Author's Note: I'd just like to say right off the bat, before you continue reading this, if you are Pro-Choice, you might not like this story. So, please, if you think you will be offended, then don't read any further. Thank you.
To the rest of my readers, enjoy.
Love Life
Shaylee woke with a start. Something was not right. Rolling over to see if her husband Jareth had sensed the same thing, she was puzzled to see he was not in bed with her. She reached out a pale hand and let it rest on the place he had been laying on when they turned in for the night.
It was cold.
Sitting up, Shaylee brushed a strand of curly, auburn hair behind her elongated Sprite ear. She sat quietly and stared into the darkness of their shared bedroom. Her ears did not pick up a sound, so he was not in the room with her.
With a flick of her wrist, Shaylee turned the sheets and covers away. She crawled to the edge of their large bed and stepped down onto the small footstool that helped the short woman get in and out of bed. Shaylee walked across the carpeted floor to a cushioned chair where her silk robe lay. Slipping her arms through the arms, she wondered where her husband could have disappeared to in the middle of the night.
Shaylee stepped into her slippers, and then walked to the door of their room. Resting her hand on the doorknob, she paused. "Labyrinth?" she addressed the sentient creature that made up Jareth's kingdom. "Where is Jareth?"
She listened to the tired yet concerned chirp and buzz the Labyrinth used to answer her. A magically projected image flashed in her mind's eye - in it she saw her daughter Ella's nursery.
Puzzled, Shaylee nodded. "Thank you." Too tired to teleport herself there, Shaylee opened the door and traversed the short distance from the couple's bedroom to the nursery.
Shaylee stopped at the door when she noticed it was slightly ajar. She listened momentarily for a noise, but all she heard was the even breathing of her sleeping toddler.
"Lurking in doorways again, Shaylee?" She jolted at Jareth's quiet question. Her face blushing the color of her hair, Shaylee pressed a hand against the wood of the door. She stepped in and found her husband standing over the crib and staring down at Ella.
Toys littered the floor from Ella's play earlier that day. On a carpet beside the crib lay a large, wiry haired wolfhound pup. The pup lifted his head to watch Shaylee as she entered the room. A sad whine from the pup puzzled her, but she discredit it to being a plea for attention.
"I woke and didn't find you beside me," she explained in a whisper. Shaylee walked up to his side and nuzzled into his side. Curiously, he did not wrap an arm around her or acknowledge her presence further.
"I am sorry, love," he murmured. Shaylee looked at his face. She was struck speechless with the pain and sadness she saw on his face. The lines that were so uncharacteristic of their kind seemed deeply engrained on his face.
Reaching her hand up to cup his cheek, Shaylee asked, "Jareth, love, what is wrong?"
Jareth reached a gloved hand down to his sleeping child and stroked the round cheek. "Nothing. Go back to bed, Shaylee."
Frowning at this pitiful lie and evasion, Shaylee shook her head. "Not until you come to bed with me."
"I wish to remain here for a while longer. You must be tired," he tried again. "You've been busy with those meetings and aiding the survivors of that earthquake in Alacd."
It was true. She had been busy and her work had been tiring. That was why she hadn't bothered to teleport to Ella's room, but something was wrong with Jareth. Shaylee was not about to let the matter drop. "Jareth, I can wait with you. A few minutes or hours of missed sleep will not hurt me."
With a sigh he pulled away from her. Jareth shook his head and ran a hand through his perpetually messy hair. "Please, Shaylee. Please, just - leave me be." He vanished into thin air. Shaylee stood beside Ella's crib, staring at the spot her husband had once stood. She was completely shocked. What had possessed Jareth to leave her and say that?
"Labyrinth? Where is he?" But the creature only buzzed in confusion and offered no help. Shaylee was definitely worried now. If Jareth wanted her to sleep without him tonight, he had not encouraged her to do so.
~*~/*\~*~
Shaylee stayed up the whole night, sitting alone in their room. Jareth never returned.
The morning came at the chime of the clock, but the sun was not shining. A murky cloud hung ominously over the kingdom and rumbled in a threatening way.
Shaylee's maid helped her dress, and Jareth still did not return. She went to the small dining room where she and Jareth ate with the children, but he was not there waiting for her. Shaylee sat in her seat, worrying over her husband's whereabouts. Her nine-year-old sons that acted more like goblins than the Fays they were came racing into the room with their disheveled nurse trailing behind them.
"Mornin', Mum!" Liron, Jareth little look-alike, shouted as he threw himself into his chair.
