Fic; Fencing Lessons; Part One.
Title: Fencing Lessons
Author: ittykat
Characters: Snow/Bigby, Prince Charming, Rose Red, Briar Rose, Cinderella, Colin the Pig, Blue, King Cole, many others mentioned.
Wordcount: ~12,000
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Snow tries to go about her normal daily business after she discovers she's pregnant. A collection of missing scenes from just after she discovers she's pregnant to just after the battle of the Wooden Soldiers.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Bill Willingham and Vertigo.The last half of the last scene is taken word-for-word from a panel in the forth TPB.
Notes: Many thanks to zenni and wrinkling for their ongoing feedback and encouragement. This was started in April and only just finished now. It got much longer than I ever intended it to be, but sometimes stories do that. Comments and thoughts are always appreciated. It had to be split into two parts since LJ thought it was too big.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Sometimes she felt like her age was a curse. She'd been alive so long that it felt like nothing could surprise her anymore. Whenever something came along to shake things up it was just a version of something she'd already dealt with, and she'd no doubt have to deal with again in the future, even if it was another hundred years from now. Snow was comfortable with change. She could deal with uncertainty, not knowing where life would take her next, though the years had softened the feeling that death was waiting for her just around the corner. On the whole her routine hadn't changed much over the past few hundred years. It was her luck, of course that the moment she'd become complacent and comfortable with her situation something large and unavoidable had hit her like a wrecking ball and she was now left wondering where she was supposed to go from here. Suddenly the road ahead was cloudy.
She'd been through divorce, political upheaval, adjusted to a completely new community and been shot in the head, and after every single episode in her life she'd quickly assessed the options she had and she had dealt with the situation as best she could. But this was different, somehow.
It wasn't that being pregnant was such a bad thing. Television, she'd found, made it out to be worse than it really was. The morning sickness had all but disappeared. The most disturbing part of the process so far had been watching her body change. Bits of her that had been the same size and shape for centuries were changing and growing larger in ways that weren't exactly unflattering. She already needed to buy a new pair of slacks, and she dreaded the thought that at the end of all this she'd need a completely new wardrobe.
But emotionally, she felt she was in over her head. In 7 or so months she'd have someone's life completely in her hands and she had no idea how she'd cope. It would be her duty to defend that child, keep them safe from harm, provide them with food and shelter, love them. And it wasn't like how she had the all the lives of Fabletown in her hands to serve and protect. She had a moral obligation to bring this child up right, to make sure they knew right and wrong, how to talk to people, the history of where they came from, and where they'd be going. She needed to make sure they were aware of all the dangers you could see, in both this land and the homelands, and the ones you couldn't see as well.
She'd thought about getting rid of it, for a little while, when Rose insisted that she give all of her options careful consideration and she had decided that while it would be convenient, it was not something she could go through with. It went against everything she stood for, and she'd feel terrible, cutting Bigby completely out of the decision making process, which was of course, another complication the pregnancy had added to her life. She was now almost completely tied to the wolf, and she hated that she felt that it hadn't been her decision. She wished she remembered what had happened while they were alone in the woods those few days. It wasn't hard to guess some parts of the adventure, but she wanted to know more. Had it been gentle? Rough? Had they talked about it first, or had their hormones and the work of the spell done all the work, leaving them a slave to the enchantment. It was all very frustrating.
She'd asked Frau Totenkinder if there was a chance that she and the other witches could engineer a spell that could help retrieve her memories, but Frau had seemed doubtful, and it was probably a bad idea anyway. She did like Bigby. It took her a little while to come to that conclusion. His moral code, while not exactly what you'd call conventional, was at least very consistent, and he genuinely cared for her. But the problem was that he was so intense. She'd caught the glances he'd been throwing her the past month and she'd stalwartly ignored them and him, fearing what it'd mean if she paid attention and acted on them. He wasn't something she could deal with right now, not on top of everything else.
"Are you listening?" Rose interrupted with a pointed glare from the other side of the desk.
Her cheeks flushed a little red, and Snow managed to look appropriately apologetic. "Yes. Sorry." She had gotten a little sidetracked.
"You've been so out of it lately."
"I know, I'm sorry. I'm concentrating properly this time, really. You were telling me about the three little pigs." She rested her hands atop her belly which was small enough to go unnoticed by those who didn't know about her situation, which was mostly everyone, but was getting big enough for her pants to be uncomfortably tight. Soon enough everyone would have figured it out, and she’d have to deal with the judgemental eyes of the rest of their very conservative community.
Rose looked at her, eyes sceptical. Her mouth was drawn tightly into a frown, and she had that look on her face, the one Snow knew so well. That look said: "I'm going to say something you need to hear and I'm not going to sugar coat it." Snow hated that look. She stared back defiantly.
"I know what you're going to say, and I don't need to hear it. Trust me, I've run every single possible scenario over in my head, I've weighed all my options. Your tough-love advice isn't required."
"I wasn't going to tell you to talk to Bigby, if that's what you thought." Rose said. She tossed the notes they were reviewing on the desk and Snow abandoned all hope that they'd actually get back on topic. She felt bad, knowing it was her fault they'd gotten sidetracked. At least she could blame this sort of behaviour on hormones for the next seven months. "I think you're doing the right thing where he's concerned. Giving yourself space, letting him know the score. He owes it to you."
"Then you think I should take time off to sort my life out." Snow said, figuring that if it wasn't one thing, it would most certainly be the other.
Rose scoffed. "And leave who in charge? King Cole? Blue? Bigby can't run this place without pissing half the community off. No you're not allowed to leave until we find someone good enough to replace you. Temporarily at least. No, it's nothing like that. I think you should exercise more."
Snow looked at her sister, shocked that she'd suddenly grown this supposedly practical and motherly side out of nowhere. That was Snow's role in the family.
"I'm serious. You'd sleep better at night, you'd be healthier, you'd be doing something for yourself instead of for the baby, or for Fabletown, or me, or Bigby. You need to be a bit more selfish. And just because you're pregnant doesn't mean you should let yourself go."
"Are you calling me fat?" She demanded, sitting up straight in the chair, eyes flaring. It was a little bit of a sore spot.
"No... I don't mean it like that. I'm just saying that 'eating for two' thing is a myth and your ass isn't as pert as it was after you finished your rehabilitation."
"Rose!"
Her sister raised her hands in defence. "What better way to kick it to Bigby, than by flaunting what he's missing?"
"I don't want to do that to him. That'd be cruel."
"I know... But in all seriousness it should help you get your focus back. You'll sleep better, eat better, ask Dr Swineheart, it's probably good for the baby as well."
"Maybe tomorrow." She said, if only to get Rose to drop the subject. "We should get back to work. If we want to catch that movie tomorrow morning we need to finish tonight."
"Alright. But don't think that because of this you're getting off easy."
Actions speak louder than words.
Blue had been grouchy all morning, though she couldn’t hold it against him. A day of paperwork and red-tape would make anyone grumpy, and since Snow felt a little cooped up, she had offered to head across the road to grab him a coffee. He'd let her go with a grunt, and little more than a swift glance up at her, before returning to reviewing the applications he had to sort through by the end of the week.
Edward Bear's Candy Shop was just across the street from the Woodlands, where the main offices of the Fabletown government were and the majority of their community's valuables were stored. Its proximity was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, if she felt the need for a snack or a hot chocolate-- after all she wasn't allowed to drink coffee while in her condition, she could just pop across the street, or send Blue and pick them up without much inconvenience. On the other hand, she had easy, ready access to lots of sugar and chocolate, which unfortunately she had grown a taste for and it wasn't doing her waistline any good. Their chocolate was no match for Frau Totenkinder's gingerbread, but that was a special Christmas treat, and it wasn't Christmas for a few months more.
She'd had a good week of avoiding Bigby. She had a suspicion that the wolf had decided that this was the perfect time to check up on all of his employees, his "Tourists": the ones they both pretended she didn't know about, since doing so kept him out of her way. As far as she was concerned, that was completely fine by her.
The road wasn't too busy, and as soon as there was a gap in the traffic she jogged across and ducked inside. There wasn't a line so she quickly ordered Blue's cappuccino and a hot chocolate and some honey fudge for them to share. She handed over the money, left a tip in the jar, picked up the cardboard drink tray and the bag of fudge and made her way back across the street.
