LEGACY
Standard disclaimers apply.
Two months had passed, and Sarah was becoming sure it was all a dream, but that did not mean she did not miss her dreams. Her sadness clouded her eyes, making some things invisible that should have been seen. Feeling ill did not really matter, and her pain was so great, that if she didn't feel other pain, it was unnoticed.
But someone else did.
"I want to make a doctor's appointment for Sarah, " Karen announced to her husband one night.
"She's seemed kind of down, but she hasn't mouthed off, so it seemed like a fair trade off- you think she's sick?" Robert Williams frowned.
"Not... exactly. I- I'm the only one who's used certain supplies for the last couple of months. " Robert still looked blank, and Karen silently cursed men. "I think your daughter is -- pregnant."
"I didn't even know she was dating," he blinked. Nothing to get upset about, not yet. Sarah didn't date. She couldn't get pregnant alone.
"You think she'd tell either of us?" Karen bitterly laughed. "She's obviously been keeping secrets." A long silence passed between them. "Please."
Robert sighed. Sarah would see the doctor, he'd tell them she was fine, maybe needed some vitamin, and that'd be the end of it. "Do what you have to."
Two days later, Sarah found herself being dragged to the obgyn under the flimsy excuse of wanting to make sure she was healthy. Obviosly, she was not prepared for the full exam- at least not from the yelps and words that Karen didn't even know her step child knew coming from the room. Toby getting his shots made less noise. That should have put her mind at ease, if Sarah was squeamish about this, surely her fears were wrong.
Yet, while Sarah was dressing, Karen was called to the office. The doctor's grim look told her all she needed. Hearing the words, "Your daughter is pregnant" still shocked her, no matter how prepared she'd been.
"Have you told her?"
"No. The nurse will have literature on all her options- but she's about two months along. The decision needs to be made now, while it's easiest."
"Can't you just - do it- without telling her?"
His look of disgust shut Karen up fast. "Mrs. Williams, I understand you two don't get along, but as Sarah is not incompetent, no. She has the right to choose to keep the baby if that's what she wants. "
Neither had heard the unnaturally quiet steps of the young woman entering the room. She had always seemed to be unseeable when she wished it. Sarah heard the last of his words. The first either doctor or step mother knew of her prescence was hearing her drop to the floor in a faint.
When Sarah opened her eyes a minute or so later, she wished she hadn't. Karen, pale and pinched faced as ever only more so, truly was the picture of every wicked stepmother Disney had ever drawn. Heedless of the nurse and doctor, she demanded to know who had "knocked her up."
"Huh? No one's hit me," Sarah protested.
"Who'd you sleep with?" Karen sighed at the density her step child displayed.
"Lancelot?" was Sarah's feeble response. "But I gave him to Toby after..." realizing she couldn't say after the Labyrinth, " after he seemed to want him so much."
She'd never seen the blow coming, just felt the sharp pain on her cheek. "Naivte won't work now. Who is the baby's father?"
Sarah closed her eyes, trying not to cry. Failing. "I haven't done... that."
Karen snorted inelegantly. Then, aware suddenly of eyes on her, that Sarah was technically a minor and she could be hit with an abuse charge for hitting her, backed down a bit. "We'll discuss this at home." Then she'd rushed Sarah out of the building, barely stopping to get the prenatal prescription.
Merciful, albeit tense silence wrapped them on the way home. Not even the mindless talk radio chatter or banal music touched it. The lights seemed to be on an agenda to speed their travel, changing to green on cue. The only sound outside of distant traffic noise was a terse cell phone conversation summoning her dad home and arranging for Toby to stay at the sitter a bit longer.
As they entered the house, Sarah tried to feint and escape upstairs, but found herself being dragged to the "family" room. What was worse- her father's disappointed eyes or Karen's angry face? Somehow, it all seemed far away. Sarah could hear herself tearfully, angrily denying everything. She wasn't even sure what sex meant. All the questions were nothing more than a loud roar in her head until Karen snapped, "Did you bring some man into the house while you were sitting Toby?"