"Good morning, Mum." Trystan, Liron's quiet and reserved twin that took after Shaylee, came to the edge of her chair to press a quick kiss on her cheek.
Shaylee smiled at both of her boys, but her mind was elsewhere. Worrying over her king.
"Liron! Leave the cinnamon buns for after you've eaten you ham and eggs," Blythe ordered as she sailed into the room. The Low Fay carried a smiling three-year-old to a seat made just for the Goblin Princess. "There you are, Ella! All ready for breakfast."
"Thanks you, Bly." Ella smiled up at the head maid. Ella, although blind, could sense the presence of others with the help of the Labyrinth and her own special type of magic. When she patted her hands on the table, locating objects and people through the vibrations she felt, Ella frowned.
Turning her head in the direction of her mother, Ella asked, "Where's Da?"
The boys paused what they were doing and looked to the empty chair at one end of the table before they turned to their mother. "Yeah," Liron echoed, "where is Da?"
Shaylee looked to Blythe for help, but the maid looked equally curious and no way helpful. With a mental sigh, Shaylee looked at her children. "He isn't feeling well, dears. I am sure he is resting or working someplace quiet."
"Working?" Blythe snorted. "If he isn't feeling well then he should be resting in his bed!"
Shaylee sent an imploring look to her friend for silence. She did not want her children to worry as much as she was neither did she want Blythe scouring the castle for Jareth when he was in the state he was in.
Thankfully, the Low Fay took the hint and distracted the children with talk of what they would to that day. The maid from the kitchen stepped toward the table to serve the princes, princess, and queen. Shaylee ensured her children ate all that was on their plates while she only picked at her own meal.
When the boys were done they tore out of the room with their nurse running after them. Blythe picked up Ella, but, instead of taking the girl back to her nursery herself, handed the girl off to another maid.
Shaylee stood and tugged the wrinkles out of her silk gloves. "I better speak with Reus about my schedule for the day. I should - have Reus clear Jareth's schedule up so he may rest."
"Shaylee," Blythe's tone stopped the queen in her tracks. The older Fay stepped around the table and stood in front of Shaylee. Blythe's brown eyes searched the young Fay's face and saw the worry that Shaylee had been trying so hard to hide.
"Shaylee, what's wrong? Is he very sick? Should we send for Elder Panui?"
Her shoulders sagged and her brows dipped down with concern. Shaylee met her friend's gaze. "I - I don't know what's wrong with him, Blythe! I woke up last night to find him gone, then I find him in Ella's room, and - oh, Blythe! He looked so sad! And his face! I have never noticed the lines on his face from stress before! Then he tried to send me away, Blythe. He's never pushed me away like that. He's been angry and tried but this was different. He sounded so weary and - and - heart sore."
Blythe placed a comforting hand on Shaylee's shoulder. "I am sure - there must be a reasonable explanation?"
"That's just it, I don't know," Shaylee insisted desperately. "He was fine when we went to bed last night. He was concerned for me because of how tired I was and he laughed over something the boys did during dinner. Jareth tried to cheer me up from the stress of my work in Alacd. Nothing seemed amiss with him before we retired for the night."
"Perhaps he had a nightmare?"
Shaylee wilted even more with the suggestion. "About - Sarah?"
"It is possible," Blythe agreed.
"But it isn't even that time of year, Blythe. Not even close to that time," Shaylee argued.
"Then you should find him and ask him," Blythe urged. "He'll speak with you. You always coax him out of his moods. Whether by sweet talk or yelling. You always get him to come around."
Shaylee bit her lip and shook her head once more. "I - I don't know where he is, Blythe. Not even the Labyrinth can tell me."
The Low Fay reeled back with shock. "What?!" Blythe flustered over this bit of information before she settled on a thought again. "A crystal! Have you tried viewing him through a crystal?"
Hope stirred anew in Shaylee's heart. Holding out a hand and flicking her wrist as Jareth had taught her to do, she conjured a crystal orb to form in her outstretched hand. Staring into its center she said, "Show me Jareth."
The inside of the crystal swirled with colorful mist and clouded over. The two Fay women waited eagerly. When the colors settled, Shaylee held a clear, empty crystal. Panic surging up inside her once more, she ordered the crystal again to show her the Goblin King. The end result was still the same.
Shaylee looked up at Blythe with tears beginning to prick her eyes. "What will I do, Blythe?"
"Summon Lady Raziela," She suggested, worry creeping into her words as well. "She would know what to do."
