"I'll Be Good"
Part 2 - Dawn
The jingle of the bell signalled that, yet, another customer have came in and by the smell and irritating sound of voices, they were mundies.
Their tones were a bit too loud and cheery for a Tuesday morning, wearing smiles that seemed too fake.
Bigby tries to focus on drinking his black coffee, tries to pay attention to what Snow was telling him, but there were far too many sounds going on in The Mornin' Joe's Diner.
That or it was the fact that Bigby knew something wasn't right. His stomach twisted and churned with his inner Wolf itching and gnawing to get out.
"-The Witness I interviewed last night told me they heard something in the room next to--Bigby?"
The Sheriff blinked and looks back to Ms. Whites piercing blue eyes, seeming to have stared off for far too long.
"Hm?"
"Were you paying any attention? Or was the lack of sleep catching up to you?" She huffed, cutting up her hash browns with a small hint of aggression in the hand holding the knife.
He gave an exaggerated huff in return, "No, just being observant."
She rolls her eyes, taking a bite out of her breakfast before turning her attention to the manila folder. "Well, you can observe and multitask at the same time, right Mr. Wolf?"
Bigby gives an amused smile before going to cut his sunny side eggs. "Well, I'm done observing now so.." He gives a small gesture to her before taking a bite of said food.
"Right, so," She places her utensils down and pulled a paper that had a photo clipped to it. "As I was saying, the witness has explained to me that she have heard a commotion next door to her apartment..."
The noirette pulls the picture - that also had some bio on the witness - away from the perfectly typed essay-ed paper that had information from the brief interview. There was a sound of papers crinkling in the motion of shifting over the table and soon the air was filled with its signature black ink smell you'd similarly catch when cracking a book open in a library.
Bigby takes the paper, abandoning his breakfast for the new assignment. His eyes skimmed over the description while Snow continue to talk.
"She invited me back to her place for a better inspection of the crime scene." Her piercing blue eyes lifted up to look at him now. "This is where you come in, you ask the bigger questions and with your keen eyes we might see some clues to guide us along."
"Only problem is," Bigby rests the papers down, unsettled and antsy in the action when he looks back up to her. "The witness doesn't like me to say the least.."
Snow sighed, restraining an eye roll in the process. "Look I understand that you and her don't get along but-"
"Red hates my guts, not to mention Woody put stones in my guts. She isn't going to cooperate with me." Bigby says, finality in his tone to demand the ending of the conversation.
In which Snow was not letting it happen. She reaches to her glass, taking a long sip from the citrus juice. "I know you two don't meet eye to eye-"
"-Figuratively and Literally."
"-but we need this Bigby. At least seem tolerable to get some answers from her, How hard can it be?"
"Uh, very. I'm the 'Big Bad Wolf' who impersonated her grandmother. How can you not see that in a person who clearly holds a grudge against me?" Bigby grumbled, glaring down at his food intensely. Aggressively (penetrating) poking his fork into the yoke center of his egg.
Snow sighed, cutting her food up in little pieces with the manners of elegance and grace that she couldn't shake off. "I know, I know, but maybe this could be a chance to get forgiveness from her. 'Bury the axe between you two,' some might say.."
Bigby shakes his head, engrossed with making his own crime scene out of his meal. "She won't forgive me, even if I do show up at her place with a basket of sweets..."
Ms. White peers up at him with a soften look in her eye, daintily reaching over the table to hold his clenched hand. Squeezing it ever so gently like he was about to break at any moment.
In that single second, all time, all sounds became so far and gone where everything narrowed down to that singular second. As cliche as it sounded, the wolf couldn't find it in himself to brush it off, snort at the corniness, he just felt so at peace. Her slightly cold, petite, small palm holding his more large, rough, warm one like an anchor in a raging sea. Like a very life line that gave him air to breathe in the midst of that storm.
And soon that moment was ruined when the door bell jingled yet again.
Their hands draw back like touching burning flames to nurse an injury. Bigby clears his throat, looking down at his plate of food while Ms. White goes to comb her hand through her hair with her blue eyes glancing off.
"Right, so, where does Red live exactly?" Bigby asks, biting back retorts he could be saying to avoid further interactions with the young girl.
Snow, relieved that she doesn't have to put up another round of persuasion, gently taps the paper she handed over with one of her manicured nails. "Its all there, information that you'd need to talk to her."
She looks back up to him, seeing the unease and slight frown on his bushy brow. "Don't worry, I'll be at your side to make it less... Unpleasant.."
Bigby gives a dry smile, "As if having your enemy show up at your door is pleasant at all.."
Snow doesn't do much to hold back the eye roll and returns to eating, leaving the conversation at that in favor of not having cold hash browns.
And in about that moment, the Sheriff trails off into his own little world. His distant gaze shifts out to the big window nect to their booth to watch the cars go by and the little people who walk on the sidewalk.
The rain has came to a steady sprinkle unlike the heavy down pour earlier that morning. The roads were slicked with the residue that the cars were going at a slow pace.
The air was sticky and moist that it almost leave him uncomfortable from not showering the past few days and unchanged clothes. Sweat dried to his skin among other fluids that can go without mentioning.
But deep down, it brings him back home.
It resurfaces memories of his mother scolding him as a child whom returned to the den caked in mud. And those memories bring back memories of his siblings who would race through the forest. Testing each other out. Seeing who out of all of them was the fastest.
He smiles to himself, his eyes focusing once more to notice a figure outside the window.
Familiarizing the brown curls that stick out in wild directions. The careless strut they walk as if with purpose.
Bigby frowns, his posture stiffening up some as he observed the person who was making their way to the Diners' door. He sees the strong built of lean muscle under the not so covering clothes the person was wearing.
By the time the door opens, the room was filled with a familiar smell of moss, grass, and earth. The scent sends him reeling back into a time of era that was so familar yet so old and lost that its close to foreign.
His stomach drops when he catches the person's eyes and finally puts a name to the face.
The person, who's a young woman, also stiffened. Leveling his stare and can almost hear the few muttered words under her breath.
"Shit.."
Snow perks up and looks towards her partner.
"Bigby, what's wro-"
"Dawn."