That almost tripped Sarah up, but the tears provided a cover. One word flashed in her mind, one she dared not say. Through a veil of tears, she shook her head. "No. Never. " Technically true. He had just waltzed in after all. Finally, desperate, she said, "If I ever did IT, I don't remember it or didn't know I was doing it."
Karen muttered some snide comment about "call the pope," then Mr. Williams said placatingly, "Sarah, I believe you"
"Robert!"
"Karen, you've heard about roofies, date rape drugs. Someone could have slipped something to her and she can't remember. I know a hypnotist, maybe she could help. Sarah, would you consent to talking to her? I promise, no matter what happens, we'll help you."
"Robert, she has to get-"
"Karen, that is my grandchild. Didn't expect it to be like this, but what is is."
Just to get away, Sarah agreed, then fled to her room to cry. Not even Lancelot was there for her. Just an owl at the window, wondering why she wept.
She only hoped she could keep from telling the mesmerist what she had dreamed.
2
Although she'd initially dreaded the appointment, Sarah found herself relieved when it arrived. Maybe there'd be something, some loophole.
The kindly hypnotherapist instructed her just to relax, then using a crystal dangling on a chain, she took Sarah back in time.
Sarah's eyes were focused
on the glittering jewel.
"What do you see?"
Almost fondly, she replied, sleepily, "A crystal, nothing more, but it will show me my dreams."
"Your dreams? Has someone shown you a crystal like this?"
"Yes."
"When.""Few weeks ago. Couple of months..."
Bingo, the doctor thought. She'd not expected it to be so easy to get her to the right night. On some level, it had made an impression on the girl.
"Tell me everything you can about that night."
"Storm. Toby's crying. So I tell him a story, about the goblins.."
"Scary. Not a very comforting one."
"Tired of him crying. Just shut up. So I wish- no mustn't say it."
"Say what Sarah?"
Tears formed. "If I say the words, he'll come back. I can't do that again."
"Take a deep breath. Just paraphrase, Sarah. No one will hear you. He won't come back. No one can hear you but me." The voice was soothing, but it lied.
"He can hear anything. He'll always hear me."
"What did you wish for?"
"I can't say I wish again, not that."
"Just say what you wished, not the words that you wish."
"I asked for the goblins to take Toby."
The therapist suppressed a scornful smile. "So, what happened?"
"They came, of course. And the door opened. And he was there, Toby was gone. And he had a gift, the crystal It would show me dreams. But only if I gave up the child. I couldn't. You understand, I did not mean it. So I had to make it right again."
"Toby is safe now. How did you bring him back?"
"Thirteen hours. If I got through the labyrinth in thirteen hours, I could win."
"Labyrinth, like the minotaur?"
"No, not like that. A maze, but no minotaur. I stepped through the mirror and I was there. Hoggle was there, killing fairies. He told me how to get in."
"Fairies?"
Homophobic questions arose unsaid.
"Yeah. They bite, they
aren't like Tinkerbell."
"Oh, you mean little winged people, like cupids?"
"Kind of, but not nice at all."
"Did this man give
you drugs or a drink."
"Not yet. "
"Okay. Let's keep going. You got in the Labyrinth and then..."
"One door led to the castle and one to certain doom, and one guard lied one told the truth. I tricked them, but I still fell.."
"Fell?"
"Into a hole. And the hands asked if I wanted to go up or down. Down seemed logical, but I landed in an oubliette. A place to forget."
Sarah frowned.
"What's
wrong?"
"There's two sets of memories. One starts when Hoggle comes in, the other before that, but includes Hoggle coming in."
"So, in one you forgot something."
"I guess. "
"Tell me about that one."Sarah sighed. "Dark. But I see a light. Jareth is in the light. He looks sad, not mocking this time. "
"Who is Jareth?"
"The king."
"The
one with the crystal?"