Shaylee nodded and hurried back to her room. She did not notice that Blythe did not follow her.
Once inside her room, Shaylee dismissed the maids that had come to clean. She walked over to a door and opened it to reveal a small, furnished sitting room. The sitting room had a large carpet laying before a large fireplace. Above the fireplace mantel hung a large round object that was covered in a velvet curtain. Cushioned seats stood in a semicircle around the fireplace. Tall, narrow windows on either side of the fireplace let light into the room while candelabras offered the gentle glow of candlelight.
With a wave of her hand, Shaylee used her magic to draw the heavy curtains over the windows and lit the candle wicks. She shut the door behind her and walked up to the covered object over the mantel. Shaylee pulled a cord that hung down from the curtain and watched silently as the velvet fabric drew back to reveal a round copper mirror.
The candlelight behind her reflected and refracted off the surface while Shaylee's image was distorted by the mirror's face. Shaylee slowly pulled her glove off of her right hand and set the bare skin against the oddly warm surface. With a small push of her magic, she said, "I wish to speak to Lady Raziela, Queen Regent of the Labyrinth and the Castle Beyond the Goblin City."
The light stuttered on the mirror's face then was drawn like water draining down a hole to the center. The light expanded into a large circle until the entire mirror emitted a blinding light. Shaylee shut her eyes against the bright surface until the light dimmed to a soft glow.
"Is that you, Shaylee?"
Shaylee smiled with relief at the face of Jareth's mother that appeared in the glow. "Yes, Raziela. I have an urgent matter to discuss with you - I am sorry this can't be a pleasant chat."
"It's perfectly all right, my dear," Raziela comforted. "What can I help you with?"
"It's Jareth," Shaylee stated hastily. "He has not been himself." She quickly explained the circumstances of the night before and his continued absence that morning. "And neither I nor the Labyrinth can find him! What am I to do?"
Raziela's expression was very grave. Her blue eyes, which were so much like Jareth's eyes, snapped with concern. "This is very serious, Shaylee. I am surprised that it has not come up sooner."
"What? What is it?"
"Shaylee, do you know why you woke up so suddenly last night?" Raziela's question confused the Sprite.
"I assumed it was because I sensed Jareth wasn't with me," Shaylee answered.
"My dear, you know that, as queen, you are connected to the Labyrinth and have enhanced magical abilities because of your bond with the Labyrinth and your husband, right?"
Shaylee nodded.
Raziela continued, "Then you should also know that, just like Jareth and the Goblins, you can sense when a child is about to be wished away."
"Yes. But there wasn't a child wished away last night. Jareth and I both would have woken up. He would have retrieved the child and I would take care of it." Shaylee shook her head in confusion. "There was no child last night."
"Exactly."
"What?" Shaylee felt her head swim with the one word.
Raziela sighed. "Shaylee, Jareth should explain this to you, not I. Besides, he needs you right now. You and the children. But first and foremost, he needs you. He is like his father," she grumbled, "and is too proud to admit that he is hurting and needs comfort. Before you - I am not sure how he handled these situations."
With her questions unanswered, Shaylee pressed, "How can I help him if he will not allow me to know where he is?"
"He is someplace that he set aside for himself - for just these moments," Raziela explained. "I would not be surprised if Yaron created it first. It is much like how he traps runners inside a crystal after they are drugged with a hallucination peach."
"He is inside a crystal?" Shaylee frowned.
Raziela nodded but grimaced. "More or less, yes. But he is not drugged. I promise you that."
"How do I get to him?"
"Find the crystal and force your way in," Raziela insisted. "In order to find the crystal, you need to find the space that he has replicated. Where does Jareth go when he wishes to think or be alone?"
Shaylee thought the question over. His office, perhaps. No, that would offer too many distractions. Not their room, obviously, because she had not seen or sensed a crystal in there. The gardens? No, not with the weather threatening a downpour any second. Certainly not the Escher Room, although that was a very good spot and one he frequented to sort out a puzzle. Where would he go?
Then her thoughts stopped. "The tower," she all but whispered.
"If you have a place to look, then go," Raziela urged. "And hurry. He needs you, Shaylee."
Shaylee did not even pause to bid Raziela goodbye. She turned and snuffed the candles out as she raced from the sitting room. In her haste she forgot she could teleport and ran through the halls of the castle.
The Labyrinth thrummed under her flying feet. She could sense its concern and worries, but she did not stop to comfort the creature. Shaylee reached the hall with the hidden door. Much like the first level of the Labyrinth, the door was masked by an optical illusion. Shaylee knew this trick and did not hesitate to pass through the door and take the stone steps two at a time.
