For Keeps

Sarah's been out of the Labyrinth for 6 month, and her seemingly instant maturity hasn't gone unnoticed. When Jareth shows up, seeking to understand how she beat him, things progress down a path neither could have anticipated. JS

Disclaimer- All Standard Disclaimers Apply
These are some extra words to make sure that it's another 5,000+ word chapter. Lol.

Chapter Ten:

Linda paced the floor anxiously within the walls of her room. She'd issued a statement to the press, explaining Sarah to the satisfaction of both her agent and the media. Single mothers weren't exactly look on with kindness in the entertainment industry. Now, pictures of Sarah were plastered on tons of tabloids. John had brought her all of her subscriptions: People, Teen People, The Enquirer, The Star. They all had Sarah's picture in them. She wasn't jealous of her daughter's sudden fame. If anything, she was afraid for it. She didn't want Sarah to become a public figure when her life was so unstable. If the media caught any sort of instability, they would rip her to shreds. If Sarah were to disappear with a certain Goblin King, then they would have a field day.

Linda smacked a palm to her forehead for what seemed the hundredth time. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. "So stupid! Why would I do something so stupid!"

She stopped pacing and sagged down onto her bed. She'd done something that could not be reversed. Sarah was in the public eye now, and whether she liked it or not, things would just have to play out until all the cards were dealt. "But what are we playing for? What is she playing for?" Linda looked around her vast room. When she'd first moved in, it had seemed huge. Now, it was just normal to her. She got down on her knees beside her bed and groped about the darkness under the bed. Her fingers brushed the edge of an old box, and she excitedly pulled it out. "I never could get rid of you." She smiled sardonically as she blew the dust off the cover of the old cardboard box.

"What are you playing for now, Jareth?" she thought as she looked fondly at the old 'Chutes and Ladders box. Linda had kept it ever since she'd returned from being wished away. She just kept thinking that she'd see a use for it again. Then again, Linda had always been a pack rat by nature. That was why she had kept the old copy of the "Labyrinth." "Sarah? Are you playing for Sarah?" Her brows, which had been knit together in concentration, relaxed in the realization for a moment. "He's-" Her eyebrows raised. "He's playing for Sarah." She opened up the box to see a crystal atop the game board. Her brows shot up; she'd forgotten about that. "For keeps."

"Sarah!"

Sarah was vaguely aware that someone was calling her name, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was Jareth's warm, firm body against her.

"So warm..." That was enough to make Sarah realize that she was dreaming. Jareth would never be that close to her, and she'd never feel his body so warm against hers. She opened her eyes, looking up into his.

"What's wrong?"

"You're not real."

The dream blurred, and Sarah woke up crying. "You're not real." Linda, who had been trying to wake her daughter because Sarah had been repeating the same phrase over and over again quite loudly, stared down with surprise at the abruptness of her daughter's tears. Sarah curled up in the comforter, holding the cover close like a comfort object.

"Honey," Linda said hesitantly. Sarah stilled before realizing that it was her mother's voice. She slowly wiped the tears from her eyes and sat up. "Are you okay?" Sarah nodded, blinking constantly to keep the tears back. "You- you know it's okay if you cry, right?"

"Yeah," she replied, her voice sounding choked. "I just want to stop crying, though."

"Crying is healthy."

"Not when it's every night and sometimes days," Sarah said, pulling the comforter closer around her. Linda sighed. This wasn't supposed to be happening. Robert had called this morning. Sarah's contract said she had to attend her gymnastics boot camp for the film. Linda wasn't about to let Sarah throw away everything she'd been working for just because she couldn't deal with what was happening in her life. That was when Linda realized Sarah wouldn't make a decision on her own. She would have to make it for her. She sat on Sarah's bed.

"Sarah, I think," she said slowly as tears, echoing her daughter's, welled up in her eyes, "it's time for you to go home."

"What?" Sarah gasped as she forgot her concentration, allowing the tears to flow freely. "You can't- I can't just-"

"You can, Sarah. I don't want to let you go. God knows I don't, but you have to go back home. You can't run away from your problems. You have to face them head on," Linda said, holding her daughter close to her. Sarah cried into her mother's arms.

"I know. I just don't want to," Sarah repeated over and over.