"Mmmhmm. He doesn't have the crystal now, but he will later. Now he sits down, taking my hand. I'm beside him."
"Does he speak?"
"Yeah..."
Sarah's mind took her back, reciting the scene.
Jareth sat beside her,
taking her face in his hand.
"I never thought I'd see
you in reality, sometimes."
Sarah had frowned. She
knew she needed to get moving, but the why was unclear.
"Sarah.
I offered you your dreams, but what I was doing was asking you for
mine." He'd kissed her forehead then. "You don't
understand, not yet. I wish you could stay here, with me, not in this
place. But your journey is not done yet. I must let you go. But we
have a moment."
"I don't understand, your majesty..."
He'd chuckled softly. "You do apprehend what I mean, the woman you will be is already in you. She 'gets it' as your people would say. Jareth, none of this majesty bit. I'm not a king where you are concerned. " A crystal came to his hand. "Look. Let her be part of your now."
For a moment, Sarah felt a click inside her heart, and she didn't need dreams anymore. They were all there for her. "Jareth..."
She looked at him with perfect clarity, and did not move away as he kissed her, as the promise was made and accepted between them . All the barriers between reality and dream melted. They whispered I love you, not really needing to say something so obvious. Then, hours later, it ended as it must.
"You have to forget this, Sarah. I wish it were not so. Perhaps one day..."
Then, the story picked up where she recalled, Hoggle and a different Jareth, a colder one came to her.And time was gone, for no reason. Her voice betrayed pain and confusion, trying, failing to reconcile both.
The doctor had the secret now, one obviously that Sarah could not deal with, or she wouldn't have made up such a dreamworld to cover her shame. Maybe she didn't really know she had made love.
"You said you were
drugged," she prompted the girl.
"Later, after we
met Sir Didymus and Ludo. Hoggle gave me a peach, and then everything
got dancy. I was dancing, at a ball."
"And Jareth?"
"He was there, so far off. I had to find him, and then we danced. He sang to me... as the world falls down.. falling in love... but the clock was chiming and I had to go away. Or Toby would be hurt. So it ended. And I was on the junk pile, but I didn't want junk. So I got away again. And there was the castle. Had to go alone because that's the way it's done. "
"Then.."
"Escher room. I found Jareth in the Escher room. He offered me my dreams. But I wanted them, couldn't take them. He said I was cruel, like him. But he believed in me. And... I had to say he had no power over me. Then I was home. Toby was home, and it was over. " By now, tears fell down her face, her eyes held no cruelty, just pain, like his had as the world fell down.
"Sarah, you are going to wake up, but I don't want you to remember the oubliette now. Not yet. On second thought, I want you to just come out of the hypnotic state, but stay asleep." Dark circles under the girl's eyes indicated she'd not slept well in a long time. A nap would be good for her and that child.
Meanwhile, she'd meet with the Williamses.
They were sitting in stony silence in another office. On the strength of a waiver Sarah had been coerced into signing, Dr. Simson could discuss what had been told to her, even though she had yet to make sense of it.
She was not looking forward to telling them Sarah's dismaying tale, but what help was there for it?
The two listened with disbelieving looks on their faces. Finally, Karen had enough. "Sarah- I - what kind of insanity is this? If she's having these delusions, how's she hidden them. She must have not been out of it and is lying to cover her mess."
Robert tried to silence her, but he was at a loss.
"She has to be committed, now. She might hurt Toby."
"She doesn't seem
violent, " the doctor tried to say pacifyingly.
"She
wished for Toby to be kidnapped. "
"By the goblins," Robert snorted. "Karen, you can't believe that nonsense. "
"I believe Sarah hates me and my son. I believe she's gotten herself in trouble. "
The doctor interrupted. "Mrs. Williams, we can pick up some truths from this. Sarah has issues with Toby, perhaps jealousy, but in her tale, she did risk much, at least on a level, to save him. Has she treated him differently in the last few weeks?"
Hating to admit it, Karen nodded.
