A/N: This chapter is a touch more serious than the rest, but only a touch…and that's all for this (abnormally short) Author's Note.
ANONYMOUS REVIEW REPLY: Thank you, Miss Anonymous, for your lovely review. I hope you like this chapter!
This chapter is dedicated to Vampy Proxy,
notwritten,
OceanFae,
QueenOfSparrabeth,
Mademoiselle La Lune,
Miss Anonymous,
And Ayjah:
The Seven Reviewers of Chapter Six.
New Life
It was three days before Sarah's fourteenth birthday when Karen went into labor. In a panic known only to fathers, Robert rushed her to the hospital with a disconcerted Sarah in tow.
The day Sarah had been dreading for eight months was finally here, but she found herself feeling not anger or resentment or even annoyance, but worry. Karen looked like she was in so much pain. Suppose something went wrong? Suppose she died?
Karen, Sarah often admitted grudgingly to herself, wasn't exactly horrible. She and Sarah were by no means close, but Karen had been the one to convince Robert that a girl of thirteen most certainly was old enough for makeup, thank you very much, and at any rate, Sarah didn't want her to die.
While Karen was rushed away to who-knows-where in the hospital, Robert and Sarah were ushered into a waiting room by a very large, very hairy, very stern male nurse who had been through a rotten day full of screaming children. He announced that if Sarah decided to climb like a monkey on the hospital chairs, tease patients or use crayons on the walls, he would escort her from the premises and never-you-mind if she was ill, pregnant or the Queen of England, she wouldn't be allowed back. Ever.
While Robert sat and fiddled with his tie, Sarah paced back and forth nervously. This earned her another scolding from the nurse, who claimed she was making him dizzy. Sarah sat in one of the hospital's tacky green and pink chairs and stared at the floor miserably.
"Mr. Williams?" a nurse with a shock of red hair called. "Your wife wants you." Looking faintly green, Robert followed the nurse and Sarah was left alone in the waiting room.
An hour ticked past on the nearby clock with what felt to Sarah like teasing slowness. She wasn't alone during the hour: a doctor with a large beard and nice eyes brought her some juice, an x-ray technician offered to x-ray her hand and an old lady who bore a startling resemblance to a prune sat in the chair across from her and glared at her furiously. Sarah merely sat and listened to the ticking of the clock. When would this be over?
At last, the red-haired nurse came into the waiting room, grinning as broadly as her mouth would allow. The sight was more than slightly disturbing, as said nurse belonged to a family of extremely long-lipped women.
"Congrats, kiddo!" she exclaimed. "You've got a little brother!" All of Sarah's previous worry for Karen disappeared in the new emotion of distress. A future of slavery to an almost-stepbrother and an evil stepmother flashed before her eyes. She would be condemned to the drafty tower room, she just knew it.
Never mind that they didn't actually have a drafty tower room: Karen would build one, just to make her miserable.
Sarah was jerked from her delightfully dreadful imaginings by the nurse's concerned question.
"You okay, sweetie?" Her long mouth was now drawn into a concerned (and to be honest, very ugly) frown.
"I'm fine," Sarah said with considerable bravery, considering her looming future. The nurse smiled again.
"Well then, let's go meet the little guy." Sarah followed the nurse deep in thought. Of course the drafty tower was unlikely, but there was a high possibility that Robert and Karen would become so enamored with their little boy that Sarah would be somewhat neglected. Robert already neglected her some times.
She was feeling quite melancholy when another nurse suddenly stepped in front of her holding a blue bundle of blanket and baby that was moving ever so gently. Sarah looked down at the tiny feet, little hands and tufts of blonde hair and was thrown into shock.
This? This was the evil almost-stepbrother? This looked so tiny and precious that she was surprised he hadn't shattered in the nurse's arms.
Can I…hold him?" she asked cautiously. The two nurses laughed and the baby was carefully deposited in Sarah's arms. Hardly breathing, Sarah stared at the tiny baby with something very akin to love on her face.
"What's his name?" she asked in a whisper.
"Toby," Redhead-Long-Lips answered.
"Toby," Sarah repeated softly. Almost on cue, Toby opened his eyes and studied his surroundings. Catching sight of Sarah, he blinked and she melted.
"He's perfect," she breathed. Then, as if desiring to prove his perfection, Toby decorated the front of his sister's shirt with urine.
Jareth chuckled tiredly at the look of horror on Sarah's face in his crystals. Even though he was so rarely exhausted, keeping the Fomorian giants from trying to return Above to Erin had been nearly enough to do so.
The Fomorians didn't take kindly to orders, and while dealing with them alone was fairly easy, dealing with them while trying not to injure the entirely too ridiculous Goblin Army that showed up to "help" was very taxing.
And yet again his little Sarah entertained him. It was odd; really, that he couldn't quite recall how things had been before he had met her that day in the park.
Reflecting on this (and the fact that a particular Fiery had decided to-against strict directions not to-burned down half of a nearby forest and needed to be punished), Jareth decided to give the girl a gift. She wouldn't know it was from him, of course, but what thirteen-year-old child wouldn't want a stuffed animal?
…And what indecent Fiery would want to spend the customary thirteen years of his punishment transformed into a fuzzy plaything?
A/N: I would like to take this time to point out the importance of reviews in a writer's life. You see, many writers like to know that their stories are actually being read, and while copious amounts of hits are a nice thing, they often like to be shown some support from their readers in the form of a small missive.
So, if you loverly people could drop me a line via the little review button below, it will boost my self-confidence and thereby create a better chance of updates.
Thanks!
P. S. I do not own Labyrinth or the Fomorians, who were invading Erin long before it was called Ireland.
