Saving Snow // The Wolf Among Us (SnowXBigby)

Part 10: Welcome Back

Bigby swallowed a big lump in his throat as he stood outside the Business Office. Why did he feel so anxious? It's not like anyone knows. Calm the fuck down and act normal, he told himself.

Twitching his tie, he pushed the door open and walked a little nervously to Snow's desk.

She engrossed in reading some letters, not acknowledging his presence even though she knew he was there. An awkward silence rose.

Bigby was first to break it. Uh ... Snow?" he said tentatively.

"Sheriff," she said back in a stony tone. "Welcome back."

Shit! That don't sound good. Does she know?

"Any ... Work for me today?" Bigby asked pathetically.

"Paperwork," she muttered. "In your office."

What fun, Bigby thought. He cleared his throat. "So, how are you, er, feeling today?"

As soon as the words left his tongue he wanted to knock himself out with a shovel. Since when do we ever ask each other that?

Snow looked up at him at last. Her glassy blue eyes were impassive, but the corners of her mouth tightened as if slightly amused.

"I'm fine, Sheriff."

"Good." Bigby nodded. Snow rolled her eyes and went back to reading. Bigby waited.

"What is it?" she sighed.

"Aren't you going to ask me how I am?"

Snow put the letters down with a smack. "I'm sure you're feeling much finer than me, Sheriff," she said with a frosty edge to her voice. Bigby stiffened. Crap! She does know. "I couldn't get ahold of you all evening and night yesterday. Care to explain why?"

Bigby had no idea if she knew or not. If she did know, she wasn't letting anything on. "I had an early night," was all he muttered.

Snow snorted unbelievingly. "Your excuses are normally a lot better than that."

"Yeah well I wasn't feeling good as you can imagine," Bigby said sharply. From rejection.

Snow bit her lip and for a second there was a faint flush in her cheeks. She looked back down at the letters. "You can go now, Sheriff, and do the work you failed to do yesterday."

Fuck that. "I'd rather look for the prince fucker who tried to kill me," he snarled.

"Yes, you may do that too, and bring him to justice so we can make a trial - but right now he's probably on a plane halfway across the world, on his way to Asia or somewhere." Snow said. "He's smart enough to not stick around after what happened."

Bigby's skin prickled.

"I thought he wanted you back." The words slipped by accident and his jaw bared.

Snow's head snapped up. She looked shocked.

"What are you talking about?" she exploded, her voice a mixture of shock, harshness and fury. He wasn't there at the diner! Was he?

Bigby looked into her alarmed blue eyes. Yes. It was true: he followed them to the diner, sat on the table behind them, hid behind a newspaper and listened to their whole conversation. It wasn't exactly the most professional thing to do. He felt like a stalker when he was doing it - but he didn't want Charming to be alone with Snow. He didn't want them to be together.

No way was he going to let that on to her.

"Well he was being all sleazy on you in the office and inviting you out to fucking lunch," he growled.