"On some plane, this was a soulful journey for your daughter. Even the scene where this Jareth made love to her, she seemed not to realize what happened. The oubliette was her way of denial. So, have you heard the name before, or seen a crystal of any kind?"
"Is that a real
name?" Robert wondered.
Karen's frown changed, a
speculative scowl now. "On the shelf where that bear was, there
is a crystal, like one of those new age things."
The doctor nodded. "Sarah obviously hasn't been sleeping. I'd like to keep her in a hospital room over night, let her get some rest away from home. Remove her from some tension. Is she keeping the baby?"
"No," one voice exclaimed while another said, "yes."
"You two have some issues to take care of also. Try to settle this. That child is in a bad place, and needs help."
"We'll bring her a change of clothes," Robert Wiliams offered. "And anything else she might need."
"Thanks. She's sleeping. I don't want to wake her. So, we'll just move her to a room. She can stay in her clothes until she can wake and change. Given the situation, I don't think waking up to find someone had undressed her would be wise."
Sarah did not wake at all as she was moved. Even after the sun set, she slept, her exhausted body sinking into a slumber that she desperately needed. Her clothes lay draped and waiting on a chair, her only company besides the crystal her dad had brought on a whim.
Dr. Simson stood beside the bed, checking to see if she's woken yet. "Poor girl." She picked up the stone, randomly, fingering it. "I almost wish your dream was true. It seemed to matter so much to you. I wish your Jareth could fix all this, poor child."
All the rules said that Jareth was a bad guy. Yet it was hard to believe that he was.
As the doctor gave up and left the room, she never noticed the moonlight enter the sterile white room. So she did not see it turn into a man.
Hearing himself wished for, Jareth had come, though no one had wished away anyone else. It was a strange wish, one to make him curious.
He'd never expected to see Sarah lying in such a stark, unmagical place, so lost in those scratchy looking sheets. He knew it was a hospital room, but why was she there?
One hand touched her face. "Sarah.."
Her eyes fluttered open. The look in them was the one she'd had in those precious moments that had been theirs alone. "Jareth.."
"Did you wish for me?" he asked.
Unthinking, she nodded. "In every dream..."
Did the darkness hide a smile?
If so, it was tainted by worry. Had the journey to the hidden lands harmed her?
"Why are you here?" both said at once.
Her eyes fell. That gave the goblin king more fear than he'd ever had. "Sarah, I have some healing..."
"No."
"I do, and if it's beyond me, then there are other healers."
"It's not healable,
and I'm not sad, not really. I just don't understand..." her
words were tired. He had seen her tears before.
"Sarah,
look at me. Let me see your eyes."
Not sure why, unable not to obey, she looked, felt him searching, knew he was seeing everything. She could almost hear again the echoing accusations. The moment the truth floated out of her heart and was confirmed, she saw the shocked sorrow, the anger.
"I don't blame you," she rushed to say. "And if you don't want- I'll handle things, somehow. " Visions of trying to get by on a GED worried her, but this baby was precious.
Her thoughts were loud to him, ones he could not misread now. "Sarah, what you saw, no. It's not that. I am shocked, hurt that your own turned on you. Angry that you faced it alone, angry that I was not careful, that I rushed destiny. But about the child, our child, no I am not sorry. I just wish things had been done better, that I'd never let you leave me." The naked honesty startled him, but Sarah had a power over his heart that he did not regret. "Do you remember? No, I see, they hid that from you. No matter, if you will let there be, you will have better memories that you can keep."
She looked confused. "Then, this is our child? Really? I'm not insane or I don't really want to know what they think I am. "
"No, you don't. There is much to explain, dearest. I don't want interuptions."
"Time..."
"Yes, reordering time might be well. I'd just take you with me, disappear, but as a rule, my people try to be more circumspect. It saves many problems. Take my hand."
As their fingers met, the ballroom surrounded them. "I like this place, " he smiled, seeing she agreed. "There is so much to say. I won't say that what happened between us should not have, not one second, but..."