"Shh. I know, Sarah. I know," Linda cooed, trying to calm her. "It'll be hard, but you should know better than most that life is never easy." Sarah just cried harder and wrapped her arms around her mother's waist. The two stayed that way for an hour. Sarah cried, and Linda did all she could in offering her a mother's embrace and a friend's soothing words. Finally, Sarah was all cried out, her voice hoarse. She drank some water and stayed silent, knowing that she did have to go back. She just hadn't thought Linda would make her go.

"I-" she stopped, trying to collect her thoughts. She wanted to protest and say it wasn't fair. It was never fair, but that's the way it is. "I'll go."

"You have to leave today. Your contract-"

"I know," Sarah interrupted as her mother slid off the bed. Sarah pushed the comforter off her and sighed. "I know."

"Do you want help packing?"

"No." Sarah shook her head. "I need some time to think." Linda nodded and made her way to the door.

"I'll be waiting in the living room."

Sarah was left with her thoughts as she packed the clothes that she had bought. "Good thing there're extra suit cases in here," she thought. "They're the only good thing about this." Sarah laughed weakly at herself. "I knew it had to end. I just thought-"

Sarah turned around, realizing that she wasn't alone in her room. John was there. "Excuse me, Miss Sarah." Sarah looked him up and down. Servants sure dressed sharply here in California. "I'll finish packing. Your mother is waiting to speak with you in the living room." Sarah bit her lip and nodded. She'd packed away nearly all the clothes. Sarah quickly hurried out of the room and went to the living room.

"Mom?" Linda was seated on the same white recliner she'd been in when Sarah had first arrived. She had a 'Chutes and Ladders box in her lap and was staring at it with a look that screamed she was reminiscing. At the sound of Sarah's voice, her head snapped up.

"Sit down," she said. The command sounded more like an offer, and Sarah sat herself in the pale pink recliner. "I-" She lifted the box up. "I want you to have this." Sarah stared at it, wondering what the hell the sentimental value to it was. She hadn't even liked 'Chutes and Ladders as a kid.

"Okay," Sarah said, not really understanding the significance of it but thankful all the same for the token of affection from her mother. "Um, thank you?"

"Don't open it until you're home," Linda said hurriedly. She was trying her best to remain numb to the fact that she was practically giving her daughter back to the person who had actually made Sarah give up on something. "And call me when you land so I know you're safe." Sarah nodded.

"Yeah, of course. Do you still have the same number?" Linda shook her head.

"No. I'll write down the new one for you. I'll call Robert and let him know you'll be back. Do you need money for a cab?" she replied, getting up and grabbing the notepad and pen by a phone in the corner of the room. She scrawled out the number and handed it to Sarah.

"Here you go." Sarah looked at the number and put it into her purse.

"And um. I'm good on money."

"Oh." Silence set in between the two, but neither had to remain in the discomfort for long.

"The bags are in the limo," John announced. Sarah wondered briefly when the hell he'd gotten in but let it go. It didn't matter so much anymore.

"I love you, Sarah."

"I love you, too. Could you-" Sarah bit her lip. "Don't come with me. If I have you see me off, then I won't be able to stop the tears." Linda hesitated but nodded.

"Bye, sweetie. You never need an invitation to call."

"I know."

Sarah stepped off the plane and was blinded by incredibly bright lights. "What the-?" she mumbled as she squinted and raised a hand to her face to block the flashing lights. Popping cameras were everywhere. Sarah had to blink twice before she realized that they were the paparazzi, and they were taking pictures of her. "Holy crap."

Sarah's first instinct was to run and find a hole far away where the lights would never find her again. She shook off that notion, though. "What would Mom do?" She forced her chin up. ""I know." She walked at a regular pace to the baggage claim, ignoring the cameras the whole way.She held herself together until she and her bags were in a cab on her way home. Then, she broke down. The cab driver looked at her in the rear view mirror but said nothing. It wasn't his concern that some chick was crying in his backseat. All that mattered was that she could pay. He hoped she could. The address she gave him wasn't exactly close to the airport.

She took a deep breath to try and calm the sobs. She had held herself together. After all, Linda had always said to never let them see you sweat. Why hadn't Peter gone over how to deal with the paparazzi yet? She inhaled deeply. What would she say to her dad and Irene? "What can I say to them but the truth?"

