could be with him.
As he brought up their past she scoffed.
“Don’t act like you were the victim. You ATE my grandmother and were going to eat me. Thank god Hunter was around to stop you.”
Red was pissed, she didn’t like being in here and being forced to stay around him longer than was necessary. Her anger was boiling over and she was on the verge of throwing everything possible.
“Community Service?!”
Her gaze followed him as he moved to stand before her, challenging her with that look in his eyes. Red had her own look, one that suggested that she wasn’t going to back down and that her fight with him was far from over.
“This is bullshit. It’s not going to change anything. I’m not going to do it.” Crossing her arms as she took a stance. Red truly believed she had a say in the matter.
"Your grandma is fine! I buy cookies from her every now and then. You just said you didn't want to go back to her bakery so you don't get too hold that over me." Bigby waved off the fact that he had in fact eaten the old hag, he just didn't chew his meal very well from back then. He huffed for a moment his cheeks puffing up in a childish display of anger. "I mean if she doesn't hold a grudge than you shouldn't get too either. I only tried to eat you after all."
Bigby puffed out his chest but refrained from going and blowing down the house after all the iron bars were keeping her in not him out. She could throw around the past, try to hurt him all she wanted. Instead his brown eyes just matched her challenging glare. He did enjoy this moment. It was for Red's own good. He crossed his arms as the disaproving figure he had to be in the moment.
"I'm done Red. I can't keep trying to claim I'm okay with the status quo. I know you can do better, hell if I could change and learn to live in the community than you can easily get your butt in line. Don't want too work alongside me for the community service, then you can stay in there till you agree to my terms." It was a slight abuse of power, but considering that she had burned every other bridge in town she wasn't exactly going to get anyone elses help here.
"I think we just went from Little Red and the big bad wolf too Beauty and the beast, and to borrow a bit from Adam this is the part where I say your my prisoner until such time as you agree to my terms."
“Maybe if i only had the eating thing to be pissed about then I would be able to forgive you but I have so much more than that.” Her voice cracked near the end and her gaze turned away. She hadn’t talked about Hunter this much in… well forever. He was always on her mind but she rarely said his name.
Hearing him give her an ultimatum she darted her gaze back in his direction. To make it worse, he compared her to Bell.
“God, please don’t compare us to those two….Least of all me to her” Red didn’t consider herself anything like the Bell, at least the Bell of today. All the money and power she held in the home world had gone to her head. She went from a simple girl seeking adventure to a pompous princess who thought she was better than everyone else and now her marriage was on the line and nearly broken.
“At least in our relationship we can openly say how much we hate each other.” Smirking now as she leaned against the bars, her fingers twirling with the envelope as she fell silent.
Red knew he was serious, he wasn’t going to let her go until she agreed to serve her time, a punishment far worse than exile.
“How many hours?”
Her gaze remained on the envelop as she questioned him. The tip of her finger playing around with the sealed lip, gently picking at it as she wondered what this one had to say.
Bigby felt her cold stare for a long moment his breath loosing touch as there was a flicker of something, if not regret it was some other type of painful emotion. There had been no love lost between him and Hunter, but in the adversaries days the attack's and the formation of the resistance movement things had been very different. While he had never counted Hunter as a friend he hadn't left as an enemy either.
It was a brief moment of understanding between the two before they started to cover it over with humor, looking at Adam and Bell's dying marrage, he had always kind of been impressed by how they had managed to last together over the centuries, but he had been called in on more than one domestic dispute over the years to know that no one could love someone well and truly over their long life spans, well no one except Red, somehow she had managed to hold onto a man who didn't even exist anymore for centuries. For that she had his admiration.
"I don't hate you Red." The words were soft as he leaned against the opposite walls. He started to compound some numbers in his head.
"You cause more problems than Jack you know that?" He thought about all of the years that had gone by with almost monthly incidents that he had to cover the cost of. If he was serious about rehabilitation than he knew he had to stick her with him for as long as it would take, which could very well have been the rest of their very unnatural life spans.