"Not even the bog?" her nose wrinkled.
"Perhaps that. Sarah, your mother, not Karen, but the woman who bore you... ah, this is not easy. Do you remember the little mermaid?"
"Ariel? Singing fish?"
"Not exactly. She loved a man, she loved his world, and asked to leave hers to be in it. The wish ended badly, she was not ready to handle it. Something similiar happened. The future is clouded most of the time, but at times it parts, and we see something. When I was a prince, a seer parted the clouds for a moment. Our kind suffered something like Scarlet Fever, and your mother caught it. It left her blind, in a way. She could not use her gifts any longer. So, she asked to leave the Hollow lands. The seer told me if I granted that, my dream would be given. I wanted all my dreams, I admit, and there were many. She told me, she told me all of them would be filled with one, but until after Linda was gone, I did not know what she meant. The seer gave me a crystal, my dreams. And all that was in it was your face. When I saw you so long ago, .... but you were so young and so bound by your pains. Just as the knights of your realm sought grails to refine their souls, your Lancelot for example, you needed that as well. But only you could set the terms of your healing."
"The Labyrinth."
"Yes. "
She chuckled softly. "Well, when I said give me the child, you really took it seriously."
He laughed with her. "Yes. So, what now, dear one?"
"That was my question."
He knelt beside her. All her worries about the future were visible. "I would like to bring you home, to my home. Because you have Fey blood, it gives you the right to choose - if you choose my dream, then you will not be half Fey. You will be Fey, for as long as we live. A very long time."
"More than forever, then. Since forever is not long at all, " she smiled. "So, I guess right now I'm like Elrond."
His smile was soft. "No, not long. And Elrond," he frowned, reading the thought's meaning. "Much prettier than him, Mr. Anderson."
Taking a deep breath. "I want that. All of that, more than I can say, not just for me. For us, you, the baby, me. But what about?-"
"Possible ways. One, we just go. Let them worry about where you two are. Suitable torture for hurting you, really. But too unkind. Erase you from memory in this world. A difficult thing to do, but workable, and a pity. No one should just be erased like that, especially not you. Erase knowledge of your pregnancy, and then take you to our home until the birth. Manipulate time to make it seem there was no passage of time, and then, when your -"
"Not mine, anymore," she corrected.
"Acknowledge you can marry, do so. Then you come home and visit when and if you like in this land."
"No. I won't abandon you or this baby..." like Linda did, was silently understood.
"I thought so. I could court you, in the open then marry you, as a father who does things out of order would in this world. However, in our world, our recognition of love and its confirmation, " his hand rested atop their child, "married us already. There is a formal ceremony, a public confirmation, especially when one is royal. "
"As if dad would not kill you before you got the words, 'I'm the one who participated in this event."Jareth nodded. Her words did nothing more than vocalize his own thoughts.
"Then, there are changelings. We would go home, but in your stead a Fey woman made to resemble you from the fragments cast off by shedding mortality would assume your life. Only the pregnancy would be a non issue. She'd either miscarry or erase it all from memory. Simple redirection of electricity in the brain. It's much easier when the switch occurs in infancy, but not impossible to do later. "
"Why would a Fey want to do this?""Your mother was not the only Little Mermaid."
She considered. "That would work then. It would cover every problem. "
Jareth was pleased at her wisdom.
Her next words shook him, but were not totally unexpected.
" I want my memory back, the one of when this began," her hand guided his over the babe asleep under her heart.
A kiss answered for the king. "How about something better? Relive it."
"Go back in time?"
His hand was already unfastening a button. "Not exactly."
And she knew exactly what he meant. It was a better idea, really.
"Only if I can remember everything really. Please. Later." Sarah smiled at him.
"We both hurt each other," Jareth warned, but did not deny.
"I know. But we both know the truth as well. Knowing that will change how I see things that once hurt. "
"You are already so wise, and not even fully into your own yet," Jareth chuckled. "But Sarah, please. This now."