The brunette stared out the window, watching the trees and landscaping pass by without so much as a bat of an eye. The skies were a dark overcast, seeming to reflect Sarah's mood. "Nothing really matters," she thought. Sarah half- smiled sadly as she realized that was a line in a song. "Anyone can see, nothing really matters-, nothing really matters to me." When the cab came to a surprising halt, Sarah had to blink several times before realizing she was home.

"Thirty dollars," he said.

"Here you go," Sarah said. She was quite happy to hear that the amount for going this distance was so low.

"You okay, kid?" Sarah turned around to see Peter. Despite what had happened between them, she still had the natural response to smile. His face was friendlier than her parent's and step-parent's faces. His slacks and white collared shirt, were nicer, too.

"I'm fine," she said, climbing out of the cab and onto the driveway. To her surprise, Peter hugged her.

"You're okay, though? I'm sorry for," he rubbed the back of his neck as he thought of what to say, "for everything."

"I forgive you," Sarah replied, pulling her luggage out of the trunk, "for everything." She grinned.

"Irene and Robert are inside. Linda called saying that you'd be home. She told us not to pick you up. Irene was going to, but I persuaded her not to," he said. Sarah sighed. They cared about her; they were just trying to think of what was in her best interest without knowing all the facts. That's what Sarah repeated to herself to keep from running away again as she walked into her house, holding some of her bags while Peter, trailing behind, had the others.

"Sarah!" both Robert and Irene called simultaneously. Before either could say another word, however, Sarah had raised her hands and cut them off.

"Look. I don't want to hear anything from either of you. I know what I did was cowardly, and I'm sorry if I worried you at all. It was something I had to do, though, and I wouldn't take it back if I could." Sarah crossed her arms under her breasts and spoke with the calm, resolute stolidity expected of someone with many, many more years. Both of her respected guardians looked at her with wide eyes, obviously speechless. Sarah took the moment to observe them both and the kitchen.

Dishes from four days ago, when she'd left, were still in the sink. Fast food wrappings and boxes littered the counter, and the bottle of brandy above the refrigerator was definitely lower in content. Robert had dark circles under his eyes. Irene seemed to have been able to get enough sleep at night, though. To her credit, she did seem to be thoroughly stressed. The unkempt hair could attest to that. The face was strangely void of make up, too. Sarah wondered what their impression of her was right then. She was wearing some designer outfit and had taken some time on the plane to pretty herself up out of habit. Did they think she looked like, for lack of a better word, stuck up? Or… trashy?

"Say something," Sarah whispered. Robert got up silently and crossed over to her, enveloping her in a huge hug.

"I was so worried." Sarah smiled.

"I know. I'm sorry," she said, hugging her dad back. He held her a bit away from him so that she could see his eyes when he spoke to her.

"No. I'm sorry. I didn't- I didn't even think, Sarah. I thought you were fine with the way things were up until a few nights ago. You started acting strange, and I didn't get it. Your mother…" he gulped, "She really cleared it up for me."

"Mom?" Sarah's brows knit together.

"I think Sarah's tired and wants to unpack," Peter said carefully, noting that Irene was attempting to hide an extremely livid look in her eyes. Apparently, Linda's call had not been well received by all the members of the household. Looking over Robert's shoulder, Sarah noticed it too. She nodded.

"Yeah. Bunch of new clothes and all." She pulled away from her father and forced herself to walk, not run, up the stairs. Once she was in her room, Peter with half the bags and she with the other half, Sarah allowed herself a sigh of relief.

"God. I thought Irene was going to have a conniption for a second."

Sarah laughed at that. It was one of those abrupt, surprised laughs people have when they're thinking the exact same funny, horrible thing. "Me, too," she grinned. The grin fell as she looked around her room. Apparently, someone- "Probably Irene," Sarah thought with a grimace- had been scavenging around in her room.

"Peter, they didn't-" she gulped, "Irene and Dad didn't blame this on you, did they?"

Peter shook his head. The blonde hair didn't move with the movement, seeing how it was too heavily gelled in place. "No. I think they wanted to but knew better."

"Knew better?"

"I would file a nice, lovely law suit for slander and defamation of character," he clarified. Sarah smiled. A silence that was only awkward for Peter fell between them as Sarah started putting away her clothes. After the first and largest suit case was emptied, Peter cleared his throat. Sarah rolled her eyes at the excess drama.

"What?" she snapped, sounding a bit irritated at his stare.

"Have you seen him again?" he asked in a very low, quiet voice. It was almost so low that Sarah wanted to ask him to repeat it, but she didn't want to make him ask again.

