tws: characters receiving medical attention, talk of a stalker obsessing over someone's family, a character worries another might try and murder someone, and the one or two uses of inappropriate terms or sex workers

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Sunny winced at the pain in her neck.

"You alright?" Bigby asked.

"I should be asking you that. You're the one with a bullet embedded in your shoulder." Sunny gave a painful smile.

"She's lucky. Any closer, and that shot would have taken out a good chunk of her neck." Swineheart told Bigby as he worked away at Bigby's wounds.

"Yeah..." Sunny said, standing against her desk and stewing in her own anger. "How's everyone else?"

"I had everyone that got wounded sent home. Holly refused to let me see where she lived, so I left her and Grendel back at her bar with a dose of juniper and spring water." The Fable doctor explained.

Sunny gave him a cornered look. She was worried about Holly and Gren. She didn't care how much a Fable could take. Being shot in the gut would hurt like a bitch.

"They're titans, Ms Fei. They'll be fine," He turned to Bigby. "And you remember what I said. The stitches won't hold up if you continue to act...like you normally do. Everything in moderation. And, uh, eat more chicken. Your blood pressure's through the proverbial roof."

"I'll try to," Bigby replied, but he didn't seem to be committed.

"Alright, then. Very good." Swineheart nodded.

The phone started ringing. Snow was quick to pick it up. "Business Office."

"White! Is Yenay there?" Catriona asked urgently.

"We'll have to call you back."

"What? NO! Put Yenay on the phone! I heard someone showed up to Lily's funeral with guns!"

"Now really isn't the time. I'm sorry, Catriona," Snow signed sadly.

"White! I swear if you hang up on me-"

She placed the phone back on the receiver. Frowning as she did so. "The town is starting to find out..."

Sunny cringed. Snow was definitely in for it later. It was lucky that her aunt properly wouldn't come down to the office. People thought of her aunt as irresponsible and careless, but Sunny knew better. Catroina wouldn't drag Liena out of bed in the middle of the night just to yell at Snow.

"Well, I'll leave you two to it, then. Miss White. Bigby. And Ms Fei," Swineheart said as he made his way out. "Try not to turn your head around suddenly for a bit. It might fall off or something," Swineheart said before leaving.

Sunny couldn't tell if that was meant to be a joke or not.

"So...to recap..." Snow prompted.

"Crane watched me through the Magic Mirror uncover his room at the Open Arms. Then he smashed it so we couldn't use it ourselves to go after him."

As Bigby explained it all, he ducked behind a partition Sunny had set up earlier to cut all the excess hair off (a side effect of using her magic. Along with the random vines peaking out).

"And we know this because Bufkin was drinking in the rafters. That about cover it?"

"Once he puts all the pieces back together...it'll be easy to catch Crane." Snow fiddled with her hands nervously. "So...I guess that's the plan. Currently. But I don't know..."

"I'm not waiting for the mirror," Sunny said.

"We can't just go running off into the night without some direction," Snow pointed out. Making Sunny reluctantly pause.

"It's just... What the hell is going on? Just... I don't know what the Tweedles get out of this. I- I don't know if Crane sent them, I don't know if... I mean this is gonna sound crazy, but....do you really think Crane did it?"

Sunny frowned. As angry as she was. As much as she wanted to tear Crane apart at that moment. That same thought kept popping up. Crane was a sicko, but he didn't seem like a murderer.

She tried to calm down... it wasn't working. She turned away from the others. Trying to hide the disgusted scowl on her face.

"From what I saw at the Open Arms...everything points to Crane murdering Lily. What isn't adding up for me is Faith. Why would he kill her? It doesn't seem connected," Bigby shrugged.

"It doesn't make sense. He's...he was a conniver, a...a coward, a liar. And what he was doing is... Unforgivable, but murdering prostitutes-"

As Snow talked, Sunny started thinking back, mostly to how her family used to talk about Crane.

Back in the homelands, her aunt used to be forced into many engagements. Many men around the land wanted the beautiful nature spirit as a bride, but she wanted nothing to do with them- not that they cared what she wanted.

Catriona had always been adamant that Crane was one of the worst. "Absolute stick of a man, who'd rather get his father to strong-arm a woman before talking to her himself", she'd say.

The one theme throughout Catriona's stories remained the same, no matter how the mortals told it: 'Don't force a spirit into something they don't wanna do.'

Along with her brother's 'Don't piss off spirits in any way'.

It turns out that trying to marry Catriona without the family's blessing was a good way to piss both Catriona and Emmanuel off.

That's how Incbood Crane was doomed to be known as the lean, lanky and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Sleepy Hollow. Who got chased off into the night by a 'headless specter'. Too scared to ever show his face in the little town ever again. Forever and always.

That's always what Crane had been to them. A scared little man.

Sunny was pulled out of her thoughts by Bulfkin hissing in pain.

"You alright, Bufkin?" Sunny called out to him.

"Yes, Ms Fei! Just cut myself on a piece of the glass. Nothing to worry about!"

Sunny made her way over to him. Just to make sure it wasn't too bad. Little did Sunny know Snow took the opportunity to whisper something to Bigby.