"In hours, too many to count, but I'm going to say I have sway with Snow and Cole to get you under my wing for... two hundred years." His brown eyes seemed to glimmer with mirth at the number he tossed out. "With time reduced for good behavior of course."
His eyes however drifted down to the envelop he was curious about it. Wanted to know more, he didn't move closer to it but he was continually eyeing it with the curiosity of a cat rather than a wolf.
Red could only chuckle at he denied hating her. “If you say so.” Some part of him had to hate her, if not for what she had done in the past, surely for what she did in the present. It was something best not dwelled upon, she could live with him hating her. That was just fine.
Though hearing him put her as a step above Jack she truly laughed. Her emerald eyes twinkled in the dim light and she scratched her head as her laughter died down. “ That’s mighty impressive. I think i deserve an award for that. Damn. And here i was thinking i would never out shine him.” A gentle shake of her head as she leaned against the bars.
As Bigby started answering her question she watched him, trying to figure out where he was going with this when he said that it was to many hours to say. Then he threw the brick at her.
“Two hundred!” Red was stunned and it took her a moment to find her tongue again.
“I got robbed. No tequila is worth that amount of time. Two months” She countered, gaining back the determined look of hers as she crossed her arms.
There was no way in hell should could make it a year with him, let alone two hundred. Shit, it would be a miracle if she could make it a day. Why did he insist on punishing her in such a cruel way? Wasn’t he tired of dealing with her, why would he want her around even more?
"Oh your stunt at the Bar probably only gets you a month, but." Bigby reached to one of the pockets of his long coat, pulling out a small brown book. He opened it flipping through pages and showing Red all of the dates that were on the pages, each date showed a different crime listed. Everything on the list was petty, a lot of disorderly conduct, plenty of assaults, and his personal favorite the one that occurred every single time that he took her name down. Fleeing a police officer.
"Your right you run, and I chase, but running from a cop is still a felony, and this book... it's only forty years old. You robbed yourself." Bigby put the book back in his pocket showing that he was the one holding the cards in this conversation. Bigby paced the hall in front of her cell, walking up and down the steel bars. "But I'll cut you a deal because even I don't want to have babysit you forever. Two years provisionally serve the time with good behavior and I remove time, act out and I add time."
He was tired of dealing with her every month, and he knew this was a sacrifice of the highest order. He would be giving up every minute of his spare time to get this work done. It was a horror show honestly. Something that he didn't want to deal with, but if he didn't the only other line that would come down would be exile, and then Red's life would literally be his fault.
He didn't really know why but he wasn't willing to give up on her in that regard. He wasn't willing to let her just walk away. There was something about her that he understood maybe it was the loneliness the sense of misery, but he couldn't live with himself if he didn't try to make a difference and the soft approach hadn't worked. Now it was time for the hard line approach to this problem. "You will be getting a paycheck. I can't justify taking all of this time as volunteer hours. Technically you will be my deputy once the paperwork clears, but in practice your my errand girl."
As Bigby pulled out the book her brow arched, watching as he flipped through page after page of what she knew to be her escapades over the years. It impressed her that he had actually kept up with all the shit she put him through and from the sounds of it, that was barely a fraction. What wasn’t impressive was him holding it over her head.
Then as the offer for a drastically modified sentence was brought to the table she leaned forward, clearly intrigued by his compromise. Now that he was actually being reasonable she wasn’t as opposed to the idea. Though she knew she would find little ways to irritate him to death, till he released her early.
With a smirk she nodded. She hadn’t expected him to pay her as well.
“You know i have a mundie job too… though i guess if you're paying me then i can quite.” Shrugging slightly as she moved closer towards Bigby.
“And you make me breakfast once a week” Extending her hand with a sheepish grin. “You’re cookings not half bad. Better than cold pizza” So she wasn’t completely opposed to tossing a dog a bone.
He had no intention of letting her off easy. The provision was simple that he could add or remove time for her behavior and given Mrs Moore's penitent for bad behavior. She wasn't goinig to be getting out of his sight for a long time to come. Still it seemed the two of them reached an accord of sorts. She would take up the job he needed her to do, and he would end up finally trying to put her back on the right path.