"No," she replied. "And I won't again. Not for a very long time." Sarah looked wistfully out the window. Pain was raw in her eyes, but the rest of her face was a careful, blank mask. Peter looked away, feeling that the sort of raw anguish was something one respectfully averted one's eyes from.

"Why not?" he asked, daring to ask her a bit more about an obviously painful subject. Normally, he minded his own business, but Sarah was his client. Clients can have privacy but rarely from their managers/agent.

"Because I love him, and I can't want him anymore!" Sarah shouted, letting her carefully restrained emotions show. Sarah's lip trembled as she fought back for her lost resolve. "Please, Peter, don't ask about it anymore." He nodded his acquiescence as he inched back to the door.

"You're home safe and sound. I think," he paused as he reached for and turned the door handle, "it's time I leave. This is your business." Sarah nodded in agreement, and Peter was gone.

With nothing but the cold silence as her companion and solace, Sarah wept for what wasn't the first nor the last time. "Why?" she thought as she curled up on her bed, her favorite Jareth- scented pillow in her lap as she held her knees to her. "Why does it have to be so hard?"

"Where are you, now?" Jareth tapped his riding crop on his chin as he looked into a mirror that floated in front of him in his Throne Room. The mirror showed an empty guest room at Sarah's mother's house. "Where? Where? Where?" Jareth let the hand holding the riding crop fall to his lap the other raised to cover his mouth and chin as he thought about where she was. She was safe he knew that much. Otherwise, John would have contacted him. Well, he hoped he would have contacted him. His concern for Sarah was more than his average curiosity over what became of those who bested the Labyrinth. He loved her, after all.

Jareth waved a hand over the mirror. The image promptly shimmered into a silver, metallic pool, and then, Sarah's room came into focus. Jareth's carefully controlled mask slipped as his eyebrows shot up. "Sarah," he thought, uncharacteristic concern lacing through his mind.

"What's wrong?" He waved the mirror away and stood up abruptly. John was right. He did need to pay Sarah a visit. He'd set Hoggle, Ludo, and Didymus free. Why hadn't he come to her sooner? "Because of words unspoken."

Sarah sat there crying. "Jareth, we can't go back. Why did I have to screw everything up? Why?" If Sarah had been in the mood to actually move, she'd have been up and banging her head against a wall or an extremely heavy, hard, blunt object.

"Sarah?"

Sarah was startled into an extremely surprised silence. Had she been hitting herself with a blunt object? That couldn't be him. "He wouldn't..." She slowly raised her head from her fetal position, the one she'd been in for the past hour, and looked around her room. It was empty, from what she could tell. That was why she was even more surprised when she heard his voice again.

"Sarah."

"What the hell?" she murmured. "Great. I'm going insane." Then, Sarah caught sight of the mirror. Jareth's image was on it, not entirely in focus, but there nonetheless. "Jareth?" she asked, her tone echoing his. Sarah leapt to her feet. "How-"

"Never mind that. Sarah, what have you been doing?" Sarah's brows knit together in confusion. Here they were, seeing each other again, days after their last encounter of the close and romantic kind, and he was remaining coolly aloof.

"I've been..." she turned around, feeling strangely giddy and hurt like a school girl around her crush who she just told she liked with only his silence in response. "Where I've been or what I've been doing is none of your business. I told you not to see me unless they were all free." Sarah, with her back turned, couldn't see Jareth crossing over to her room. She glowered out the window as she watched the storm clouds' turmoil in the sky. Her arms were crossed beneath her breasts, and Jareth leaned in close, almost touching but not quite. His hair was nearly grazing her shoulders, and she still didn't even notice him.

"I was asking about," Sarah jumped as his murmuring in her ear startled her, "your tears." His ungloved fingertips brushed her cheek and came away with the fresh, crystalline drops. Sarah felt a small gasp rise in her as he turned her around. She looked up in his eyes and wanted to stay that way forever. She wanted to tell him how she felt and ask if they could spin the stars and dance until the sun gave out, but instead, she said the first thing she knew to be true.

"We can't be together, Jareth," she blurted. His hands stopped their motion around her back and withdrew as if burned.

"Why not?" he demanded, hands clenched at his sides like a menacing authoritative figure. He did not like how things were going, and holding his anger back was a lot harder than it looked.