Need inflamed the words and their hearer. "Yes..."
She still was shy a bit...so Jareth reminded her, "You are my wife. I am your husband. On levels people in the other world barely dream. We have been for sometime, but had only the one time. There is serious make up to accomplish. The sooner we start it, the better."
She almost wanted to laugh, and he wished she had. Looking into her heart had shown a sea made of her tears.
"Are you at all ticklish?"
Sarah could not help but laugh then. "Why?"
"I like to hear your laugh. But even that a king cannot truly command, unless it's goblins. Hardly the same thing."
Sarah's face was serious. "I'm sort of scared."
Pulling her to him, Jareth understood and did not get angry for it. He just held her for a long moment. "Of course. It's new to you. You don't remember the last time."
"Tell me about it, please."
Jareth sighed to himself, but this was a critical moment for them. "The oubliette has a special charm, or that one does. Some truly are nothing more than prisons. That one is a pocket of my world, the Labyrinth is a place between worlds. " How to explain something not even a physicist could grasp? "That pocket makes distinctions between who you are and who you will be blur. Ages don't matter all that much in the shining lands. You are either a child, and there are very few of those, except for changelings or adult. So, what happened there would probably get me strung up in your world,"
"If they could catch you."
"Indeed. But in mine, it was so right that to not happen would have been wrong. Sarah, children are so special and dear. In any world, especially in mine. It's something we never forgot, and so when a child is unwanted in another world, we rescue them. So often it's too late these days. "
Hearing the sadness, so like her own, Sarah forgot her fear to kiss the man she loved. For that moment, that was all he was, not the father of her baby, not a king, not at all frightening. Her question did not matter. Nor did her fear. With those out from between them, anything else that barred their touch was quicly gone. Even at this point, the touches between them were nothing but soft, slow, and gentle. The man who was a king refused to lose himself in passionate heat. This was for her, all for her. She needed to be healed, his Sarah needed to be loved. She needed what her mother never could give and what had been taken when Karen had entered their lives.
A long time later, watching the dawn, Sarah asked if Jareth knew what the Fey were, really, not clouded by legends.
"The simplest answer is Abel's descendents," Jareth told her, marveling at how even reciting dry history had taken on a specialness. Because he loved her.
"After he was killed, his family was sent underground, lest Cain seek revenge for the shame he brought to himself. As added protection, they drank a dilution of the juice from the tree of life's fruit. It preserved in them the gifts that were lost in Adam's other children. It separated us, but until those distant cousins of ours began to not believe in much beyond themselves, there was mingling between the two. Most Celts have blood of the Fey in their veins, that could be activated if they wished it to be, if they loved one of us. The 'magic' can only operate properly in love, though some do use hate, with warped results. "
"How will I be changed? I've heard it said that fairies don't have souls, and I don't believe that, but I don't know much."
"The doors of heaven will not shut you out, if that's your concern, " he told her with a kiss. "Nor will they separate us for eternity. The difference is only in the body, not the soul. Nothing is removed or added to you really, just woken up. " His fingers turned her face to look at him. Their eyes met, and she could feel him inside her, exploring. "Already has been, in fact. I wasn't sure exactly how it happened, hasn't much in history. The healers usually have to do something, but they have always said that if two people loved purely and truly, it would just happen. "
The totality of what he said dawned on her face with joy. It was really a shame that he couldn't kiss her and look at her at once, but kissing won out. And then some.
Finally, Jareth laughed softly. "I'm going to have to appoint a regent to run the kingdom, I think. Leaving here is not something I desire." A dull ache made him amend, "On second thought, the royal suite is somewhere you've never seen. Much more comfortable."
