Disclaimer:All references to the characters Jareth, Sarah, Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and the film Labyrinth belong to Jim Henson Studios and other pertinent parties. I do not claim ownership to the characters and / or the original source material.
Life's Little Lessons: Chapter 10. Kitchen
"Why are you mortal, brother?" the Goblin King responded a tad annoyed. Jareth's gaze burned into the other man. For a moment, Sarah stood breathless. She looked from her husband to the Goblin King. Brian smiled at Jareth who scowled in return. The boys seemed to ignore Sarah for the moment.
"I am mortal because I fell in love with one," stated her husband frankly. He went to rub his bearded chin thoughtfully, but his clean shaven face startled him. "You took away my beard?"
"You fell in love with my Sarah," growled out Jareth.
"I did indeed," her husband responded with a smile. He looked so much younger without his beard, Sarah realized suddenly. Brian turned to his shocked wife before turning his hazel eyes back on Jareth. "And she isn't your Sarah anymore. She never was yours to begin with."
The two men glared at each other for moment – Brian to Sarah and Finnegan to the Goblin King with a smile plastered on his lips and a challenge in his eye while Jareth scowled at such brashness and amicable behavior.
"You're… his brother?" asked Sarah cautiously to break the growing tension in her kitchen. Her husband nodded and turned to look at her surprised.
"Thank the Goddess, no, we are not kin," Brian explained quickly. "It is merely a greeting, but we…" He paused to look at Jareth. "We were close once. Almost like brothers." Jareth's eyes became slits as he stared the man down. Brian / Finnegan shrugged it off like he always did. He turned back to his wife. "It's a long and complicated story for another time."
"You never mentioned this," Sarah began and both men saw the anger bubbling to the surface. "You… You introduced yourself as Brian. Not as Finn or Finnegan or… or… You told me you had no family, and yet… you somehow know the Goblin King?!"
"Which is partly true," he said and continued heading off his wife's anger. "I am Finn Mac Cumhail. I lived a long time ago and had many great adventures. My family died centuries ago, and somehow I slipped into the Fae realm. I lived there and found a new family, but one day, I chose to explore the mortal realm again. Then I happened to meet you and everything changed. I chose to give that life up. Father stripped me of my immortality and told me to never contact any of the Sidhe again. Including the Goblin King. I was no longer welcome under Father's roof or among any of the Sidhe. It was like my life there had never happened. I was mortal again. Ergo, I had no family… until I married you and we had Charlie."
His simple words seemed to take the wind out of Sarah's sails. She smiled at her husband then. He had gotten out of the frying pan… but Jareth wondered if Finn had truly used his silver tongue to get out of this situation unscathed. "When this is over…"
"Father told me you left our world for a mortal of surpassing beauty," Jareth interrupted Sarah. "If I had known-"
"You would have tried to dissuade me? You locked yourself away from us, licking your wounds and feeling sorry for yourself like you always do," he admonished. Sarah loved her husband a little more for standing up to Jareth in this way. "And what could you have done? I went AboveGround to see how the world had changed, and I met a beautiful woman by chance. How was I supposed to know that my Sarah was your Sarah? It was simply happenstance."
"Nothing happens without a reason in this world, Finn. You know that or did Father make you forget that as well?"
A glare crept onto Brian's features again. The Goblin King smiled wickedly then and Sarah blanched. She touched her husband's shoulder, and he turned to look at her.
"Love, he has Charlie and Thomas," she said quietly. She needed the conversation to turn back to the true matter of concern for them – their daughter. Their only daughter and her brother's son were in the clutches of the Goblin King.
"Charlie wouldn't," Brian began with fear creeping up his spine.
"But Thomas would… and did," Jareth interjected. "He wished your daughter away to me."
The statement silenced the pair before Brian groaned and ran a hand over his face. Sarah wanted to do the same, but they needed information from Jareth. They needed to find a way to sway the Goblin King to give them both up.
"He's simply a hurt child. We can't blame him," Sarah said quietly to her husband who had grown both angry and fearful. He clenched his mighty fist as he glared at the smug Goblin King. His wife's gentle hand on his arm did little to calm him. He moved away from the pair nonchalantly. It galled him to see the pair – his favorite adopted brother and his previous love. His hair had lost its fire and his eyes had tarnished, but Jareth would recognize the warrior even in this mortal state anywhere. At least the man's heavy brogue hadn't returned when Jareth called him by his true name. It had taken him months to understand Finn's guttural voice. "He must've found the book somehow because I've never told him the story, have you?"