She nearly tripped over the hem of her dress when she reached the room in the tower. This was where she and Jareth had met when they first began 'courting'. He would sit in the window and stare out over the Labyrinth while she sat in the rocking chair he would summon for her. This room held so many pleasant memories. It only made sense that Jareth would come here.
But Jareth was not here.
Shaylee turned all around and looked for something to give her a clue. Her chest heaving from her exertion, Shaylee felt ready to fall over.
There! There it was! Lying on the floor, right where one of Jareth's crystals had waited for her before she was lead by the Labyrinth to Jareth's office, was another crystal.
Shaylee knelt before it and reached out to touch it. As if stung or burnt, her hand recoiled. Shaking her hand from the rebuff, Shaylee scowled down at the round object. She could not make out the image inside of it, but she could tell something was there.
"You will not keep me out, Jareth!" She scolded and struck her hand out again. With equal force to what she exerted, her hand was bounced off again. Her hand throbbing, Shaylee clasped and rubbed her hurting hand with her other hand. Sometime in her haste to the tower, she had slipped her glove back on.
Fed up with the crystal that refused her touch, Shaylee stripped her gloves off and dropped them to the floor. With both hands, she reached out and grasped the crystal. Both hands throbbed with the repelling magic, but Shaylee focused all her energy on the crystal and shut her eyes against the pain.
Shaylee felt herself falling and falling. She landed face-first in an ungraceful heap.
"Ow," she whimpered as she sat up, bracing her hands against the stone floor of the tower.
"I told you to leave me be." Shaylee's head whipped up, and, to her surprise, spotted Jareth sitting as he always did in the window of the tower.
"Jareth!" She stood and took a step toward him.
"Get out."
Shaylee halted and took a step back. Emotional pain reflected on her face as well as confusion. She quickly bundled those emotions away. Squaring her shoulders and lifting her chin defiantly, she said, "No."
"Shaylee-"
"No!" She retorted, fisting her aching hands at her side. "Something is wrong and you need to tell me! I know something is wrong, and I know it has to do with us and the Labyrinth and possibly a child! I am the queen and your wife. I deserve to know." Taking a deep breath, she concluded in a quiet and gentle voice, "And I want to help you, Jareth. I want to carry whatever burden you have. You were not meant to carry this weight - whatever it is - alone."
Jareth, who was still staring out the window and refusing to meet her gaze, slowly shook his head. "What's the point? There is nothing you can do and nothing - nothing I can do - for - for -" He stuttered to silence. His thought unfinished.
Shaylee wondered at his words. Wondered at his words and at his emphasis on himself.
"Please, Jareth." She cautiously took three steps forward. She was in arms reach of him, prepared to touch him if he would let her. Shaylee implored, "Please, tell me. Let me help."
"Help who?!" He shouted striking a fist, hard against the stone walls. Shaylee's eyes widened in alarm. Jareth continued his tirade. "Help who, Shaylee? Help me after I failed to save another child? Help the child who died before it had a chance to live? Help the woman who thought it was her right to kill the life growing inside her and might feel a little remorse for killing her child? Who would you help, Shaylee? Who!"
Shaylee's hands flew up to cover her mouth in horror. She stood in shocked, horrified silence while Jareth breathed deeply, trying to regain his composure. His shoulders began to shake with quiet sobs.
Unable to speak, but knowing she was needed all the same, Shaylee rushed to his side and forced him to turn and face her. Her strong, normally smug Goblin King had his face turned down so she could not see him. Shaylee gently placed her hands on either side of his face. To her shock she noted that they were wet, soaked. Coaxing his face up so he could meet he concerned gaze, Shaylee was shocked further by his red, puffy eyes.
A sound of distress passed her lips as Shaylee tugged him toward her and wrapped her arms around him. Jareth buried his face in the crook made by her neck and shoulder and sobbed. Shaylee stroked his head and back, trying to sooth him.
The reality of his words hit her and finally sunk into her brain. Tears pricked her eyes and her lip trembled. Shaylee clung to her distraught husband and buried her own face into his hair. How had this happened? Why had it happened?
Shaylee recalled Raziela's words. 'He needs you.' Trying to pull herself together even though her heart felt like it was breaking for the unborn child, Shaylee managed to whisper, "It - it wasn't your fault, Jareth." His sobs had slowed but he refused to move. Refused to acknowledge her words. "What could you have done?" She continued as she stroked his head. "The child wasn't born yet. How could you have saved it?"