Reality sobered them. "Do we have to go back?" Sarah asked. "By now, surely the whole hospital is having a mama cow over me just popping out. "
Jareth just pulled her closer. "So?" He touched the faint bruise on her cheek. "Consideration for someone who touched my queen harshly is something I cannot give. To be frank, I dislike sending one of my subjects to take your place. Unless one has committed a crime that merits exile." He silenced her reflexive protest with another kiss. "No, Sarah. You don't need to lie to yourself. It's over. All the hurt. It's done with. We just have to decide how to make it so. With the least pain. "
"The changeling?"
"It would work best if you were old enough to leave under your laws. Moving away, then coming home, changes would be expected. Or if you were a baby. " He considered, then smiled. "Your mother owes me a favor, technically. Actually, it's the other way around, but a grandchild should be compensation enough."
Sarah raised a brow. "Not for my mother. She'll feel old."
"She's three hundred," Jareth scoffed. Conjuring a crystal, he concentrated on it, placing a message inside. "She's under duress to send for you, to take responsibility for you at least until the child is born."
"No," Sarah protested. "I don't want to leave again."
"Ssh. You won't be going to your mother. It's a minor ruse. I have also announced to her that you are my wife, she merely is required to acknowledge this, closing all loopholes. "
"What if Dad refuses to let me go?"
Jareth raised one brow. "You are old enough to wed, to have a royal heir. I'd say that gives you the choice of where to live. For that matter, I'm king, and I say it does. Unless you want to live somewhere besides with me. "
Once, Sarah would have bridled at the authority, but that was part of who she loved. "Anywhere but the bog, and even there is that's where you wish it to be."
"Only if my nose gives out," Jareth scowled. "Frankly, I can hardly believe Didymus' nose can be that dead."
Silence hung between them. "Do I have to go back? At all?"
Jareth nodded. "Were it not so, but you can stay until the last possible moment. By now, Linda should have called your dad. She will know how to speak in a way that he will agree. It shouldn't even take that. Karen's desire to be rid of the problem is so strong that at first, I thought she'd wished you away when I heard your need. But it was unclear."
He kissed her more deeply then. "No danger of that ever happening again." Both felt the energy warming their twined fingers. "That power binds us. I couldn't lie to you or vice versa should either of us desire to do so."
"Wow."
Her exclamation referred not to the words, but to the room they found themselves in. His room, no theirs.
Jareth even looked startled. "First time my desire's taken over and moved me like that."
Smiling at his perplexed look, Sarah took his hand, and before either realized it, they were lost in silken clouds until a clock chimed.
"Damn," Jareth muttered. "Thirteen o'clock. The charm will be wearing out, and you'll be found missing. "
"Do I care?"
He considered. "Probably not much more than I do."
"You said I could be erased from their minds," Sarah essayed.
"Yeah, but I hate to do that. Complicated. We'd have to find everyone who ever knew you and remove every trace of existance. "
"Could you make Dad and Karen think I was already at Mother's?"
Jareth grinned in delight. "Less than a day you're Sidhe, and already you think like one of us, better in fact. But I wasn't really thinking with my brain. Now, that will be easy enough. And we can send a few sprites to pack up anything you wish to keep."
"Even Merlin?" Sarah asked, suddenly concerned. "Karen might send him to a glue factory."
"That went without saying. He's Ambrosius' son. I couldn't leave him there after he performed so well all these years, looking after you."
"You sent him?"
"Mmm. " He snapped his fingers, and another crystal formed by Sarah's lips. "Make it so," he whispered, capturing her plan in that dream crystal. As it moved between worlds, Jareth grinned seductively. "Now, as a reward for service of merit to the crown in saving the king a Hell of a lot of trouble, etcetera..." whatever else he had to say was lost in their love.
Meanwhile, in another place, Robert Williams wondered what he could do about Sarah. He never saw Sir Didymus sneak in, drop a crystal, and saddle Merlin. Yet, suddenly, he remembered Sarah was with her mother and had taken the dog, much to Karen's glee. He even smiled when she brought in a mangy looking cat, saying she'd always wanted one, and now that the dog was gone, why not take in this one? The feline goblin grinned under its whiskers. Fun time now, also known as the king's revenge.