He was so getting the worse end of the deal for this.
He walked forward facing her at the cage when she extended her hand. He didn't mind the occasional breakfast. Sharing and company were things he didn't have a lot of but had gotten used too here and there. Considering he was going to have to watch Red like a hawk he knew that she would end up probably getting more than a few meals off of him that was a small price to pay, but it did come with a counter offer of it's own. "You want my cooking quid pro quo you bake me something lets say once every two weeks."
He extended his hand and took hers giving it a firm shake. "I doubt your job will be sad to see you go."
His smile could not have gotten any more smug, but his eyes went back to the envelop before he opened the door, though he did take the keys out of his pocket. "You going to open that?"
Red didn’t have the chance to disagree with his request for her to bake him good before he had taken her hand and was giving it a firm shake. Damn him. Her eyes narrowed as he pulled a fast one on her. Then she smirked, knowing that there had to be some treat that he didn’t like. Perhaps something with chocolate.
And just incase she was starting to feel guilty for wanting to find ways to get under his skin, he went and made another jab regarding her job.
“As a matter of fact they all loved me there. I was quite popular” This time she was being completely honest as she smiled like she had a juicy secret.
Though as he brought the focus around to the envelop her smile faded and her gaze lowered to the envelop she was still twiddling with in her hand.
“It’s nothing… just these stupid letters i keep getting.” While she tried not to sound concerned, it was hard to hide because this one was much larger than the rest. That coupled with the fact that it came to the station after she had been arrested.
Red glanced at Bigby for a moment before sighing “Might as well get it over with i suppose.” Delicate finger slid under and the paper seal. Reaching in she pulled out a piece of paper and a handful of photos.
Through knitted brows she eyed the images that were of her last night, breaking into the bar, dancing alone, running from bigby and even her sleeping in the drunk tank. A chill start to run up her spine as her gaze moved to the letter.
Little Red has been a bad girl
And will play nevermore.
Something about this felt more real than the others, this was a true threat and not just some creepy stalker letters. An ounce of panic started to set in, taking root in her gut where she suddenly felt nauseous before it worked its way our. Sending a tremble into her hand as is spread, her chest tightened and her breaths grew a bit ragged.
Come to think of it for all the times that he had done this song and dance with Red, he had no idea what she did. He had no idea what her job was, just that whenever she ended up having a bad day he ended up paying for it when she did one of her frankly stupid stunts. He wanted to ask but as she started to open up the letter he paused looking at her and then to it.
He watched the spectrum of emotions that crossed Red's face seeing her shift from annoyance to fear. He reached out to take the photo's after she was done with them and upon seeing the one of her in the drunk tank he shook his head. That shouldn't have been possible. Only three people had the key to this room.
One was firmly in his hand, along with the keys that unlocked each jail cell. Another was upstairs in the lobby with Flycatcher so he could do his Janitorial duties though his keys lacked the ability to enter the individual cells, and were more used for maintence and occasionally delivering food when they had a long term guest. The third was with Snow, and her set allowed full access to any room in Woodlands, but it would also be the hardest to get too. He supposed the Camera could have been slipped between the bars, but the fact that she was locked up was the reason that Red was still with him today instead of him invistigating a missing person.
There was a small shudder that crossed his back when he realized what could have happened if he hadn't locked the door to her cell this time.
As Red had a panic attack, Bigby opened the cell door for her. He didn't touch her, touching was always bad in a panic attack but he offered her a way out of the jail cell a less confining space. "Okay Red, you are going to come with me to my office, and we are going to go over this."
From suspect to victim in less than five minutes. He had to admit that was pretty well a record for his line of work. He guided her gently towards the exit taking her up the stairs. "We will figure out a safe place for you to stay as well." He had a guest room in his apartment that had been used only once or twice when Colin had escaped the farm, and would willingly offer it to red, but he knew she would rather die than share a place with him, aside from actively commanding her from her own safety he needed to figure out how to get her to take up such an offer so that she could be safe.
Red was still so focused on the words typed on the page that she didn’t even realize that bigby took the photos from her hands. What kind of game was this? Better yet, who would be sending her these things? Sure, she could be a pain in the ass but to warrant this kind of attentions.
