Hello again dear readers. This is a new story of mine (i am working on fear me... so i should have it back up soon) Please Read and Review.

Enjoy

Disclaimer: Don't Own Any Labyrinth Character. However I do own the Unwanteds.

Today was already set to be one of those days. She had fallen out of bed, and hit her head on the bedside table. The children had started a food fight at the breakfast table and she had lost a very important document. Now the phone was ringing. Sarah took a deep breath to calm her self and answered the phone.

"Good Morning. You've reached the Labyrinth how may I help?" Sarah repeated the thing she said every time she answered the phone.

"Is this the place where you look after unwanted children?" the female voice on the end of the line said.

"No child is ever unwanted my dear, but yes this is the place children come to give their parents a break of however long" Sarah answered, "I'm assuming that is why you have rung?"

"Oh yes!" came the short sharp reply. "I can no longer cope with my brat"

"Well if you would like to bring the child over this afternoon I'm sure we can accommodate you. Can I have a name please?" Sarah hated dealing with people like this but the whole reason she had started her children's home was to save little children from people like this one and him the thought came unbidden into her head.

"Yes I'm Miss Sheppard and the child's name is Lucy"

"Well I will see you sometime this afternoon" Sarah replied and put the phone down.

Sarah sat back with a sigh, sometimes she hated what she had started. The Labyrinth had been created about 5 years ago, but it had been an idea for much longer. She had been 15 when she had first had the idea, the night she had wished her little brother Toby away. She had woke up the next morning and looked in on her brother. She thought how cute and happy he looked and was so glad she had reached him in time. Then the thought of all those that hadn't reached their children in time, or had not even bothered to try came unbidden into her mind. She thought of all those goblins she had to go through to get to the castle, and felt sad for all the adults that they would no longer become. That is when her idea had been born, for surely living a human life would be better than being a goblin, she could create a home for children, not an orphanage, for the world was already full of them, but a home where parents could place their child when looking after them got to much. Maybe it would stop so many children being wished away, they would have the chance to grow up in their own world. Of course if parents decided they wanted their children back then that would have to be an option, unless there was evidence of abuse. She had gone to university to study business and done two courses, one in children's law and the other in child care on the side. Her mother died just before her 20th birthday and left Sarah a large sum of money. Which she had used to start her home, she had called it the labyrinth to remind herself why she was doing this. The word had spread of her home and parents at their wits end began dropping children off, sometimes they came back and sometimes they didn't. Sarah's rule was that if they had not come back in two years then she would send them a form to sign relinquishing rights to the child. The motto was "Don't wish them away, send them here to stay". At this present time the home housed 25 children, ranging from the age of six months to fifteen, but so far she had had about 120 children all in all over the years. Many had gone home and some had stayed. A knock came at her door and pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Come in" Sarah called. The door opened and in walked her longest running resident. "Hello Tim, what can I do for you?"

"I think you had best come into the lounge. Jamie and Ben are fighting again. You're the only one who can calm those two down." Tim said with a slightly amused tone.

"Of course, I'll be right there." Sarah said smiling to herself as Tim closed the door. He had been the first child placed in her care. He was at this time fourteen, but he had been nine when his mum had dropped him off and drove away. She never did come back, so Sarah had sent the paper work and received it back a week later all signed. She couldn't understand why his mum hadn't wanted him, he was a wonderful boy, but then she thought that of all her children.

"My children" she said to herself under her breath. "I like the sound of that". She left them room to deal with the argument.

"This is ridiculous!" Jareth shouted to the room in general, while staring into a crystal.

"Another almost?" his closest companion asked as he entered the room. All the goblins had left the room as he entered, to avoid the king's rage.

The goblin king had always been able to tell when someone was about to wish a child away, the book would turn up in their house and a couple of weeks later he would have a new goblin running about, then the book would move on to the next house. Jareth kept track of where the book was so he could be prepared. Sometimes the wisher would change their mind or something else would happen to change destiny, and the book would move along with no wish being made. This was classed as an "almost". They never used to happen very often but in the last four or five years the occurrences had increased.

"Yes and I am going find out what is going on!" and with that Jareth turned into an owl and flew out of the window. It seemed Sarah didn't know how well she was doing at preventing wishes, but she was about to find out.