She waited at the curb until a particularly large delivery truck had driven past, trailing smoky fumes that billowed out from the exhaust pipe. She drew up her nose in a grimace; she’d always hated the smell of exhaust, ever since they invented the car she’d hated that smell and now it was all she could breathe in. She coughed and waved her hand in front of her face, hoping to dispel some of the smoke and let in some fresh air, but it was still a pervasive odour, just like Bigby and his cigarettes, and once it was there you had to wait for it to go away, you couldn’t force it somewhere else. She coughed a little again, then continued on across the street, back to the gates in front of the Woodlands.
The dizziness hit her very quickly, leaving her very little time to react. Ever since the accident she’d been prone to nausea and had less of a sense of balance. The attacks still occasionally hit her without warning and being pregnant hadn’t helped things. There wasn’t much that Dr Swineheart said she could do about them, promising that they’d go away with time, when her brain had had enough time to properly heal. But in the meantime, that was why she had been prescribed her cane. It gave her something to lean on when she felt the faintness coming on, and was something to anchor her to the ground until the feeling passed. But she’d left her cane upstairs, leaning against the side of her desk, and standing in the middle of the footpath she had nothing to grab onto or lean against until she felt better. She dropped the bag of fudge and reached out for the gate, grabbing with her fingers for something to steady her as the world around her spun. She missed, and with dread she closed her eyes, waiting for the embarrassing fall…
But steady hands caught her waist gently holding her before she hit the fence. She caught a whiff of sweet cologne and the tray of hot coffee was removed from her other hand. She felt grateful and mortified at the same time. She’d had an attack in public, and someone had felt the need to reach out and catch her. How embarrassing. She wouldn’t leave the office without her cane ever again. She reluctantly opened her eyes, one hand resting on the hand that was still on her waist. It was the first thing she saw of her saviour, though it didn’t make her happy. The arm wore a nice Armani suit with very regal looking cuff links attached.
"Apparently I do have a chivalrous bone left in my body." He said quietly into her ear and she grimaced. Why, out of everyone in Fabletown, did he have to be the one to catch her?
"You can let me go now, I'm fine." She said stubbornly, though she didn't quite feel normal yet. Everything she looked at had a funny rolling texture to it, and her stomach lurched a little in protest.
Either he was in the mood to torture her, or he honestly hadn't heard what she'd said. "I don't think so. Let's find you somewhere to sit down, shall we?" His voice was very smooth and charming. It hadn't changed one single bit in all the years she'd known him, and suddenly she had an irrational wave of hatred towards him. How many times had he had sex since he'd divorced all his wives and how many children did he have to give up his life for? She'd had sex for the first time in centuries and not only could she not remember the encounter, but she'd ended up pregnant to boot.
"Hobbes, could you fetch Snow a bottle of water and some new fudge from the shop and toss that in the trash for her? I don't imagine it's worth eating anymore."
"Of course, sir." The burly man who stood behind Charming said with a small bow. Charming pushed her forward a little, guiding her by the waist through the gates of the Woodlands and into the small park area to the side of the main building.
"Really, I'm fine." She said, looking over her shoulder at him. She gave him a smile, as though it was proof that she was as she said she was, and over her little episode. But her charm was not his. He smiled back at her, and said, with the tone of one speaking to a small, petulant child. "Don't be ridiculous, Snowdrop."
There was a park bench underneath one of the pine trees that he guided her down onto despite her protests. It was in the shade and as much as she was loathe to admit it, she felt better sitting down. The world spun a little less, and she was able to properly focus on Charming as he looked down on her. In celebration she levelled her best glare at him. "I said I was fine." She said stubbornly, in lieu of thanks or an apology.
"Of course you were. I should've let you land on your face. That would've been the best thing to do." He said, completely unapologetic. "Then you'd have a bleeding, broken nose to match that beautiful scar." He pressed a single finger to the dark red mark on her forehead that Goldilocks' bullet had seared through months ago. She covered it up with make up every day, but it was lumpy and stuck out. It was another one of those other things that Dr Swineheart said would take a while to heal properly.
She swatted his hand away, annoyed. They both knew that he had a valid point, but she didn't want to give up her position on the moral high-ground. It'd been her territory for so long it felt weird and unnatural to have the situation reversed on her.
Charming took the chance to sit down on the seat next to her on the other side of the bench. He popped her tray of coffee down on the seat between them, and she was glad for the figurative barrier between them. "So can I ask what happened? Or should we just sit here in silence for a few awkward minutes?"
"It's nothing." She said, pushing her hair off her face, leaning back into the seat. If she was forced to be here, she'd at least do her best to relax. She hoped that he'd take her dismissive answer as a sign that she preferred the awkward silence. Only the essential people knew about her pregnancy, besides Dr Swineheart, it was just Bigby, Rose, Blue and King Cole. She didn't want to have to explain it to Charming, of all people, on top of everything else. Once he knew, she figured everyone else in the community would have the information within a few days. Though perhaps she was being a little unfair on him. He'd never been one to talk openly about other people's business, especially not in a detrimental way. Rose was much more of a gossip than she'd ever known him to be. But she'd always grouped loose moral practices together: gossiping, promiscuity, foul language, and so she was hesitant to trust him with sensitive information.
"You've never been a very good liar, Snow." He said, and she cursed him again. How did that saying go? Once you've seen someone naked, nothing about them is secret anymore. Or in Charming's case he could tell when you were lying. "I know, you know. You don't have to hide it from everybody. It's nothing to be ashamed about."
She paled a little. He knew? Who'd told him? She'd kill Rose later, strangle her in her sleep, no jury would convict her. Was it that obvious? She was barely showing yet! "I don't know what you mean." She said stubbornly. Perhaps she could inform him he was misinformed.
"I'm serious! No one thinks any less of you. Recovery takes a long time, and you're lucky to be alive. Not everyone could get shot in the head and live to tell the tale." He was very sincere, the tone, the word choice, his expression, they were all perfect. But they both knew he could convince a leopard it didn't have spots if he was in the mood. It genuinely sounded as though he cared enough about her to reassure her that it was okay, she was allowed to show vulnerability.
Snow let out a sigh of relief. He didn't know. She let him run with his assumption as it was partially right in either case. It was better than him knowing the other reason. "Doctor Swineheart said it's the brain damage. I can't control it, I just get dizzy sometimes, lose my balance. It's nothing I can't handle."
"So you should be thankful I caught you before you hurt yourself. Isn't that why you normally have your cane with you?"
"Yes." She said, not at all appreciating the condescending comment. He seemed to be adjusting to his new position on the moral high ground with vigour, and she definitely didn't approve.
Perhaps it was best for both of them that Hobbes arrived when he did. The man-servant twisted the cap off the water and held it out for her to take then placed the new bag of fudge on the bench next to her tray of coffees.
"Thank you, Hobbes." She said with a smile. If Charming was going to be moralistic, then she'd do her best to annoy him by thanking his servant instead of him. She slowly sipped the water, which was still cold from the fridge. It was refreshing, and did make her feel a little better.
"I'm feeling much better now. I think I'll head back upstairs before Blue's coffee gets too cold." She gave an empty smile to the both of them and collected together the coffee tray and the fudge, slipping the water bottle into a spare hole in the cardboard tray.
Charming relaxed back into the seat a little more, slipping his arm across the back of the bench. "If you say so." He said. Hobbes, of course, said nothing, standing back respectfully from the two on their bench. Snow stood up and smoothed down her skirt with her free hand.
"Just because King Cole declined to submit you to a proper trial for Bluebeard's murder doesn't mean I've forgotten." She said. It was a feeble attempt to hold something over his head, to bribe him to keep his mouth shut about this particular incident. "Your charms might extend to him, but I know better, and you're not above the law."
"Of course. You're the boss." He said with a gracious nod. Snow turned to head back up into the Woodlands to deliver the promised coffee to Blue.
"Snow?" Charming called out when she was a few yards down the path. She was too close to pretend not to be able to hear him. She turned and looked at him, eyebrow raised.
"Congratulations on the baby. Give my regards to Bigby."
Loose lips sink ships.
The Ex-Wives club didn't exactly plan their little lunches together, but somehow they always managed to happen every few months or so, no matter how busy their respective lives got. However Snow suspected that this one had been choreographed. Briar Rose had just happened to need to talk to Bigby at just the same time that Cinderella had stopped over to lend a book to Boy Blue, and with all three Princesses in the room, they'd decided to book a reservation at The Stone Soup for the following Tuesday. Snow believed strongly that the world was a strange and wonderful place and that sometimes unexpected things hit you quite out of the blue-- whoever was using her belly as a personal day-spa was proof of that, but she did not believe in coincidence. Coincidence was just the term people used when they couldn't yet see the person behind the curtain, pulling strings and pushing things into place.