Hearing bigby's words she nodded lightly though she said nothing. Her brain was still raking over the possibilities of what this could mean. Slowly she moved out of the cell, trailing behind Bigby as he led the way to his office.
When she heard him mention finding her a safe place she chuckled only it wasn’t filled with humor so much as disbelief.
“Clearly that doesn’t exist because they got in here didn’t they? Isn’t this place suppose to be safe.” Snorting in annoyance as she was starting to move past the fear by hiding behind her anger. It was easier to be mad than it was to be afraid. At least anger gave her a false sense of security, that was better than being alone and scared.
“.. Just… don’t tell Snow”
Looking to him with a pleading gaze. The last thing she wanted was her sister putting her nose in her business. They weren’t on great terms either and anytime she got a whiff of Red’s exploits she came barging into her life like a bat out of hell. Making demands on how she thought Red should live her life.
Bigby for his part just rolled his eyes when she started to get mad. He understood why she would, it was probably easier for her part. On the other hand he had to deal with this trying to find out who had been stalking her, today just became a long day, and as he walked he reached into his Jacket and pulled out a smoke lighting it, as he offered another one of his cheap smokes to Red despite having turned him down earlier.
When she asked him not to tell snow he exhaled a puff of smoke as he thought about it. Snow was his boss, which meant that if he did tell her everything that she would turn around and hound him for results. She would probably even accompany them on the job, which would be distracting for a number of reasons. Thankfully Snow's attention should be elsewhere. "She will be focused on the gala, and the fact that your brother in law is back in town."
He said waving off the idea that Snow would barge into both their lives as he reached his office and opened the door for him and Red. Like every room Bigby spent time in the place smelled of cheap smoke. His desk had an ash tray that was half full, and his windows only opened so far. Going to his desk it was a mess. It was like the Wolf used his cigarette smoke to mark his territory or something. Sitting down he pulled out some paperwork to take notes on.
"I can't completely lie to Snow. I will need to check the security footage from last night which is in her office, and I will need too check that she still has her master set of keys. I have mine, so that leaves Fly Catcher and hers as the most likely being stolen to get into the cells. Most likely it was fly catcher because his set don't open individual jail cells, but either way locks will need to be changed and new keys made for the entire room. That's not something I can just write off."
He supposed he could go to Cole rather than Snow, but if she ever found out that he went over her head on something of that importance. "Frankly Red, Snow scares me a lot more than you do, but I want to get this job done without her breathing down my neck every step of the way as well."
"So tell me about these letters." His tone was uncharacteristically kind for what their conversations usually consisted of.
Modify message
Red turned away the smoke once again. “I’ll take a drink if you got it” Running her hands through her hair as tried to calm her nerves. This was all too much and she didn’t know where to start with this. On top of that, Charming was in town. If there was ever a bigger douche bag than him, she didn’t want to meet that person.
As they entered the office Red crinkled her nose and glared at him. Why did everything have to smell like smoke.
“You must be getting old if you can’t smell how horrible this place is.”
Chastising under her breath as she moved through the room, following him to his desk. As many times as she had been arrested by Bigby, she had never been into his office. It was always the drunk tank or the car.
Hearing that he couldn’t hide everything from her sister she grumbled, plopping down in the worn leather chair that sat across from him.
“Don’t tell her i’m the one involved then. Say it’s someone else… someone she wouldn’t care about. You know her better than me”
With the focus moving to the letter she closed her eyes, trying to think back to when this all started.
“Lets see. It started about a three months ago. I started getting little letters in my mailbox. At first they were just odd little poems that didn’t make any sense to me. Then they started to talk about me and mentioned things i had been doing. You know, breaking into places. Stealing things. Dancing. Stuff like that. After awhile i just started throwing them away and they stopped coming for two weeks. Now this one.”
Dark emerald moved from the photos he still had to meet his gaze. She didn’t want to admit she was worried or afraid and part of her knew she wouldn’t have to. He was a wolf after all, couldn’t he smell emotions or something?