"Because- because we just can't. You have to understand," she said, her heart secretly fluttering while her mind raced. "Was that an actual admittance? Does he actually return my feelings?"

"I think you delude yourself, Sarah, into ridiculous presumptions," he replied. Sarah felt her heart dropping. He didn't return them. "Why," he asked, circling around her, "would you think that we couldn't make it work?" Sarah's heart jumped into her throat.

"Heart rollercoaster tonight," she thought wryly. "Jareth, I-" She looked down for a moment and took a breath before looking him in his eyes. Whatever she was going to say didn't matter. Something in Jareth's eyes made her concerned. Why did they look so weary? "Are you okay?" That caught Jareth by surprise.

"What?"

"Are you okay? I mean," she bit her lip, and Jareth had the urge to tell her to let him do that for her, but he resisted. "You seem... tired."

"A lot of things have been... difficult Underground," he replied, wondering just how much to tell her.

"Oh," Sarah replied noncommittally. She didn't know quite what to say to that, and Jareth was grateful that she didn't press the issue.

"Sarah," Jareth prodded after a moment, "you haven't answered my question." Sarah suddenly smiled at a memory and beamed it at him.

"I haven't decided to answer." Jareth, taken by surprise at that, too, smiled. It wasn't so much a full smile as a flash of slightly pointed teeth with a lip curl at the corners. "Jareth," she said, growing serious despite her speeding heartbeat, "I won't let you ruin the Goblin Kingdom. No relationship between us could ever be casual, and I couldn't let a serious one destroy everything you worked for." Jareth laughed, and it was a cold, cruel sound to Sarah's ears.

"Sarah," he said amidst the cruel intonations, "what would ever make you think that I couldn't handle my kingdom?"

"I know some politics, Jareth. Underground, Aboveground. It doesn't make a difference. There's always someone wanting a position of power who's willing to kill and ruin lives for it. I won't-" she spoke through gritted teeth, "can't let that happen." Jareth's eyes lit up with fire.

"You think I can't handle my own kingdom?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"No. I think," tears welled up in her eyes as she spoke, "that I'm not going to risk you getting hurt. I'd never be able to stop blaming myself. If you were killed..." She trailed off. "Something in me would die." Jareth looked at her through veiled eyes.

"Sarah, do you feel as if you are," he dared not hope or voice his thought. "Do you feel as if we are courting?" he asked, adding a cruel, mocking tone to save him some pride, should Sarah just be playing with emotions.

"Aren't we?" Sarah asked, unsure whether or not she should be asking. Jareth wanted to say so much but felt it best that she do the talking. After all these years, he'd learned to play his cards close, and Sarah was probably his biggest competitor in the wager. He tilted his head in that cocksure manner Sarah had grown to miss so much.

"What were you saying the other day?" he asked, not daring yet to voice his feelings.

"What?" Sarah asked, not registering the question until after she asked for clarification. "Oh! Yeah, I- I just wanted to know if you could," Sarah chose this moment to lick her lips, sending another wave of lust through Jareth. "Jareth, I-" Sarah stopped. What was she doing? Confessing feelings to the Goblin King? Feelings of affection? Feelings of adoration? Feelings of love? Sarah shook her head. "Love doesn't conquer all, and life is not a fairytale." Sarah didn't realize that she had said that out loud until Jareth raised a quizzical, arched eyebrow.

"What?"

"Hm?"

"Where did that come from?" he asked, a mask of dangerous curiosity covering the turbulent hope and wrathful, possible rejection inside him. Sarah blushed as she realized what she had said but looked him right in the eyes.

"This was what I was afraid of," she thought, "Speaking to him like this, where I want so badly to be with him when I know I can't."

"What are you thinking, Sarah?" he asked, emphasis on the 'are.'

"Jareth, please don't make me say it," she pleaded, suddenly knowing how badly she wanted to tell him. If he asked her, demanded her, she wouldn't be able to refuse for long. Of course, this only goaded Jareth's curiosity.

"Sarah, you must tell me, or I won't be able to help you out of whatever mess you've put yourself in," he replied. Sarah's lower lip trembled. She wanted so badly to tell him. If he rejected her, though, if everything he did was just out of a hidden agenda or simple camaraderie, she wouldn't be able to stop the heartbreak.

"Jareth, I'm begging you," she clenched her fists into the material of his sleeves. "Please!" She drew herself closer to him.