In this case, for example, it was hardly a coincidence that her two fellow jilted spouses had managed to book an innocuous lunch date with her a week after her condition had been "outed" by Mrs. Webb and her connections on the grape vine. The gossiping amongst the community had almost tripled in a week, and she'd caught more than a few people staring at her belly, hoping to catch a glimpse of the evidence through her jacket.
Nevertheless, she'd arrived on time at the restaurant, as usual, purse in one hand, and cane in the other. She was usually the first to arrive, she held great pride in her punctuality, but the two women were already seated when she arrived at the table, and were sipping what looked like a nice glass of French champagne.
"Snow!" Said Briar Rose and at exactly the same moment, Cinderella exclaimed happily, "Ooh, you're here.”
"Am I late?" She asked, a little confused. She checked her watch and no, she wasn't late. She was exactly on time. She felt an odd feeling rise up her gut, something akin to paranoia, and off the evidence at hand it wasn't an unfounded feeling.
"Not at all, sit down." Briar Rose said, gesturing to the seat at the side of the table that was free, and positioned her in such a way that she was the center of attention and that all focus was on her.
"Briar Rose and I were just early. I know it's a bit hard to believe, but stranger things have happened." Cindy grinned her toothy grin, her signature blonde flick of hair bouncing around her forehead with every excited nod.
"Did you want a drink? I hope you don't mind, I ordered a bottle of Chandon while we were waiting." Briar Rose said, lifting the bottle up from the ice bucket that sat on a stand next to their table. Snow could tell by the look in her eyes that she understood completely the implications of offering alcohol to a pregnant woman. She glanced at Cindy who had an innocent look on her face. Too innocent. They had a plan of attack, she could tell.
Perhaps it was best if she tried to stave off the sly innuendo and subtleties that the two would inevitably inflict, by just greeting them head-on with the information. "No, thank you Briar, I'll stick with water."
"It can't hurt to ask." She said with a shrug, putting the bottle back down in the ice-bucket. She looked back at Cindy. Tag, your turn. The look said. Cindy took the tag and said excitably to both of them, in a way that wasn't so out of character. They'd obviously put a fair bit of thought into this.
"So how is everyone? Any juicy goss to dish?" It was obvious that Cindy didn't give one flying fairy what new developments had occurred in Briar Rose's life, and Snow sighed.
"Please... just.. stop beating around the bush. You're making me feel ridiculous. I'm pregnant. Bigby is the father. There's no need to play games with me, it's common gossip knowledge now anyway."
She'd never before seen Briar Rose squeal in such an undignified manner, but apparently the possibility of an imminent baby, a wrinkly, red, screaming pest could awaken the teenage girl in even the most refined and well bred of ladies. Cindy's grin grew wider, and she leaned forward into the table in a conspiratorial manner. A little tidbit of information was not enough for this shoe store owner.
"Bigby? Tell us more. What was he like? How long have you been dating? Are those wedding bells I hear?..."
Briar butted in. "Is it a girl? When is she due? How did you keep it secret for so long?"
"Stop! Too many questions!" Snow said, putting her hands up in a meek attempt to silence the two. They reluctantly stopped their stream of questions, though it seemed that was only because the expected legitimate answers to come from Snow now. "All I'm going to tell you is the basic facts. And then we're going to have lunch and get back to what we do best, which is bagging out on our mutual ex-husband. Alright?"
"Fine." "Absolutely." Apparently both were content to be getting the first real confirmation straight from the horse's mouth to argue about specifics.
"Alright. I'm pregnant. Bigby is the father. I don't know the sex yet, it's due in five months time and no, Bigby and I aren't dating and we're certainly not getting married."
The two grinned, then Cindy piped up cheekily. "When was it conceived?" She even topped it off with a sly wink.
"Four months ago." Snow said, returning the sly wink with her own sarcastic one. "I answered all I'm going to answer and you're not going to get anymore out of me today. Meanwhile, I'm starving. Where are the menus?"
It was hardly a subtle change of topic, and they'd frequented this place so many times over the years that she hardly needed to see the menu to know what was available, but it was the best distraction she had up her sleeve today. Hopefully she'd have time to prepare more between this onslaught and the next. It was only a matter of time before these two spread their knowledge around to their various contacts and coffee dates, before they'd need more information to sate their lust for gossip and someone else would be given the task of extracting it.
Something worth doing is worth doing well.
The dizzy spells were getting worse and they were getting more frequent. She was up to about two a day, three on her particularly bad days, and while in the past they would disappear after a minute or so, these would last much longer. After her second in as many hours during a meeting with King Cole he had sent her home for the day. It was rare that he ever pulled rank on her, after all they both knew she was more than a competent worker on her worst days, but when he did pull rank she was forced to listen and obey. He had told her in his jovial, friendly way, that she was to spend the rest of the day in bed, and that she was to visit Doctor Swineheart without delay the following morning.
She had little choice in the matter. King Cole had relayed his orders to Boy Blue, and he had been more than happy to play the enforcer, after having witnessed enough of her spells in the office to know that they were beginning to affect her work. He'd escorted her to the elevator, only stopping to say a quick "Hi" to Flycatcher on their way past, up to the floor her apartment was on, and into her bedroom. He even stayed long enough to watch her make the appointment with Doctor Swineheart, before leaving her in peace. Resigned to her fate that work was over for the day, she did as she was told and slept. Blue had conveniently removed some work she'd brought home a little while ago and had taken it with him when he'd left.
The next day, after a quick examination to check that the baby was fine, she and Doctor Swineheart sat down to have a chat.
"Is there anything in particular you can pinpoint that causes the dizziness?" He asked in a very straightforward manner.
Snow shrugged. She hadn't really noticed much more about the spells than the fact that they were terribly inconvenient. "Not really. But the more tired I am the more likely I am to get them."
"Okay." Doctor Swineheart nodded. "How much exercise are you doing?"
"Nothing in particular. I do a fair bit of walking throughout the day though." Walking from office to office, fetching lunch, running errands, following Buffkin into the library to fetch a book they needed, which was no easy feat sometimes as their library was as large and as cavernous as a library could be.
"I see." He scribbled a note down on her file, which she couldn't for the life of her read, it was so messy. "You need to start doing some more regular exercise. A good half-hour cardio work out every day. Nothing strenuous, though, and nothing by yourself. Perhaps join an aerobics class, I know there are several aerobics courses designed for women in their second and third trimester at a Mundy gym down the street."
Snow nodded. It would be inconvenient, and it would cut into her work schedule, but she wouldn't be able to get out of it. The Fable community was far too insular for her to get away with not following the Doctor's orders. And if exercising helped, then perhaps the half-hour sacrifice of work would be worth it in the long run. It'd give the others a chance to run the place without her, since they'd have to do it in five months anyway.
"I don't think you're completely rehabilitated from your injury, you were very close to finishing before your pregnancy but it seems to have dropped to the wayside since then. On top of that your body needs to adjust to the new weight distribution your child is creating. The best way to do that is to exercise and stretch those muscles that will help you with your balance and your strength. Make sure you continue to eat healthily and adjust your diet according to your exercise plan. We don't want you losing weight at this stage in the pregnancy."
"Alright. I can do that." She said. "Is there anything else?"
"No, the baby is fine and I can't see anything else wrong with you." He closed the file. "Unless you have anything else you wish to talk to me about, then you're free to go."
"I think that's it." Snow said, fetching her cane and standing up. She left with a reminder to book her next prenatal appointment for next month, and that was that.
"I told you so." Rose said to her smugly over the phone an hour or so later.
Snow sighed. She'd expected this, Rose was another one of those people in her life who had happily adjusted to the position of 'knowing more than Snow and holding it against her'. At least when Snow knew more than others she wasn't mean about it. "There's no need to gloat" She said.
"Of course," Snow could hear her grinning on the other end of the phone. "I'll say no more on the topic except that if you'd listened to my advice in the first place you could've saved yourself a trip to Doctor Swineheart."
"I know. I'll take your advice to heart properly next time." Snow sighed and relaxed down into her couch and propped her feet up on the coffee table.
"Anyway. You want Gym suggestions? Alright, there is that place down on Hudson and there is another down the road from the hospital."
"I did have a look at that one. The membership fee is ridiculous, and they only have a maternity class once a week.. And it smelt like old feet."
