Chapter 2: The Morning After

"Sarah! Sarah, you're going to be late…oh!"

Sarah stared blearily at her step-mother as she skidded to a halt, her hand still on the door knob to Sarah's room as her voice raised itself to a surprised squeak on her last word. "Karen? What's…oh." She looked down at herself and blushed as she realized she was naked. She yanked the covers up with a squeak as Karen backed up and half-closed the door.

"Sarah, if you insist on sleeping in the nude, at least remember to lock the door! What if I'd been Toby? Anyway, you're going to be late for school, you must have overslept your alarm." With that, the door closed fully and Sarah plopped her pillow over her head with a groan.

"Great, just great," she muttered. "I had the most fabulous dream…wait, why am I naked?!?" she asked herself as she abruptly sat up. "Oh. My. God." She lifted up the sheets to peek down. The sheets were stained, as had happened once or twice when she first started having her monthly "visits" from Mother Nature. However, she wasn't due for that particular event for another three weeks, so that could only mean… "It wasn't a dream," she said, sliding weakly to her back to stare up at her ceiling. "Happy eighteenth birthday," she muttered darkly. "I just gave up my virginity to the Goblin King."

She pulled the covers over her head, then shot upright and scrambled to her feet. Opening her door a crack, she yelled down the hall: "Karen, I'm not feeling well, I don't think I'll go to school today!" It was a week away from finals and all her classes at the local Community College were strictly in review mode; missing a day wouldn't kill her.

She slammed the door shut after hearing an affirmative shout back, leaning against the wood with a sigh. Then she looked down at herself; with a dismayed gasp, she locked her door and dashed back to her bed and threw herself under the covers.

Seconds later she gasped again and threw the blankets off, quickly followed by the sheets. The stain, she had to get rid of the stained sheets, she had to, she had to…she had to get some clothes on, for Pete's sake! Her nightgown lay in a heap by the foot of the bed, along with her panties from last night. She hesitated, then threw them both into her hamper and yanked fresh things from her dresser, underwear, bra, t-shirt, a pair of faded jeans. Then she went back to her frantic stripping of the bed, comforter on one side, pillows in a heap at the foot, sheets crumpled up and thrown aside until she could figure out how to sneak them into the laundry without Karen noticing.

Karen, who knew Sarah's cycle as well as her own, since they'd gone into sync years ago, would realize immediately what the stained sheets meant. Although she'd been careful not to pry into her step-daughter's private life in recent years, somehow Sarah knew that losing her virginity in the house with her parents and Toby sleeping only doors away was not something either of her parents would take lightly. And Dad would be dragged into it, no doubt about that, either!

Sarah groaned and plopped herself onto the now-bare mattress. "The Site of my Sin," she groaned melodramatically, then burst into laughter at herself. "The Site of my Most Fantastic Night Ever!" she corrected herself, still chuckling. Yeah, Karen and Dad would be upset if they found out she'd had sex. In the house. With them and Toby sleeping just down the hall. But they'd be even more upset if they knew it had been an older man. A much, much older man…the giggles threatened to overwhelm her again, and she stuffed her hand into her mouth to stifle them. Hysteria. Great, just what she needed.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Sarah sat up, got to her feet and unlocked her door. Sticking a cautious head out, she looked around, while wondering exactly why she felt like she needed to be cautious in the first place. No one. Karen and Toby must still be downstairs, and Dad had long ago left for work. Feeling sheepish, she closed the door and contemplated the heap of sheets, then plopped herself on the bare mattress and stared up at her ceiling.

Why had Jareth come to her? Because you wanted him to. But why? She'd certainly wanted him to at least speak to her over the past three years, to explain himself or allow her to explain herself, if explanations were due on either side. Hoggle and Sir Didymus didn't seem to think so, but she wasn't exactly sure she agreed. No, not even after last night, she chided herself.

She was still staring at the ceiling, trying to wrangle her emotions into some semblance of order, when a tentative knock came on her door. She sprang to her feet and rushed to the door, not wanting Karen or even Toby to see the stripped bed. Especially since it was still one of the chores reserved for Saturday mornings. "Yeah?" she called, trying to sound unhealthy without resorting to fake coughing or retching sounds.

"Honey, I have to take Toby to pre-school. Do you think you'll be up to picking him up afterwards, or should I get him? I just have a few errands to run that'll probably take longer than two hours, so I need to know if I should space them," Karen explained, then waited.

Sarah hesitated; did she really want to have to deal with the Rug Rat today? Heck, why not. "Um, I think I'll be OK. I just need to get a little extra sleep. But I'll set the alarm."

"OK, thanks. Oh, and don't forget about dinner tomorrow. Sorry it can't be on your actual birthday, but your dad has that conference dinner tonight," Karen added apologetically.

"No problem," Sarah called back, adding a heavy yawn for emphasis. "See you." She waited an extra second, then grinned as she heard Karen walking away. Hugging herself, she curled up in her favorite chair and allowed memories to wash over her.

oOo

Karen frowned as she walked back down the hall, calling to Toby to hurry up and brush his teeth. Her little man, so independent now. Devoted to his big sister, and she'd finally started to return that devotion. After that horrible night three years ago, fighting and stomping and blaming her "evil step-mother" for all the ills of the world…Karen did not miss those days. She and Sarah got along rather well nowadays, and there hadn't been a tantrum about babysitting and responsibility since her step-daughter was fifteen.

They'd turned a corner after that epic battle, although why that should have been the catalyst for a truce rather than a ramping up in hostilities Karen had never been able to figure out. Neither had Sarah's father, and after a while, when it seemed the truce would hold, they'd stopped trying.