"I'm worried about her. What if all this is too much?" Snow said.

"What are you talking about?" Bigby blinked.

"Look at her, Bigby. She looks like she wants to kill someone."

Bigby did take a moment to glance over at Sunny. She looked really fucking tired. About as tired as he felt. The nervous woman he had met a few days ago seemed to have left. There was a determined glint in her eyes now. Sure, you could argue it was bloodlust, but wasn't what Bigby was seeing.

"If she decides she can't handle this, she can go," Bigby told Snow. "But I have a feeling that's the last thing she's gonna do."

"She could hurt someone. Remember what Catriona and Emmanuel used to be like before he di-" Snow shook her head. "What they used to do to other Fables for mildly bothering them? If Sunny's anything like her father or aunt, there's not gonna be anything left of Crane to put on trial."

"Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing," Bigby half-joked.

Bigby immediately realised it was the wrong time to be making such jokes. Snow frowned at him. She opened her mouth to say something else but stopped when Bulfkin called out to them.

"Uh, guys? We have a problem."

"What is it?" Snow asked.

"The mirror is missing a piece," Sunny answered. It seemed she had been helping Bufkin out as much as she could.

"What do you mean...missing a piece?" Snow pressed.

Sunny gave her a look while Bufkin answered. "It's not here."

"Crane probably took a shard with him," Sunny grumbled.

"I can't believe this," Snow huffed in annoyance.

"I saw Crane pick something up after he smashed it," Bulfkin told them. "I'm sorry... I didn't realise what it was until now."

"The mirror can't work unless it's whole," Snow said.

"Well, that's not entirely true..."

"Or what, Bufkin? What?" Snow shouted at him. "We sit around and wait until it mends itself? We have no idea how long that will take."

Sunny started walking over to Crane's desk.

"What are you doing?"

"Doing this the old-fashioned way."

"The old-fashioned way?" Snow raised an eyebrow.

"The mundy way," Sunny bitterly rephrased. She started rifling through Crane's desk.

"Right, good idea," Snow said as she started helping Sunny search.

The two looked through Crane's desk as Bigby stayed back to talk to Bufkin for a moment. Most of what they found was old unanswered town requests and that hotel key for the Opens Arms.

"Bufkin says that he overheard Crane call somebody before he left," Bigby told them as he made his way over. "It sounds like he's going to see a witch, or...'his witch'. His glamour witch."

"Wait, really? None of the 13th Floor witches would allow that sort of thing. They must be somewhere in the city. It's something, at least."

"Find anything?"

"Mostly just notes and a key for that motel room," Sunny shrugged. "But we haven't checked the drawers yet..."

Sunny stared off for a moment.

"What is it?" Bigby asked when he noticed Sunny look away.

"You said... you said Crane had an obsession with a version of my family's story that existed in his head?"

"Basically, yeah?"

"It's strange. I really know nothing about him. The only time someone brought him up was to complain about him. Was he really that pissed off about what my aunt and dad did to him back then... he felt the need to make up his own version? I used to think maybe my aunt was being a bit dramatic, but I'm starting to understand why he annoyed her so much in particular."

"There's no way you could have known..." Snow tried to comfort her.

"It's just... now that I look back on the last couple of days, it all starts to click."

"What do you mean?"

"Just little comments, you know?" Sunny explained. "Like how Crane was worried if Lily had 'diseases'?"

"He's not gonna get away with it," Bigby told her. Making her smile for the first time since they had left the club hours ago. It was a small tired smile, but a smile nonetheless.

They got back to work. Bigby quickly looked through some of the notes left on the table but scowled as he did so.

"Did Crane ever do any work?" Bigby asked as he narrowed his eyes at a letter from Toad demanding for the plaster to be redone in his building.

"Only when Cole was around..." Snow sighed.

"You checked this one yet?" Bigby grabbed the middle drawer's handle. Only to find it was locked.

"I was gonna let you do the honours," Sunny grinned.

Bigby smirked and pulled the drawer open with a tug. Breaking the lock with ease. Inside was an old book. Bigby flicked it open to see one of the pages was clearly missing.

"Bufkin?" Sunny called out to him. "Do you know what was in here?"

Buflin flew over and perched himself by the desk. He stared at the book for a moment. "It's a ring, at least. Every magical item not retained in the armoury is assigned to someone in Fabletown. It must be this witch he's going to see-"

"Yeah, I only recently heard about this meeting. Why didn't you mention this before?" Snow asked with a frown.

"No one asked me!"

"Bufkin!"

"And I'm hungover, I'm sorry! He set the meeting for 2:00 A.M., tonight."

"That's a good lead-" Sunny started to say but stopped when a newcomer came barging into the office.

"What's going on? Is the mirror fixed yet?" Bluebeard demanded.

"Bluebeard, this isn't the time," Snow told him

"Is the mirror fixed, or isn't it? You called me to-"

"I called just to see if you knew where Crane could be, and that was it, okay? And I'm sorry I said anything more than that."

"Well, you did, and I know. The cat's out of the bag. So...can we find the dull pervert or not?"