"Oh, well you won't like the one on Hudson then either. I think there's one on Perry as well, but I've never been there myself. I think Jack tried to scam one of the personal trainers there once."
"Did he get away with it?"
Rose laughed loudly into the phone. "Oh, hell no. He had a black eye and couldn't sit down for a week. He forgot that she taught a class in kick-boxing as well as the personal trainer gig."
Snow smiled. Jack was always good for a laugh. His stupidity was almost endearing.
"I'd give that one a look in, but considering where it is I don't think you're going to find anything much better than the one on Hudson."
Snow frowned. This prescription wasn't going to be as easy as she thought it was. "Well thanks anyway, Rose. I'll have a look around myself this afternoon." She said, resigned to having to do the leg work herself. "When are you coming up here next? I want to get down to the farm by the end of the month, but I wouldn't mind seeing you before hand."
"Wednesday week, I think." Rose said. "Weyland needs to pick up some more materials for his little task, and I offered to drive him up. He can't drive stick-shift."
"It's a long drive for just the two of you." Snow said with a smirk. Rose spent however many hours dropping hints and subtle innuendo whenever Bigby was mentioned, Snow felt it only fair that she retaliate when she had the chance.
"Ask Weyland yourself. He can't drive stick, and we can hardly get Stinky to chaperon him up there." Rose said defensively, and Snow grinned a little more. "Listen. I need to go, apparently the Three Little Pigs are giving Mary's Little Lamb some grief again."
"Okay. Give me a ring before you head up next week."
"Will do. Good luck finding a gym, and hey, if worse comes to worse you could always ask Monsieur Dantes if you could use his studio, borrow out a Jane Fonda aerobics tape and go nuts. I'm sure you could get Cindy to do it with you, she's always up for a laugh."
"Cindy is out of town at the moment, but I'll keep it in mind as a last resort."
"Okay. I've gotta run now. I love you! Bye!"
"Good bye."
Build a bridge and get over it.
It was the little things she noticed first. He smoked less, and never around her. The rose garden just outside the steps into the Woodlands was littered with old Camel butts and the grass was wearing away from where he paced up and down the path. He came in to visit her in the main office whenever they had security issues to discuss, and contrary to normal he allowed Blue to stay. He was doing his best, in his own way, to honour her request for space while still trying to keep his life and some sense of normalcy about the place, all while still doing his job. There were no propositions, no gifts, no offers for dinner and a movie and the most romantic thing he attempted while she was around was to hold the door open if she was heading towards it.
She appreciated the space he gave her, so slowly, she began to give him things in return. At first, it was just vague updates on the baby. "Dr Swineheart said the baby is healthy. Growing normally, no abnormalities." Then a few weeks later, she slipped a copy of the ultrasound photograph into an envelope and included it in a stack of files and books he'd needed access to from the library with a small note, explaining that the fuzzy round thing in the corner was a head. They wouldn't know the sex for another month or so.
Rose suggested one day that she let the man attend the check ups with her, but she shied away from the idea. She felt uncomfortable enough, stripping off her clothes for the examination, let alone being naked while Bigby was in the room. And if he wanted to go, he never asked. He'd said that he wanted to be included, and she was honouring his wishes, but the line was drawn there. They didn't shop together for baby things, or set up a nursery, or discuss living arrangements, or what this thing meant for them, though she knew that she'd have to talk to him about it eventually.
He brought it up quietly, when they were reviewing the emergency security protocol for the Woodlands. It was a tedious repetitive job, but it had to be done every few months, and would no doubt come in handy one day, but it ran well into the night before they came close to finishing, and they were alone together in the main office for one of the first times in weeks. Boy Blue normally stuck around, sometimes because he was asked, sometimes because he made excuses to stay, but he had a gig to get to and Snow couldn't deny him that. He enjoyed playing the blues too much for her interpersonal relationship with Bigby to interfere. "We really do need to look into exploring the back rooms in this office." She said as they poured over the blueprints of the building, examining escape routes and main weapons stores and the like. "They could probably work very well as storage or fortification or the like, and it's like a maze back there."
"Mmm." He said, brow furrowed and lips taught in his normal "calm" expression. "We'll need to look into recruiting a few others to help with that. Maybe a few farm Fables could be brought up to help, if some of that windfall we got a few months back could be diverted into the security budget." He was talking about the money Fabletown had inherited from Bluebeard. Neither of them talked about that man by name if they could help it.
"We'll see." She said with a nod, standing up, straightening her back with a crack. She groaned a little. Normally pouring over a table for half an hour wouldn't have bothered her in the slightest, but her lower back was starting to aching now, unimpressed with the extra pressure it had to deal with.
"You should sit down."
"It's nothing." She said, waving him off but he was having none of it. He moved behind her and grabbed her by the shoulders. He was at once gentle and forceful, pushing her backwards and down into the chair behind her desk.
"Just sit down. We can still work with you in your seat. If you can't see the map properly, we can pick up the piece of paper--" he did so, moving the blueprints across the desk. "and move it to where you can see it." She looked up at him, and he looked down on her. It wasn't an argument she was going to win, and frankly she didn't see the point. She was tired of arguing for argument's sake, and keeping him at arm's length just because she didn't know what to do, or say.
She sighed, and looked down at the floor. Sometimes it was best to give up before you started. "I'm sorry. I just want everything to be as normal as possible."
Bigby shrugged and leaned up against the desk so that he could both see her and the plans with ease. "Sitting down a bit more isn't going to change how effectively you finish your work."
"I know. I’m sitting down now." She said. She grabbed the edge of the desk and pulled herself and the chair closer so they could get back to the work they'd been doing before they'd gotten distracted. "Right, so the back rooms need exploring. I'll call Rose tomorrow and see if she can find us some volunteers... Ooh."
She pressed a hand to her belly and grimaced a little. Bigby straightened up and moved closer. His ears were pricked, and he looked both concerned and confused.
"What was that?" He asked.
She looked up, and smiled. "Oh. It kicked, is all."
"I heard it... Does it hurt?"
She shook her head, "No. It's just a weird feeling."
Bigby nodded, looking at her belly intently. He had such a strange expression on his face, she couldn't interpret it. Perhaps it was pride, but at the same time he looked so sad, it couldn't be pride. "I, er.. I've been able to hear the heartbeat for a few months now... At least I think it's a heartbeat..." He said gruffly, turning away from her and back to the blueprints on the desk and in that moment her resolve broke. She hadn't been fair on him. She'd been convinced for so long that this was her burden and hers alone to deal with. Bigby was just one of the assholes who'd cornered her into this situation, nothing more. Nothing that happened in the next 9 months would have the same effect on him as it would on her.
But she was wrong. He was just as innocent as she was. He wasn't the one who'd drugged them and sent them off to the other side of the country. He hadn't had any more control over the situation as she had. And though he'd lied, that one excuse she'd used to keep her up on her high horse, He hadn't lied to her out of malice, or to fool her, but to protect her. It was hardly a capitol crime.
She grabbed his hand gently, the one that was gripping the edge of the table as he poured over the maps, and guided it onto her stomach. He looked a little surprised, but he didn't pull his hand away.
"I don't feel anything."
"Just wait." She read or heard somewhere - there were so many people giving advice that she couldn't quite match up the faces with the words - that foetal education started with simple human touch. On the whole, Snow was skeptical about advice and trivia given to her by those who'd never had children, but there was no denying the solid thump the child delivered to the patch of skin that Bigby's hand was covering. The kid kicked a few more times before settling back down. Snow let go of his hand, but Bigby left it sitting there, as though the soft sensation of the baby kicking had paralysed him and he was unable to move.
She smiled at him, and when he finally moved his eyes from her belly to her face, he grinned back. "It's real." He said in disbelief.
"Yes. Real enough to kick my bladder every five minutes. I think it thinks it's its personal punching bag." She joked and laid her head back against the seat, covering her mouth as she yawned. Bigby leaned back and took his hand off her stomach.
"I think we can leave this for tonight. It's late." He said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his trench. "You should get to bed."
She thought about telling him how she didn't need special treatment just because she was pregnant, but she was tired, and she did have to be up early tomorrow morning. She and King Cole had a meeting planned. So instead she just nodded. "We'll finish it up tomorrow." She promised, standing up. She began to collect up the plans all together so she could roll them up and file them away for later. Bigby added his help to the effort, and in no time at all they were ready to leave.