The frown deepened, but not at worries over past behavior. Sarah had, indeed, turned into a responsible and mature young lady, especially since starting college; so why did Karen find herself so uneasy today? It wasn't Sarah cutting classes, although she wasn't too keen on that. The week before finals was synonymous with review classes and relaxing of the rules, and no doubt a late night reading or watching TV was involved as well. But the unease lingered until finally dispelled by Toby yelling for help with a recalcitrant sneaker tie. Precocious and intelligent, at nearly four he was already at kindergarten level for a lot of things, and stubbornly, he'd insisted on learning to tie his sneakers "Jus' like Sarah," no matter how the intricacies of laces continued to elude him.

oOo

Upstairs, Sarah peeked through her curtained window, watching as Karen's car backed out of the driveway and disappeared down the road. Then she turned to her bed and swept the tell-tale sheets into a bundle, practically dancing her way down the stairs to the basement. She had plenty of time to wash and dry and get them back on her bed before having to pick the Rug Rat up. And if Karen was going to be out running errands, so much the better. Toby generally resisted naps, but could usually be persuaded to lie down and look at picture books for an hour or two after lunch.

Which would give her an additional hour or two to just sit back and bask in the glow of last night's incredible events. Tangled emotions or not, she'd decided to enjoy what had happened, accept it for what it was: the most incredible night of her life.

"It was real," she murmured as she settled onto the couch, half an ear open for the sound of the washer reaching the end of its cycle. If Karen came home unexpectedly, for whatever reason, then Sarah was prepared with a guilty story of spilling soda on her sheets, a safe lie now that the blood was being soaked away in the cold waters of the first wash cycle.

"It was real," she repeated, a slow grin spreading across her face. She stretched, then grimaced as she realized she was feeling a little…uncomfortable, in one particular spot. The euphoria of realizing her dream was real, the panic over the evidence needing to be hidden, combined with waiting for Karen and Toby to leave had masked the discomfort, but now it was making itself quite evident.

"Shower time," she decided, hauling herself to her feet. A nice, long, hot shower should take care of things, and she shivered as her mind flashed her an image of herself and Jareth sharing just such a luxury together. But no, she couldn't think that way; they'd had their moonlit moment, and it was over now. He'd recognized her desire, her need for him, and had indulged her, that was all. He called me "love," her mind whispered, but she shook her head, trying to dislodge the thought. An endearment, nothing more; plenty of men declared love when they only meant lust.

The Goblin King isn't just any man, her traitorous mind argued back as she trudged up the stairs to the bathroom. No, she agreed as she stripped off her clothes and started the water. Not a man at all, not a human man, anyway. But human, male, man enough to set her nerves tingling even now, hours after she'd woken up to find herself alone, the moon settled beyond the limits of her window, the limits of their time together defined by light and darkness.

Much like Jareth himself; light and darkness, whimsy and caprice and so much more than she ever could have understood at fifteen. That she barely understood any better at eighteen... "I've exhausted myself trying to live up to your expectations." She remembered the words so clearly, and now, finally, understood what he meant. Now that her memories weren't clouded with terror and confusion, she could see why Hoggle insisted the Goblin King wasn't evil, or at least, not entirely. He was so much more than that, a complex, dangerous (incredibly sexy), male. She turned in the shower, allowing the water the cascade down her back as her thoughts continued to drift, turning over the enigma that was the Goblin King. Her demon lover.

Alone with her thoughts, Sarah smiled and remembered.

oOo

Alone in his throne room, Jareth smiled and remembered along with her, even as he watched her through the threads of steam that threatened his view through the bathroom mirror. Sarah habitually left the shower curtain open just enough for him to see her, and he'd watched her many, many times over the past three years. She would no doubt be horrified to know that, and perhaps he would tell her sometime, just to see if her reaction would be anger or mortification. Either way would be intriguing to witness; equally intriguing would be her reaction to his admission that he'd enjoyed watching her form develop and ripen to its current delectable state.

Hoggle and the others, of course, were strictly forbidden from visiting her in any mirror other than the one in her bedroom. Sarah herself had gotten into the habit of covering it whenever she changed clothes, this morning being a notable exception. His smile deepened as he remembered her panic as she realized there was tangible evidence of their liaison to be dealt with.

His smile melted to a frown as he waved a hand to erase Sarah's image, enticing as it was. When the other evidence of their activities made themselves manifest, she would be furious with him, of that he had no doubt whatsoever. "Sorry, my love, but the game is rigged against us both this time," he murmured, restlessly spinning three crystal globes in one black-gloved hand as he gazed out the nearest window, the one he'd temporarily turned into a portal to her bathroom mirror. "The one who bests you at the Labyrinth will be the one to deliver you an heir," he recited. "I thought it meant Toby. I was wrong, and you will no doubt be calling me to you with much less desire in your voice the next time. One month from now."

At least she would have that one last month of peace, of freedom from the turmoil of choice. At least he'd been able to give her that much. Being entangled in prophecy was a harrowing place to be for either mortal or Fay, and he was happy to have been able to work that last month of innocent happiness into the web.

He raised an invisible glass ceilingward in a toast that mocked himself as much as her, lips twisted in a bitter smile. "Happy birthday, Sarah. I hope you like the present I've been forced to give you."

Prophecy was a bitch.

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A/N: Going away for a short vacation, but I promise to pick this back up when I return next week. Thanks for reading and especially, thanks for reviewing!