"Spoken to her." His answer was muffled, but her Sprite ears picked it up. "I have - spoken - to women before who - who wanted to - do this."
"But - you had fair warning with those women?"
Jareth's head moved in a nod.
"But not with - this woman?"
"No," he answered quietly. "I heard her thoughts before - before they killed her child. Heard the child's cries - then - it was done." Jareth's hold on her tightened. "This has happened before but - it is never easy. Another failure to save a child counts against me."
"No, Jareth!" Shaylee pulled back so she could look him in the eye. His tear stained face met hers and they both stared at one another, reading the pain in each other's faces.
"No," she insisted, shaking him slightly to get him to actually hear her. "You had no warning. There was no way to save the child." She swallowed around the lump in her throat. Why had she not heard what he had? She heard better than he did. Had she been too tired to hear the woman's thoughts? Could she have saved the child? Guilt weighed heavily on her.
Feeling herself fall apart again, she looked away from him. Shaylee bit her quivering lip. "Why? Why did she kill her child?"
Jareth pulled her to him, his turn to comfort his innocent, naive wife. "I am not sure. Sometimes - sometimes women of the Aboveground think it is their right to dispose of an unwanted child in - that manner. They find a child to be - inconvenient. The events around the child's conception too embarrassing. Mostly - the woman kills her child for her own selfish gain. Those are the deaths - which I hear of.
"But," he continued with a shuddering sigh, "I know that there are times where a woman must give up her child because of a risk to her health. To have the child would mean the mother's and the child's deaths. In those cases, she has no choice. But - to kill a child because the mother does not want to take care of it if it has been discovered the child will have health problems - that I do not think is right.
"At least," Jareth murmured, "at least I give those children with health problems a chance to live as goblins. Happy, full lives. They get to live."
Shaylee's tears soaked his shirt as she wept. It was unfair. It was monstrous. Surely there were people in the Aboveground - just like the Underground - who wanted children that they themselves could not have on their own. Why could these women not give their unwanted children to those people? Why must a child die to convenience others?
"Oh, Shaylee," Jareth moaned. She felt one of his hot tears hit the tip of her ear. "How could she kill that child? It was healthy! It - it's heart was beating. It had a functioning brain! Every cell was alive. It was not a mass of flesh. How could she kill that child?"
The couple cried. They held each other as if their very lives depended on the connection and contact. They comforted each other, reassuring one another that neither one was at fault, even though they felt themselves to blame.
When both felt utterly, emotionally drained and could no longer shed another tear, they sat in sad silence.
Slowly, quietly, Shaylee said, "I am - so thankful we kept Ella."
Jareth looked down at the Sprite he held and nodded. "As am I."
~*~/*\~*~
Shaylee and Jareth emerged from the crystal-formed replica of the tower. To their surprise, the storm that had hung over the Labyrinth had begun its deluge. As if the Underground itself was also mourning the lost life.
The pair retired to their room, sending a message via a goblin to Reus, ordering him to cancel all of the king and queen's engagements for the day. Together, Shaylee and Jareth mourned the child they had not met in the solitude of their room.
Sometime during the day, they sent for the children. As if the trio knew something had upset their parents, they quietly amused themselves and their parents. Tryston sat in his mother's lap while Liron played with Ella on the carpet.
In mid-game, Ella turned in the general direction of her father. Standing on her feet, she shuffled toward him until her arms wrapped around his leg. Tilting her head back, she said, "Da and Mum love life."
Both parents felt tears they thought they had shed long ago, sting their eyes. Liron joined his mother and Tryston. The twins wrapped Shaylee in a hug while Jareth scooped Ella up into his arms and held her close.
"Yes, Ella," Jareth confirmed, "we love life."
Author's Note (2): To be honest, I thought of this today because of two very special kids in my church. One boldly stated for all the church to hear (during a time of giving testimony) that God loves all of us and God made everything. The second kid is a little girl with autism. Both are people and both have souls. Both were given the chance to live. I know kids who were adopted. I go to college with a girl who survived an attempted abortion and was adopted by amazing people. Everyone deserves a chance to live. I understand that there are other reasons to abort. I am not saying that all situations are wrong (medical/health for mother and child in the case of death for both). However, I believe that for every other situation the best solution is adoption. Give that child a chance to live.
If I have raised some questions, PM me. I don't claim to know everything, but I will give you an honest answer of my personal beliefs.