"I'll walk you up to your apartment."
Part Two
Author: ittykat
Characters: Snow/Bigby, Prince Charming, Rose Red, Briar Rose, Cinderella, Colin the Pig, Blue, King Cole, many others mentioned.
Wordcount: ~12,000
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Snow tries to go about her normal daily business after she discovers she's pregnant. A collection of missing scenes from just after she discovers she's pregnant to just after the battle of the Wooden Soldiers.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Bill Willingham and Vertigo.The last half of the last scene is taken word-for-word from a panel in the forth TPB.
Notes: Many thanks to zenni and wrinkling for their ongoing feedback and encouragement. This was started in April and only just finished now. It got much longer than I ever intended it to be, but sometimes stories do that. Comments and thoughts are always appreciated. It had to be split into two parts since LJ thought it was too big.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Sometimes she felt like her age was a curse. She'd been alive so long that it felt like nothing could surprise her anymore. Whenever something came along to shake things up it was just a version of something she'd already dealt with, and she'd no doubt have to deal with again in the future, even if it was another hundred years from now. Snow was comfortable with change. She could deal with uncertainty, not knowing where life would take her next, though the years had softened the feeling that death was waiting for her just around the corner. On the whole her routine hadn't changed much over the past few hundred years. It was her luck, of course that the moment she'd become complacent and comfortable with her situation something large and unavoidable had hit her like a wrecking ball and she was now left wondering where she was supposed to go from here. Suddenly the road ahead was cloudy.
She'd been through divorce, political upheaval, adjusted to a completely new community and been shot in the head, and after every single episode in her life she'd quickly assessed the options she had and she had dealt with the situation as best she could. But this was different, somehow.
It wasn't that being pregnant was such a bad thing. Television, she'd found, made it out to be worse than it really was. The morning sickness had all but disappeared. The most disturbing part of the process so far had been watching her body change. Bits of her that had been the same size and shape for centuries were changing and growing larger in ways that weren't exactly unflattering. She already needed to buy a new pair of slacks, and she dreaded the thought that at the end of all this she'd need a completely new wardrobe.
But emotionally, she felt she was in over her head. In 7 or so months she'd have someone's life completely in her hands and she had no idea how she'd cope. It would be her duty to defend that child, keep them safe from harm, provide them with food and shelter, love them. And it wasn't like how she had the all the lives of Fabletown in her hands to serve and protect. She had a moral obligation to bring this child up right, to make sure they knew right and wrong, how to talk to people, the history of where they came from, and where they'd be going. She needed to make sure they were aware of all the dangers you could see, in both this land and the homelands, and the ones you couldn't see as well.
She'd thought about getting rid of it, for a little while, when Rose insisted that she give all of her options careful consideration and she had decided that while it would be convenient, it was not something she could go through with. It went against everything she stood for, and she'd feel terrible, cutting Bigby completely out of the decision making process, which was of course, another complication the pregnancy had added to her life. She was now almost completely tied to the wolf, and she hated that she felt that it hadn't been her decision. She wished she remembered what had happened while they were alone in the woods those few days. It wasn't hard to guess some parts of the adventure, but she wanted to know more. Had it been gentle? Rough? Had they talked about it first, or had their hormones and the work of the spell done all the work, leaving them a slave to the enchantment. It was all very frustrating.
She'd asked Frau Totenkinder if there was a chance that she and the other witches could engineer a spell that could help retrieve her memories, but Frau had seemed doubtful, and it was probably a bad idea anyway. She did like Bigby. It took her a little while to come to that conclusion. His moral code, while not exactly what you'd call conventional, was at least very consistent, and he genuinely cared for her. But the problem was that he was so intense. She'd caught the glances he'd been throwing her the past month and she'd stalwartly ignored them and him, fearing what it'd mean if she paid attention and acted on them. He wasn't something she could deal with right now, not on top of everything else.
"Are you listening?" Rose interrupted with a pointed glare from the other side of the desk.
Her cheeks flushed a little red, and Snow managed to look appropriately apologetic. "Yes. Sorry." She had gotten a little sidetracked.
"You've been so out of it lately."
"I know, I'm sorry. I'm concentrating properly this time, really. You were telling me about the three little pigs." She rested her hands atop her belly which was small enough to go unnoticed by those who didn't know about her situation, which was mostly everyone, but was getting big enough for her pants to be uncomfortably tight. Soon enough everyone would have figured it out, and she’d have to deal with the judgemental eyes of the rest of their very conservative community.
Rose looked at her, eyes sceptical. Her mouth was drawn tightly into a frown, and she had that look on her face, the one Snow knew so well. That look said: "I'm going to say something you need to hear and I'm not going to sugar coat it." Snow hated that look. She stared back defiantly.
"I know what you're going to say, and I don't need to hear it. Trust me, I've run every single possible scenario over in my head, I've weighed all my options. Your tough-love advice isn't required."
"I wasn't going to tell you to talk to Bigby, if that's what you thought." Rose said. She tossed the notes they were reviewing on the desk and Snow abandoned all hope that they'd actually get back on topic. She felt bad, knowing it was her fault they'd gotten sidetracked. At least she could blame this sort of behaviour on hormones for the next seven months. "I think you're doing the right thing where he's concerned. Giving yourself space, letting him know the score. He owes it to you."
"Then you think I should take time off to sort my life out." Snow said, figuring that if it wasn't one thing, it would most certainly be the other.
Rose scoffed. "And leave who in charge? King Cole? Blue? Bigby can't run this place without pissing half the community off. No you're not allowed to leave until we find someone good enough to replace you. Temporarily at least. No, it's nothing like that. I think you should exercise more."
Snow looked at her sister, shocked that she'd suddenly grown this supposedly practical and motherly side out of nowhere. That was Snow's role in the family.
"I'm serious. You'd sleep better at night, you'd be healthier, you'd be doing something for yourself instead of for the baby, or for Fabletown, or me, or Bigby. You need to be a bit more selfish. And just because you're pregnant doesn't mean you should let yourself go."
"Are you calling me fat?" She demanded, sitting up straight in the chair, eyes flaring. It was a little bit of a sore spot.
"No... I don't mean it like that. I'm just saying that 'eating for two' thing is a myth and your ass isn't as pert as it was after you finished your rehabilitation."
"Rose!"
Her sister raised her hands in defence. "What better way to kick it to Bigby, than by flaunting what he's missing?"
"I don't want to do that to him. That'd be cruel."
"I know... But in all seriousness it should help you get your focus back. You'll sleep better, eat better, ask Dr Swineheart, it's probably good for the baby as well."
"Maybe tomorrow." She said, if only to get Rose to drop the subject. "We should get back to work. If we want to catch that movie tomorrow morning we need to finish tonight."
"Alright. But don't think that because of this you're getting off easy."
Actions speak louder than words.
Blue had been grouchy all morning, though she couldn’t hold it against him. A day of paperwork and red-tape would make anyone grumpy, and since Snow felt a little cooped up, she had offered to head across the road to grab him a coffee. He'd let her go with a grunt, and little more than a swift glance up at her, before returning to reviewing the applications he had to sort through by the end of the week.
Edward Bear's Candy Shop was just across the street from the Woodlands, where the main offices of the Fabletown government were and the majority of their community's valuables were stored. Its proximity was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, if she felt the need for a snack or a hot chocolate-- after all she wasn't allowed to drink coffee while in her condition, she could just pop across the street, or send Blue and pick them up without much inconvenience. On the other hand, she had easy, ready access to lots of sugar and chocolate, which unfortunately she had grown a taste for and it wasn't doing her waistline any good. Their chocolate was no match for Frau Totenkinder's gingerbread, but that was a special Christmas treat, and it wasn't Christmas for a few months more.
She'd had a good week of avoiding Bigby. She had a suspicion that the wolf had decided that this was the perfect time to check up on all of his employees, his "Tourists": the ones they both pretended she didn't know about, since doing so kept him out of her way. As far as she was concerned, that was completely fine by her.
The road wasn't too busy, and as soon as there was a gap in the traffic she jogged across and ducked inside. There wasn't a line so she quickly ordered Blue's cappuccino and a hot chocolate and some honey fudge for them to share. She handed over the money, left a tip in the jar, picked up the cardboard drink tray and the bag of fudge and made her way back across the street.