When Red asked for a drink Bigby opened a locked drawer of his desk with a key from his set and pulled out a bottle of whiskey and two short glasses, pouring one of each he pushed one of the glasses towards Red and let her take it. "I won't have to chase you down the street this time will I?"
He tried to joke, tried to put it all in some kind of good humor that showed that nothing was changing but it was. All at once he was dealing with a red that spoke and talked to him differently than what he was used too over the past infinity that they had been doing this together. When she said that he knew snow better than her, there was some truth to that statement but it was also painful as it meant that Red really didn't take advantage of the family she had.
"Did you by any chance happen to keep any of these letters?" They could have helped him get a scent if they had. Sitting down at the chair he knew he could work this out, but for now it was more important than ever that he keep Red close to him. The community service was a step in the right direction, but he was most worried about the night.
"Okay Red, we won't tell Snow that you were involved, but on one condition. You are going to sleep with me." He paused for a moment the way it sounded made it so much worse and he quickly put a hand to his face brushing as he let out a sigh. His brain was still waking up after all. "What I mean is, you will be spending the night in the guest room in my apartment, I will be on the other side of the door in the living room. If the guy comes back he has to get through me. If we told Snow than you would just end up with her doing the same kind of thing, only she isn't nearly as equiped for protection detail."
"Plus on the bright side you can fus about how much you hate me, and that always makes you happy right?"
Without missing a beat Red caught the drink that was pushed her way. Just before she took the shot she heard Bibgy’s words and couldn’t help but smirk. Raising the glass just slightly as if cheers him “ I’ll do my best but no promises.” Afterall, sober Red couldn’t make promises for drunk Red.
The shot was quick and the burn that the liquid gold offered was more than welcoming, almost like the warm embrace of an old friend. Her palm hit the table as she swallowed.
With a exhale she looked to him now, it was much easier to get lost in the bottle than it was to deal with this shit but she knew that the drink had only been a courtesy shot. She doubted he would let her keep at it, but just incase he did, she pushed the glass back in his direction as she answered his question.
“I might still have them. Can’t say i remember emptying the trash in my place after i tossed them” Red wasn’t entirely sure if they were or weren’t still in the trash. Only way to find out was to go to her place.
As Bigby gave her the conditions for his silence she arched her brow. Did she just hear him correctly? Was this a joke? Before she had the chance to vent her disbelief in him, Bigby corrected his statement. It was likely apparent on Red’s face that she was about to blow up on him.
“So that’s how you’re going to play it….” Sighing as she looked around the dump. “Does the guest room smell like a filthy ashtray too?” It might be worth taking her luck with Snow if she had to live with this smell everyday…
“Why don’t you stay at my place instead?” At least this way she would get to sleep in her own bed. “I’ll just burn the couch once this is all done” Smirking as she glanced his way.
"Because I live and work here, my apartment is on the sixth floor of this building with exactly one entrance that i can sit down in front of and watch, and thanks to the terms of your community service it's now also where you work, and since our job is 24/7 you are stuck with me." Bigby wasn't exactly about to defend the state of his room, it did stink, but it was a small price to pay for if he was actually going to keep her safe. There were other reasons she would have to stay near to him as well, but as far as he was concerned at this point it was the lesser of two evils and the only way to move forward with any plans the two may have had.
"As for the smell your just going to have to get used to that, and I can't allow you to open a window either, just encase the person doing this has some form of magic or is a good climber." He had to think tactically he knew the layout of his home better than he knew the layout of hers.
"That said your place is on the list of places to visit to check if I can pick up anything more about this person from the letters, first though we're going to visit Snow so we can watch the security camera." He smiled for a moment as he finished his drink and his smoke. "Next stop is across the hall."
He got to his feet not wanting to listen to Red's protests but knew he would be getting an ear full anyway. There was one more thing however, and he slid some paperwork in front of her. "By the way these are the terms for the community service. I will be the arbiter for your case. Able to act as judge and jury in how much time is either reduced or added, it's my job to rehabilitate you so you follow my orders and we get along fine... Of course that is a lark and a lie, so just sign the papers and we can start getting this over and done with already."