She felt the nails of Steve's hand dig hard into her left wrist, scratching the surface raw, and the bearded man's weight almost crushing her. Tears fell from her eye mixing in with the rain as she braced herself, suddenly there was no pressure. She heard a scuffle and someone was thrown against a wall. There was a loud hiss from someone nearby and she heard a man scream in pain. She closed her eyes in terror and felt herself thrown onto the rough soaked asphalt. Pulling herself into a tight ball, she looked around at what was going on. In the next instant the men were running off swearing the other direction each holding what seemed to be a broken limb of some sort. Lightning flashed overhead and she saw her rescuer in the shadows. He walked towards her and she curled herself tighter. The pain from her attackers was starting to overcome the shock and she whimpered slightly. He reached towards her, warm hands caressing her face, and she winced away.

"Oh Sarah," he said quietly, the voice lulling her into her subconscious. The safety of the dark abyss. Trying to look at him, to make sure it was him, she forced her eyes open. Only to see the familiar spiked hair before passing out, the harsh water still falling on her face.

The lightning flashed again, white streaking the night sky and illuminating her face for him to see. Although darkness was hardly an issue for his eyes, he gazed at her for only a moment before sweeping her up into his arms, trying to dry her face with the edge of his cape. His eyes checked down the sides of the alley before carrying her the rest of the way to her house. He jumped easily through her window and set her down upon her (now much larger) mattress. He tossed his cape aside and rummaged through her bathroom to find a first aid kit. Returning he found her shivering on her bed from the wet clothes. Not wanting to upset her decency he cast magic over here and dried her clothes instantly. He reached over to pull her to a sitting position. She moaned something and examined her beautiful face, wishing he could see her beautiful green eyes once again. Those eyes that glowed with a fiery determination, the same ones that haunted his dreams almost every night for three and a half years.

Her eyebrow was still bleeding, her face was badly bruised on one side, and her wrist had some nasty gashes that glowed red with infection. Anger swelled through him as he saw what those two men had done to her before he'd gotten there; a shiver ran through his body as he thought of what they might of done to her had she not screamed. Jareth paused and bent his head, softly touching his lips to her eyebrow. When he pulled away nothing more than a small scar remained. He leaned again, this time pressing gently into the deep, dark purple, green bruise on her cheek; she let out a muffled yelp and flinched for a moment. Again, he pulled away it was now a lighter blue, though not quite yellow. He bent towards her again, aiming for her lips, but stopped when she winced in his grip. Her shirt was beginning to soak through with blood from behind; pulling his hand around it was covered with deep scarlet red. His mismatched eyes widened and he turned her around to look easier. There was already a rip in her shirt so he pulled a little more to widen the hole. In a small cluster four pieces of shattered glass were embedded deep in her skin, infection had probably already set it.

"You need more help than I can give Love," he whispered softly, his feelings for her hadn't lessened in the least. He turned her so she was in both his arms, her head resting against his soft white shirt. "Sarah darling," he whispered next to her ear, "I can't take you back yet; I don't have the right to." She mumbled something in her sleep but didn't wake up. "Sarah, I need you to ask me to," he almost blew into her ear. "Say it, just like before. 'Take me away to the goblin city'. Please love, I need you to say it," he pleaded, her body beginning to warm with a fever. She mumbled again, but words came through this time, "take me away from here," she paused and he held his breath in anticipation, "Jareth, please." He smiled and kissed her head, "That's close enough Dear," he answered and wrapped his arms around her, before another heartbeat, she was inside the Goblin King's private chambers.

Sarah's head ached with incomparable pain, and the rest of her felt cold to the bone. She stirred in and out of consciousness as her fever grew worse. She thought she was on her death bed because every time she opened her eyes the blurred images formed Jareth's face, sad as though he were looking at her right now. His face exactly as she remembered it, the mismatched eyes, his flying hair, his angular face. Her head spun again and she slipped back into her dark dreams, those that haunt her with pictures of the Labyrinth, her friends, even her family. Her body ached to the point of whimpering, she tussled around on the large bed; she wanted to sleep, why wasn't her body letting her? Her ears picked up murmurs of words from next to her; she strained to her what they were saying,

"She's a fighter, that infection doesn't stand a chance, but if we can't get some fluids into her, neither will she," a gargled voice said with a sad note at the end.

"She'll make it, she has to," his voice murmured, she felt a hand brush across her forehead, "her temperature's rising…" his voice trailed off and Sarah began to think he had left her when she felt herself being moved.

He wrapped his arms around her tightly, trying to keep her as warm as possible while she rested there. The goblin doctor's voice echoed in his head, "If she doesn't get fluids in her soon, she'll burn up." He reached over for the water and put the lip of the cup against her lips, trying to get her to drink. It ran down the sides of her mouth; she refused to swallow.

"Sarah please," he tried again pulling her lips open slightly and pouring the water in. She thrashed her head about, sputtering the water out. Jareth eyed her carefully and tightened his arm. Trying on a whim he took a drink of the water, keeping the water inside his mouth. Carefully, he pressed his lips to hers and using his tongue, softly pried her lips apart, passing the water from his mouth onto hers. She squirmed for air, but swallowed compliantly nonetheless. 'Finally,' he smiled and reached for the cup again. "Come on, you need more than that dearest," his voice coerced and bent his head towards hers again.