She waited at the curb until a particularly large delivery truck had driven past, trailing smoky fumes that billowed out from the exhaust pipe. She drew up her nose in a grimace; she’d always hated the smell of exhaust, ever since they invented the car she’d hated that smell and now it was all she could breathe in. She coughed and waved her hand in front of her face, hoping to dispel some of the smoke and let in some fresh air, but it was still a pervasive odour, just like Bigby and his cigarettes, and once it was there you had to wait for it to go away, you couldn’t force it somewhere else. She coughed a little again, then continued on across the street, back to the gates in front of the Woodlands.
The dizziness hit her very quickly, leaving her very little time to react. Ever since the accident she’d been prone to nausea and had less of a sense of balance. The attacks still occasionally hit her without warning and being pregnant hadn’t helped things. There wasn’t much that Dr Swineheart said she could do about them, promising that they’d go away with time, when her brain had had enough time to properly heal. But in the meantime, that was why she had been prescribed her cane. It gave her something to lean on when she felt the faintness coming on, and was something to anchor her to the ground until the feeling passed. But she’d left her cane upstairs, leaning against the side of her desk, and standing in the middle of the footpath she had nothing to grab onto or lean against until she felt better. She dropped the bag of fudge and reached out for the gate, grabbing with her fingers for something to steady her as the world around her spun. She missed, and with dread she closed her eyes, waiting for the embarrassing fall…
But steady hands caught her waist gently holding her before she hit the fence. She caught a whiff of sweet cologne and the tray of hot coffee was removed from her other hand. She felt grateful and mortified at the same time. She’d had an attack in public, and someone had felt the need to reach out and catch her. How embarrassing. She wouldn’t leave the office without her cane ever again. She reluctantly opened her eyes, one hand resting on the hand that was still on her waist. It was the first thing she saw of her saviour, though it didn’t make her happy. The arm wore a nice Armani suit with very regal looking cuff links attached.
"Apparently I do have a chivalrous bone left in my body." He said quietly into her ear and she grimaced. Why, out of everyone in Fabletown, did he have to be the one to catch her?
"You can let me go now, I'm fine." She said stubbornly, though she didn't quite feel normal yet. Everything she looked at had a funny rolling texture to it, and her stomach lurched a little in protest.
Either he was in the mood to torture her, or he honestly hadn't heard what she'd said. "I don't think so. Let's find you somewhere to sit down, shall we?" His voice was very smooth and charming. It hadn't changed one single bit in all the years she'd known him, and suddenly she had an irrational wave of hatred towards him. How many times had he had sex since he'd divorced all his wives and how many children did he have to give up his life for? She'd had sex for the first time in centuries and not only could she not remember the encounter, but she'd ended up pregnant to boot.
"Hobbes, could you fetch Snow a bottle of water and some new fudge from the shop and toss that in the trash for her? I don't imagine it's worth eating anymore."
"Of course, sir." The burly man who stood behind Charming said with a small bow. Charming pushed her forward a little, guiding her by the waist through the gates of the Woodlands and into the small park area to the side of the main building.
"Really, I'm fine." She said, looking over her shoulder at him. She gave him a smile, as though it was proof that she was as she said she was, and over her little episode. But her charm was not his. He smiled back at her, and said, with the tone of one speaking to a small, petulant child. "Don't be ridiculous, Snowdrop."
There was a park bench underneath one of the pine trees that he guided her down onto despite her protests. It was in the shade and as much as she was loathe to admit it, she felt better sitting down. The world spun a little less, and she was able to properly focus on Charming as he looked down on her. In celebration she levelled her best glare at him. "I said I was fine." She said stubbornly, in lieu of thanks or an apology.
"Of course you were. I should've let you land on your face. That would've been the best thing to do." He said, completely unapologetic. "Then you'd have a bleeding, broken nose to match that beautiful scar." He pressed a single finger to the dark red mark on her forehead that Goldilocks' bullet had seared through months ago. She covered it up with make up every day, but it was lumpy and stuck out. It was another one of those other things that Dr Swineheart said would take a while to heal properly.
She swatted his hand away, annoyed. They both knew that he had a valid point, but she didn't want to give up her position on the moral high-ground. It'd been her territory for so long it felt weird and unnatural to have the situation reversed on her.
Charming took the chance to sit down on the seat next to her on the other side of the bench. He popped her tray of coffee down on the seat between them, and she was glad for the figurative barrier between them. "So can I ask what happened? Or should we just sit here in silence for a few awkward minutes?"
"It's nothing." She said, pushing her hair off her face, leaning back into the seat. If she was forced to be here, she'd at least do her best to relax. She hoped that he'd take her dismissive answer as a sign that she preferred the awkward silence. Only the essential people knew about her pregnancy, besides Dr Swineheart, it was just Bigby, Rose, Blue and King Cole. She didn't want to have to explain it to Charming, of all people, on top of everything else. Once he knew, she figured everyone else in the community would have the information within a few days. Though perhaps she was being a little unfair on him. He'd never been one to talk openly about other people's business, especially not in a detrimental way. Rose was much more of a gossip than she'd ever known him to be. But she'd always grouped loose moral practices together: gossiping, promiscuity, foul language, and so she was hesitant to trust him with sensitive information.
"You've never been a very good liar, Snow." He said, and she cursed him again. How did that saying go? Once you've seen someone naked, nothing about them is secret anymore. Or in Charming's case he could tell when you were lying. "I know, you know. You don't have to hide it from everybody. It's nothing to be ashamed about."
She paled a little. He knew? Who'd told him? She'd kill Rose later, strangle her in her sleep, no jury would convict her. Was it that obvious? She was barely showing yet! "I don't know what you mean." She said stubbornly. Perhaps she could inform him he was misinformed.
"I'm serious! No one thinks any less of you. Recovery takes a long time, and you're lucky to be alive. Not everyone could get shot in the head and live to tell the tale." He was very sincere, the tone, the word choice, his expression, they were all perfect. But they both knew he could convince a leopard it didn't have spots if he was in the mood. It genuinely sounded as though he cared enough about her to reassure her that it was okay, she was allowed to show vulnerability.
Snow let out a sigh of relief. He didn't know. She let him run with his assumption as it was partially right in either case. It was better than him knowing the other reason. "Doctor Swineheart said it's the brain damage. I can't control it, I just get dizzy sometimes, lose my balance. It's nothing I can't handle."
"So you should be thankful I caught you before you hurt yourself. Isn't that why you normally have your cane with you?"
"Yes." She said, not at all appreciating the condescending comment. He seemed to be adjusting to his new position on the moral high ground with vigour, and she definitely didn't approve.
Perhaps it was best for both of them that Hobbes arrived when he did. The man-servant twisted the cap off the water and held it out for her to take then placed the new bag of fudge on the bench next to her tray of coffees.
"Thank you, Hobbes." She said with a smile. If Charming was going to be moralistic, then she'd do her best to annoy him by thanking his servant instead of him. She slowly sipped the water, which was still cold from the fridge. It was refreshing, and did make her feel a little better.
"I'm feeling much better now. I think I'll head back upstairs before Blue's coffee gets too cold." She gave an empty smile to the both of them and collected together the coffee tray and the fudge, slipping the water bottle into a spare hole in the cardboard tray.
Charming relaxed back into the seat a little more, slipping his arm across the back of the bench. "If you say so." He said. Hobbes, of course, said nothing, standing back respectfully from the two on their bench. Snow stood up and smoothed down her skirt with her free hand.
"Just because King Cole declined to submit you to a proper trial for Bluebeard's murder doesn't mean I've forgotten." She said. It was a feeble attempt to hold something over his head, to bribe him to keep his mouth shut about this particular incident. "Your charms might extend to him, but I know better, and you're not above the law."
"Of course. You're the boss." He said with a gracious nod. Snow turned to head back up into the Woodlands to deliver the promised coffee to Blue.
"Snow?" Charming called out when she was a few yards down the path. She was too close to pretend not to be able to hear him. She turned and looked at him, eyebrow raised.
"Congratulations on the baby. Give my regards to Bigby."
Loose lips sink ships.
The Ex-Wives club didn't exactly plan their little lunches together, but somehow they always managed to happen every few months or so, no matter how busy their respective lives got. However Snow suspected that this one had been choreographed. Briar Rose had just happened to need to talk to Bigby at just the same time that Cinderella had stopped over to lend a book to Boy Blue, and with all three Princesses in the room, they'd decided to book a reservation at The Stone Soup for the following Tuesday. Snow believed strongly that the world was a strange and wonderful place and that sometimes unexpected things hit you quite out of the blue-- whoever was using her belly as a personal day-spa was proof of that, but she did not believe in coincidence. Coincidence was just the term people used when they couldn't yet see the person behind the curtain, pulling strings and pushing things into place.