"Get out, Bluebeard," Sunny told him. "Civilians aren't meant-"

"Civilian?!" Bluebeard laughed. "I'm much more important than a mere civilian! Now tell me, how do you plan on catching the killer?"

"We don't know if he's the murderer," Snow corrected.

"He doesn't need to know that," Sunny stated.

"Well, who is then? It has to be him," Bluebeard crossed his arms.

"Look, this just isn't the time. He took a piece of the mirror, so we can't use it."

"The only thing we know is that Crane's going to see a witch at two o'clock," Bufkin added.

"Bufkin please," Sunny hissed. Causing Bufkin to realise his mistake.

"AM or PM?"

"... AM," Buflkin said with slumped shoulders.

"Listen, Bluebeard, you're not a part of this," Sunny repeated.

"I don't think you're in any position to turn away help."

"Define 'help'," Snow narrowed her eyes at him.

"What do you know about Crane, anyway?" Bigby scoffed at him.

"That he has the stones to kill prostitutes, like any common, sex-frightened serial killer, and not face a real challenge."

"You'd know all about that, wouldn't you?" Sunny rolled her eyes.

"Look," Snow sighed. "We know that Crane is going to see a witch, and it's to acquire a magic ring."

"What's the ring?"

"We don't know what it does or who it's assigned to since Crane tore its page out of the book."

"This farce was your ridiculous idea for a plan. I mean, who put you in charge in the first place?"

The two argued back and forth for a little bit about how Snow wasn't in charge. While Sunny tried to suppress the urge to grab Bluebeard by the collar and throw him out of the office herself,

"Snow is the most qualified person here," Sunny got in Bluebeard's face. "So drop it, or get out."

"Well, then...excuse me for having the commonwealth in mind."

"Yeah, the 'commonwealth'," Sunny muttered as she turned away. He was more concerned about his wallet getting lighter.

"Alright, let's just look on the bright side. We know Crane is going to see the witch that's been supplying him with black market glamours."

"Thanks to me," Bufkin smiled. Only to get a 'don't push it' look from Sunny.

"And that he'll be there at two. So that gives us-" Snow sighed and checked her watch. "A few short hours to find out who it is and where they live and get them all at once."

"And a few shorter hours the more you babble about it," Bluebeard derided.

"We haven't been the ones 'babbling'," Sunny retaliated with her hands on her hips.

"Where do you need us to go?" Bigby asked Snow.

"Since Lily used the glamours, she'd have known who the witch was...and I don't think Holly's burned her things yet. It would probably have the address or a phone number or something-"

"And these two are free to go there if they like, but I think the question you should be asking is just what do the two Tweedles know about this?" Bluebeard told her.

"It doesn't matter what they know. After tonight, they'd never go to their office." Snow pointed out.

"They're not smart enough to try and go anywhere else-"

"How on earth could you prove that?" Sunny shook her head in disbelief.

"The Trip Trap is the better option to track the witch down. That has to be our focus." Snow said.

"We could always go to both?" Bigby interrupted.

Sunny nodded. "Yeah, I could go to Holly's, Bigby could check out the office."

"I don't think it's a good idea to split up," Snow worried.

"I don't really care what you two do, I'm going to his apartment," Bluebeard said. Turning around to leave.

"What? You can't just go up there," Snow told him.

"And why the hell not?"

"We already looked for the key, remember? I don't know where it is."

"Then I'll pick the blasted lock! I've wasted enough time waiting for the mirror to find him. I won't waste any more."

"You just can't go up there alone, alright?"

"I've no interest in nicking his drapes, my dear if that's what concerns you."

"What concerns me is you traipsing through possible evidence."

"Oh, now it's evidence! Before, you had no interest, and now it's a crime scene!"

"Bluebeard, just stay out of it, alright?" Bigby told him. "You'll just mess things up further."

"They can't get any more 'messed up'."

"Our focus is finding the witch. That's where he'll be heading," Sunny said.

"Or the snivelling weasel chickened out, never went anywhere, and is upstairs right now in his pitiful penthouse crafting a fort out of couch cushions!"

"Really? Why is it that in your mind, everyone makes the dumbest decision they could possibly make?"

"Look, this is how a smart person would do it, so this is how we're going to do it...whenever you go, I'll go to the other."

"I don't like you going anywhere unsupervised," Snow turned to Bigby. "He's up to something, I don't know what it is, but we don't have the time to really worry about it now. Where ya gonna go?"

Sunny and Bigby looked at each other. It was as if time froze around them as they made their decisions.

"... I wanna go to Holly's. A lead to the witch might be with Lily's stuff," Sunny told him.

"I'll head to Dee and Dum's office. That way, we can cover more ground."

"Sounds good."

"Perfect. And I'll go to Crane's apartment."

"Fine," Sunny and Bigby grumbled.

Snow let out a sigh. "I'll look up the Tweedle's address for you."

"I hope you two know what you're doing," Snow said to Bigby and Sunny.

I'm almost tempted to post two chapters this week. Mostly because this really feels like an interlude chapter on some level, but ehhhh I should put my energy into working on Force of Nature to get another chapter done today.