Hi, everyone. Sorry for the delay in my update. I have been sick all week. Thank you so much to my wonderful reviewers. I just read them all today, and they were really great. Hope you all enjoy! Oh, almost forgot, the grammar is sloppy, so ignore. Thanks!


CHAPTER 9

Sarah was smiling. In her state of sleep, she thoughtlessly rubbed her stomach, oblivious to the presence that was inside it.

"Sarah, time to get up….Sarah, hurry, I've got to go soon. Come eat some cereal with me" Toby's voice called to her from downstairs as she sleepily rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

That was, of course, until her stomach started rumbling.

With a groan, she managed to unwind herself from the covers and make her way to the kitchen.

"Well, hello, sleeping………….beauty?" Toby greeted her and whirled around at the countertop from pouring his cereal, a large grin cracking on his lips. "Now, sis, that is the look."

"Cereal…I want some cereal." Her voice rasped out while her stomach made a loud grumbling noise as though to reinforce her need.

Still laughing, he fixed her breakfast, thankful that she had slept in for the day and he was given a brief respite from her culinary skills. Toby cocked an eyebrow as he sat opposite of her, and she dug into her food with gusto. He had never seen her eat like that, especially not since she had gotten sick.

"Hungry, Sarah?"

There were no words from her. She only nodded in agreement and went back to her food. Toby was reminded of all the movies he had ever seen of cavemen, where they all tore their food apart with small grunts of happiness and nothing else and her hair didn't really help to contradict that. It looked like it hadn't been brushed in weeks with odds and ends and tangles sticking out everywhere and probably wild animals setting up house in it.

Within minutes, she had emptied her bowl and was getting up to fix more when her little brother very jokingly told her that she should probably just save herself more trips and use one of the big mixing bowls. For a moment, she cocked her head to the side as if in thought.

And then she grabbed one of the said bowls from the cabinet and started filling it up with fruity pebbles.

Toby sat at the table with his mouth agape and wide eyes.

"Um, I don't feel very good. I think I need to stay home today."

"Towy, whas wong? Do yu hav a fewer?" She asked worriedly, small pieces of red and blue and green dropping out of her mouth as she tried to talk with it filled.

He gulped, wondering if he should try to pinch himself.

"I think that if the world is going to end today, I would rather be home for it."


Toby was laying on the couch, a blanket pulled up to his chin, and flipping through the TV stations when he felt the hairs on his neck stand up. He shrugged it off and continued changing the channels, stopping when he reached a familiar grey haired man standing in front of an audience chanting "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!".

"Hmmmm. I'm cheating on you with my mother. Very interesting stuff." Visibly he shuddered and "Euchhhhed" when he felt someone watching him. With a start, he jumped off of the couch , wondering if someone was in the house or if somehow he had just gone crazy. You know it figures, Toby thought lifting the remote up as though he was going to chuck it at any unsuspecting intruder, of course I'd be the one in this family who would go crazy first. Funny, I always thought it would be Sarah.

"Oh, for mercy. Calm down. It is only me…" A sharp, accented voice called from behind him as he whirled to see who it was.

"You! What do you want?"

"I came to see your sister?" Jareth told the boy and looked heavenward as though Toby had just asked him what color grass was.

"Well, why don't you use the front door like normal people. How do you keep managing to get in? You are really freaking me out."

"I love you mamma!" screamed the man on TV as both King and child turned to look at the image.

"Good Lord…."Jareth breathed in wonderment as the man kissed his mother feverishly "Is that…..? Oh, that's disgusting." He looked accusingly at Toby. "Does your sister know what kind of smut you are watching on this thing during the day? Wait, what are you doing here? I thought you weren't home at these times. Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

Toby stared the tall man down for a minute and then shook his head. "I stayed out. Sarah was acting really weird this morning."

Jareth carefully studied the boy's face and lifted an eyebrow. "Weird? As in how?"

"Come here. I'll show you." Toby motioned for Jareth to follow him to the kitchen where he led him to the sink in which Sarah's "cereal" bowl was resting. "That is what she ate her breakfast out of this morning. It was filled all the way. Now, I don't know how well you know Sarah, but that's not normal for her."

"Where is your sister? I thought she was supposed to be here." Jareth asked, alarm growing in his mind, the fact that his child was definitely growing in her stomach slamming into his awareness.

"She went to the doctor for a CT scan."

Now it was Jareth's turn to look puzzled. He tilted his head to the side in questioning.

Toby rolled his eyes and explained slowly "It's where they take a picture of your insides so they can see if anything is wrong. I think they think that Sarah's tumor has gone down. She should be back in an hour."

"These CT scans. What would they do to a pregnant woman?"

"Probably kill the baby….or cause birth defects. There is a reason they won't do it on pregnant women, but Sarah's not pregnant so I wouldn't worry about it. " Chuckling, Toby grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter, imagining a large Sarah with a swollen stomach and ankles. He thought of all the horrible things he would do to mess with her, like mix up her shoes when she couldn't see over her belly and put mismatched socks on her feet. He stopped from his thoughts to see Jareth heading to the door, alarm written on his otherworldly features.

"When did she leave?"


The small ding of the elevator pulled Sarah from her thoughts as she left the elevator to head to the radiology department. Her stomach made a little protest, but she ignored it. I am probably just hungry again, she thought smiling, happy that her appetite had finally found its way back to her.

"Now, to sign in" she told herself, heading to the counter where a bored looking woman with wire rimmed glasses sat. Sarah smiled as she scribbled her name and the attendant handed her a wrist band.

"You can sit down, Ms. Williams. We'll call you when we're ready." She told her, glancing over at the sitting area. Sarah found a magazine to read and settled down in her chair for a long wait. Hopefully, this won't take to long because I'm really hungry...


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