In this case, for example, it was hardly a coincidence that her two fellow jilted spouses had managed to book an innocuous lunch date with her a week after her condition had been "outed" by Mrs. Webb and her connections on the grape vine. The gossiping amongst the community had almost tripled in a week, and she'd caught more than a few people staring at her belly, hoping to catch a glimpse of the evidence through her jacket.
Nevertheless, she'd arrived on time at the restaurant, as usual, purse in one hand, and cane in the other. She was usually the first to arrive, she held great pride in her punctuality, but the two women were already seated when she arrived at the table, and were sipping what looked like a nice glass of French champagne.
"Snow!" Said Briar Rose and at exactly the same moment, Cinderella exclaimed happily, "Ooh, you're here.”
"Am I late?" She asked, a little confused. She checked her watch and no, she wasn't late. She was exactly on time. She felt an odd feeling rise up her gut, something akin to paranoia, and off the evidence at hand it wasn't an unfounded feeling.
"Not at all, sit down." Briar Rose said, gesturing to the seat at the side of the table that was free, and positioned her in such a way that she was the center of attention and that all focus was on her.
"Briar Rose and I were just early. I know it's a bit hard to believe, but stranger things have happened." Cindy grinned her toothy grin, her signature blonde flick of hair bouncing around her forehead with every excited nod.
"Did you want a drink? I hope you don't mind, I ordered a bottle of Chandon while we were waiting." Briar Rose said, lifting the bottle up from the ice bucket that sat on a stand next to their table. Snow could tell by the look in her eyes that she understood completely the implications of offering alcohol to a pregnant woman. She glanced at Cindy who had an innocent look on her face. Too innocent. They had a plan of attack, she could tell.
Perhaps it was best if she tried to stave off the sly innuendo and subtleties that the two would inevitably inflict, by just greeting them head-on with the information. "No, thank you Briar, I'll stick with water."
"It can't hurt to ask." She said with a shrug, putting the bottle back down in the ice-bucket. She looked back at Cindy. Tag, your turn. The look said. Cindy took the tag and said excitably to both of them, in a way that wasn't so out of character. They'd obviously put a fair bit of thought into this.
"So how is everyone? Any juicy goss to dish?" It was obvious that Cindy didn't give one flying fairy what new developments had occurred in Briar Rose's life, and Snow sighed.
"Please... just.. stop beating around the bush. You're making me feel ridiculous. I'm pregnant. Bigby is the father. There's no need to play games with me, it's common gossip knowledge now anyway."
She'd never before seen Briar Rose squeal in such an undignified manner, but apparently the possibility of an imminent baby, a wrinkly, red, screaming pest could awaken the teenage girl in even the most refined and well bred of ladies. Cindy's grin grew wider, and she leaned forward into the table in a conspiratorial manner. A little tidbit of information was not enough for this shoe store owner.
"Bigby? Tell us more. What was he like? How long have you been dating? Are those wedding bells I hear?..."
Briar butted in. "Is it a girl? When is she due? How did you keep it secret for so long?"
"Stop! Too many questions!" Snow said, putting her hands up in a meek attempt to silence the two. They reluctantly stopped their stream of questions, though it seemed that was only because the expected legitimate answers to come from Snow now. "All I'm going to tell you is the basic facts. And then we're going to have lunch and get back to what we do best, which is bagging out on our mutual ex-husband. Alright?"
"Fine." "Absolutely." Apparently both were content to be getting the first real confirmation straight from the horse's mouth to argue about specifics.
"Alright. I'm pregnant. Bigby is the father. I don't know the sex yet, it's due in five months time and no, Bigby and I aren't dating and we're certainly not getting married."
The two grinned, then Cindy piped up cheekily. "When was it conceived?" She even topped it off with a sly wink.
"Four months ago." Snow said, returning the sly wink with her own sarcastic one. "I answered all I'm going to answer and you're not going to get anymore out of me today. Meanwhile, I'm starving. Where are the menus?"
It was hardly a subtle change of topic, and they'd frequented this place so many times over the years that she hardly needed to see the menu to know what was available, but it was the best distraction she had up her sleeve today. Hopefully she'd have time to prepare more between this onslaught and the next. It was only a matter of time before these two spread their knowledge around to their various contacts and coffee dates, before they'd need more information to sate their lust for gossip and someone else would be given the task of extracting it.
Something worth doing is worth doing well.
The dizzy spells were getting worse and they were getting more frequent. She was up to about two a day, three on her particularly bad days, and while in the past they would disappear after a minute or so, these would last much longer. After her second in as many hours during a meeting with King Cole he had sent her home for the day. It was rare that he ever pulled rank on her, after all they both knew she was more than a competent worker on her worst days, but when he did pull rank she was forced to listen and obey. He had told her in his jovial, friendly way, that she was to spend the rest of the day in bed, and that she was to visit Doctor Swineheart without delay the following morning.
She had little choice in the matter. King Cole had relayed his orders to Boy Blue, and he had been more than happy to play the enforcer, after having witnessed enough of her spells in the office to know that they were beginning to affect her work. He'd escorted her to the elevator, only stopping to say a quick "Hi" to Flycatcher on their way past, up to the floor her apartment was on, and into her bedroom. He even stayed long enough to watch her make the appointment with Doctor Swineheart, before leaving her in peace. Resigned to her fate that work was over for the day, she did as she was told and slept. Blue had conveniently removed some work she'd brought home a little while ago and had taken it with him when he'd left.
The next day, after a quick examination to check that the baby was fine, she and Doctor Swineheart sat down to have a chat.
"Is there anything in particular you can pinpoint that causes the dizziness?" He asked in a very straightforward manner.
Snow shrugged. She hadn't really noticed much more about the spells than the fact that they were terribly inconvenient. "Not really. But the more tired I am the more likely I am to get them."
"Okay." Doctor Swineheart nodded. "How much exercise are you doing?"
"Nothing in particular. I do a fair bit of walking throughout the day though." Walking from office to office, fetching lunch, running errands, following Buffkin into the library to fetch a book they needed, which was no easy feat sometimes as their library was as large and as cavernous as a library could be.
"I see." He scribbled a note down on her file, which she couldn't for the life of her read, it was so messy. "You need to start doing some more regular exercise. A good half-hour cardio work out every day. Nothing strenuous, though, and nothing by yourself. Perhaps join an aerobics class, I know there are several aerobics courses designed for women in their second and third trimester at a Mundy gym down the street."
Snow nodded. It would be inconvenient, and it would cut into her work schedule, but she wouldn't be able to get out of it. The Fable community was far too insular for her to get away with not following the Doctor's orders. And if exercising helped, then perhaps the half-hour sacrifice of work would be worth it in the long run. It'd give the others a chance to run the place without her, since they'd have to do it in five months anyway.
"I don't think you're completely rehabilitated from your injury, you were very close to finishing before your pregnancy but it seems to have dropped to the wayside since then. On top of that your body needs to adjust to the new weight distribution your child is creating. The best way to do that is to exercise and stretch those muscles that will help you with your balance and your strength. Make sure you continue to eat healthily and adjust your diet according to your exercise plan. We don't want you losing weight at this stage in the pregnancy."
"Alright. I can do that." She said. "Is there anything else?"
"No, the baby is fine and I can't see anything else wrong with you." He closed the file. "Unless you have anything else you wish to talk to me about, then you're free to go."
"I think that's it." Snow said, fetching her cane and standing up. She left with a reminder to book her next prenatal appointment for next month, and that was that.
"I told you so." Rose said to her smugly over the phone an hour or so later.
Snow sighed. She'd expected this, Rose was another one of those people in her life who had happily adjusted to the position of 'knowing more than Snow and holding it against her'. At least when Snow knew more than others she wasn't mean about it. "There's no need to gloat" She said.
"Of course," Snow could hear her grinning on the other end of the phone. "I'll say no more on the topic except that if you'd listened to my advice in the first place you could've saved yourself a trip to Doctor Swineheart."
"I know. I'll take your advice to heart properly next time." Snow sighed and relaxed down into her couch and propped her feet up on the coffee table.
"Anyway. You want Gym suggestions? Alright, there is that place down on Hudson and there is another down the road from the hospital."
"I did have a look at that one. The membership fee is ridiculous, and they only have a maternity class once a week.. And it smelt like old feet."