"Sarah, tell me," he said sternly. Sarah felt herself breaking. He was being so cruel. Of course, she knew he could be cruel, and she loved him anyway.

"Jareth, I didn't put myself in this mess. It found me. You found me," she said, her resolve tumbling as tears slipped down her cheeks. Jareth looked down at the creature clutching onto him and couldn't think of a moment where she'd been more beautiful.

"Sarah," he said, softer than his original cruel demand, "how exactly did I find you?"

"You found me when I was in a place without your heartbeat," she whispered, "a place without you." Jareth's arms circled around her, and Sarah sighed as she realized that he was satisfied with that answer.

"Sarah, dearest Sarah," he murmured into her hair as he pulled her against his chest, "I have no power over you, and you know that. All you do, you do on your own in spite of those who would hold you down." Sarah sobbed, and it racked her body. It was so hard to be strong all the time. She had to hold herself together for Linda, for Peter, for Irene, for Robert, for Stephen, for Michelle, for Toby, but for the Goblin King, she could break down and cry. "Sarah, you must have realized long ago," he paused as Sarah's breathing hitched. He didn't know she was waiting with bated breath to see just what his reply to her near confession would be. Did he love her. "I offered you your dreams twice before. Would you take them if offered again?"

"Third time's a charm," Sarah thought wryly, knowing that if she had been the same Sarah that she'd been a few months ago, she would have taken them now. She wasn't that Sarah, though, and the person she was couldn't take the dreams, the love she wanted. "Love is wanting what's best for the other person," Sarah said slowly, "and that's why I'd have to say no, Jareth." She pulled herself away from him. "That's why we can't be together!" Sarah's tears were practically streaming. "Because I love you!"

Time seemed to stand still in that one moment as Jareth heard the three words he'd never thought he'd hear from Sarah. Thoughts raced through the Goblin King's mind. He had thought that she would come to feel that way, but he'd never dreamt that she'd actually admit it. Why would Sarah say that now? Why was she insisting that they couldn't be together? Why would she pull away from him when she obviously wanted him? Wasn't it obvious that he felt the same bloody way about her?

"Well?" Sarah asked, echoing his phrase from long ago.

"Sarah!"

"WHAT NOW!?!" Sarah screamed at Toby in the doorway. She had thought it was someone else. Toby's eyes started to well up. He was still practically a baby, only a toddler really. "Oh, Toby, I didn't mean to-" He started crying, and Sarah ran over to him. He ran out into the hall, though, and Sarah was forced to run after him. She caught up to him in the master bedroom. "Toby, I didn't mean to. I'm sorry," she cried, holding the little tyke to her. "I'm sorry."

Jareth, who could have easily walked like Sarah and Toby had if it weren't for the fact that he was Fae and a stranger in the household, faded from Sarah's room to the master bedroom. He watched Sarah hold Toby and wondered just exactly what he should say to this girl who he had turned the world for, the one who had just offered him her heart on a silver platter. Part of him wanted to laugh at her and let her know the same pain he'd felt when she rejected him. Another part was doing somersaults and those strange back flips she'd been doing at that gymnastics place. He decided he should wait for her to come back to her room. These words didn't need to be spoken in front of Toby. "But they need to be spoken."

Sarah came back into the room roughly twenty minutes later to find Jareth seated at her vanity, staring down at a picture of her in her photo album. He looked up as she entered, and Sarah felt her palms sweat. Why hadn't he responded? She'd confessed her feelings to him, and he hadn't even said one word yet. Jareth looked into her eyes, and both momentarily froze at the connection of their eyes. "Sarah, there is much we need to discuss," he said. Sarah's eyes widened as she saw what photo he was looking at. It was the one of her, Linda, and an owl in the background- a barn owl whose eyes were focused on Sarah. Sarah felt miffed. He was staring at the picture of her and her mother. Her gorgeous mother.

"It was you."

That's right, bitches. Another chapter over 5,000 words. I bet you all are super happy. Lol. Probly not. You all were probably wondering where the hell this chapter was. Umm... I'm sorry! Life just got in the way. Heh. Life. Anyway- much love to you all. Thank you sooo much for the hits and reviews. Chapter Eleven WILL be up soon. (It's already written.) I don't know why has been so retarded in its update thingys... WTF? Anyway- much love. I hope you see this chapter before... like... a long time...