"Oh, well you won't like the one on Hudson then either. I think there's one on Perry as well, but I've never been there myself. I think Jack tried to scam one of the personal trainers there once."
"Did he get away with it?"
Rose laughed loudly into the phone. "Oh, hell no. He had a black eye and couldn't sit down for a week. He forgot that she taught a class in kick-boxing as well as the personal trainer gig."
Snow smiled. Jack was always good for a laugh. His stupidity was almost endearing.
"I'd give that one a look in, but considering where it is I don't think you're going to find anything much better than the one on Hudson."
Snow frowned. This prescription wasn't going to be as easy as she thought it was. "Well thanks anyway, Rose. I'll have a look around myself this afternoon." She said, resigned to having to do the leg work herself. "When are you coming up here next? I want to get down to the farm by the end of the month, but I wouldn't mind seeing you before hand."
"Wednesday week, I think." Rose said. "Weyland needs to pick up some more materials for his little task, and I offered to drive him up. He can't drive stick-shift."
"It's a long drive for just the two of you." Snow said with a smirk. Rose spent however many hours dropping hints and subtle innuendo whenever Bigby was mentioned, Snow felt it only fair that she retaliate when she had the chance.
"Ask Weyland yourself. He can't drive stick, and we can hardly get Stinky to chaperon him up there." Rose said defensively, and Snow grinned a little more. "Listen. I need to go, apparently the Three Little Pigs are giving Mary's Little Lamb some grief again."
"Okay. Give me a ring before you head up next week."
"Will do. Good luck finding a gym, and hey, if worse comes to worse you could always ask Monsieur Dantes if you could use his studio, borrow out a Jane Fonda aerobics tape and go nuts. I'm sure you could get Cindy to do it with you, she's always up for a laugh."
"Cindy is out of town at the moment, but I'll keep it in mind as a last resort."
"Okay. I've gotta run now. I love you! Bye!"
"Good bye."
Build a bridge and get over it.
It was the little things she noticed first. He smoked less, and never around her. The rose garden just outside the steps into the Woodlands was littered with old Camel butts and the grass was wearing away from where he paced up and down the path. He came in to visit her in the main office whenever they had security issues to discuss, and contrary to normal he allowed Blue to stay. He was doing his best, in his own way, to honour her request for space while still trying to keep his life and some sense of normalcy about the place, all while still doing his job. There were no propositions, no gifts, no offers for dinner and a movie and the most romantic thing he attempted while she was around was to hold the door open if she was heading towards it.
She appreciated the space he gave her, so slowly, she began to give him things in return. At first, it was just vague updates on the baby. "Dr Swineheart said the baby is healthy. Growing normally, no abnormalities." Then a few weeks later, she slipped a copy of the ultrasound photograph into an envelope and included it in a stack of files and books he'd needed access to from the library with a small note, explaining that the fuzzy round thing in the corner was a head. They wouldn't know the sex for another month or so.
Rose suggested one day that she let the man attend the check ups with her, but she shied away from the idea. She felt uncomfortable enough, stripping off her clothes for the examination, let alone being naked while Bigby was in the room. And if he wanted to go, he never asked. He'd said that he wanted to be included, and she was honouring his wishes, but the line was drawn there. They didn't shop together for baby things, or set up a nursery, or discuss living arrangements, or what this thing meant for them, though she knew that she'd have to talk to him about it eventually.
He brought it up quietly, when they were reviewing the emergency security protocol for the Woodlands. It was a tedious repetitive job, but it had to be done every few months, and would no doubt come in handy one day, but it ran well into the night before they came close to finishing, and they were alone together in the main office for one of the first times in weeks. Boy Blue normally stuck around, sometimes because he was asked, sometimes because he made excuses to stay, but he had a gig to get to and Snow couldn't deny him that. He enjoyed playing the blues too much for her interpersonal relationship with Bigby to interfere. "We really do need to look into exploring the back rooms in this office." She said as they poured over the blueprints of the building, examining escape routes and main weapons stores and the like. "They could probably work very well as storage or fortification or the like, and it's like a maze back there."
"Mmm." He said, brow furrowed and lips taught in his normal "calm" expression. "We'll need to look into recruiting a few others to help with that. Maybe a few farm Fables could be brought up to help, if some of that windfall we got a few months back could be diverted into the security budget." He was talking about the money Fabletown had inherited from Bluebeard. Neither of them talked about that man by name if they could help it.
"We'll see." She said with a nod, standing up, straightening her back with a crack. She groaned a little. Normally pouring over a table for half an hour wouldn't have bothered her in the slightest, but her lower back was starting to aching now, unimpressed with the extra pressure it had to deal with.
"You should sit down."
"It's nothing." She said, waving him off but he was having none of it. He moved behind her and grabbed her by the shoulders. He was at once gentle and forceful, pushing her backwards and down into the chair behind her desk.
"Just sit down. We can still work with you in your seat. If you can't see the map properly, we can pick up the piece of paper--" he did so, moving the blueprints across the desk. "and move it to where you can see it." She looked up at him, and he looked down on her. It wasn't an argument she was going to win, and frankly she didn't see the point. She was tired of arguing for argument's sake, and keeping him at arm's length just because she didn't know what to do, or say.
She sighed, and looked down at the floor. Sometimes it was best to give up before you started. "I'm sorry. I just want everything to be as normal as possible."
Bigby shrugged and leaned up against the desk so that he could both see her and the plans with ease. "Sitting down a bit more isn't going to change how effectively you finish your work."
"I know. I’m sitting down now." She said. She grabbed the edge of the desk and pulled herself and the chair closer so they could get back to the work they'd been doing before they'd gotten distracted. "Right, so the back rooms need exploring. I'll call Rose tomorrow and see if she can find us some volunteers... Ooh."
She pressed a hand to her belly and grimaced a little. Bigby straightened up and moved closer. His ears were pricked, and he looked both concerned and confused.
"What was that?" He asked.
She looked up, and smiled. "Oh. It kicked, is all."
"I heard it... Does it hurt?"
She shook her head, "No. It's just a weird feeling."
Bigby nodded, looking at her belly intently. He had such a strange expression on his face, she couldn't interpret it. Perhaps it was pride, but at the same time he looked so sad, it couldn't be pride. "I, er.. I've been able to hear the heartbeat for a few months now... At least I think it's a heartbeat..." He said gruffly, turning away from her and back to the blueprints on the desk and in that moment her resolve broke. She hadn't been fair on him. She'd been convinced for so long that this was her burden and hers alone to deal with. Bigby was just one of the assholes who'd cornered her into this situation, nothing more. Nothing that happened in the next 9 months would have the same effect on him as it would on her.
But she was wrong. He was just as innocent as she was. He wasn't the one who'd drugged them and sent them off to the other side of the country. He hadn't had any more control over the situation as she had. And though he'd lied, that one excuse she'd used to keep her up on her high horse, He hadn't lied to her out of malice, or to fool her, but to protect her. It was hardly a capitol crime.
She grabbed his hand gently, the one that was gripping the edge of the table as he poured over the maps, and guided it onto her stomach. He looked a little surprised, but he didn't pull his hand away.
"I don't feel anything."
"Just wait." She read or heard somewhere - there were so many people giving advice that she couldn't quite match up the faces with the words - that foetal education started with simple human touch. On the whole, Snow was skeptical about advice and trivia given to her by those who'd never had children, but there was no denying the solid thump the child delivered to the patch of skin that Bigby's hand was covering. The kid kicked a few more times before settling back down. Snow let go of his hand, but Bigby left it sitting there, as though the soft sensation of the baby kicking had paralysed him and he was unable to move.
She smiled at him, and when he finally moved his eyes from her belly to her face, he grinned back. "It's real." He said in disbelief.
"Yes. Real enough to kick my bladder every five minutes. I think it thinks it's its personal punching bag." She joked and laid her head back against the seat, covering her mouth as she yawned. Bigby leaned back and took his hand off her stomach.
"I think we can leave this for tonight. It's late." He said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his trench. "You should get to bed."
She thought about telling him how she didn't need special treatment just because she was pregnant, but she was tired, and she did have to be up early tomorrow morning. She and King Cole had a meeting planned. So instead she just nodded. "We'll finish it up tomorrow." She promised, standing up. She began to collect up the plans all together so she could roll them up and file them away for later. Bigby added his help to the effort, and in no time at all they were ready to leave.
"I'll walk you up to your apartment."
Part Two