"Of course not!" There was a pause. "Where did you hide it?"
"Behind my books in the bookcase in my office."
"Sarah…" Silence was her response to her husband's tone of voice. Jareth had returned to leaning up against the counter top but he examined his gloves nonchalantly. He could wait for the lovers' tiff to end.
"What do you want in return for them, Goblin King?" Brian asked in a split decision to drop his reprimand of his wife's negligence. "We have little, but… we would gladly give you anything for their safe return."
Jareth noticed Sarah sweep her dark hair behind her ear in a nervous gesture. The determination that had carried her through the Labyrinth shone on her face. That same determination was matched by Finn's confidant stance. The Goblin King looked away from the pair to stare down the hallway towards the front door. A pair of tennis shoes lay haphazardly beside a pair of colorful flats placed neatly side by side. Pictures of the happy family lined the dim hallway as well. He clenched his fists. Finnegan had this… with his Sarah. Could he – no, would he have made such a sacrifice of himself for Sarah? To have this short but happy life with her? Honestly, he didn't know. He let the silence drag out as his thoughts tumbled and then righted.
"I am bound by the laws of the Labyrinth," Jareth sighed and he turned to look at them with sadness in his features. Even with all of his power at his disposal, he felt powerless. "If it were in my power to break this contract, for the love that I once bore for both of you, I would… but I cannot." He watched their shoulders sag and he took no joy in sealing their forthcoming fates. For once, Jareth felt his heart soften. He wanted to give them the truth instead of half-truths and little lies teased out of nothing. His gaze drifted to a spot on the tile floor where a blackened match lay.
"Thomas refused to run the Labyrinth to save your daughter. He has forfeited his right to save her; in doing so, he forfeited the right of anyone else running in his place. Therefore, young Charlotte is mine to do with as I please when the thirteen hours are up."
Silence crept in-between them. Jareth felt the heavy mantle of villain fall back onto his shoulders. Here he stood in the kitchen of two "heroes." How would they react to him simply "following the rules?" Yet the role had always been thrust upon him. He had always followed the rules of the Labyrinth. He had no other choice in the matter.
"Please, Jareth. Don't do this," Sarah begged in a near whisper. He flinched at how close it sounded, and he suppressed a second at the touch of her hand on his forearm. The aged hand was warm and tender. She had never touched or begged him before. It made him immediately uneasy. He met her gaze and he felt his heart race staring into those emerald green eyes once again. "Let one of us run the Labyrinth for Thomas. He's a child. He didn't understand."
"Just like how you didn't understand? You were a child once as well if I recall," Jareth countered automatically. He regretted his biting tongue the minute he said the words. She pulled away as if he had slapped her hand. The Goblin King forced himself to look away. "I refuse to make concessions for your family."
"They are part of your family, too," retorted Finn.
"Rules are rules." Jareth braced himself for the inevitable.
"When have you ever let the rules dictate your actions, Jareth?" exploded Finn. "Where is the Goblin King I remember? The one who traveled the kingdoms of Man and Fae for adventure? Who had no fear as he fought trolls at the southern border? Who danced with dragons and sang sweeter than Orpheus? Who wrapped nymphs and naiads around his little finger? Who protected goblins and laughed with them in the face of danger? You broke every one of Father's rules and you still ended up a King of a realm."
He closed his eyes and sighed before speaking. "A king of goblins and a Labyrinth forgotten, a guardian to watch a gate to the mortal realm, a noble Sidhe reprimanded for letting a mortal girl best him at both his game and his heart. You know better than anyone that our brethren and sisters do not take kindly to mortals or the concept of love."
His excuse sounded flat even to his own ears. He felt old in explaining the matter so plainly to Finn and Sarah. The kitchen fell silent again, but Jareth forced himself to continue.
"I've changed, Finn, but my duties have not. My kingdom, my people, my goblins… I cannot fail them again. Just as you have a duty to your wife and child." Jareth paused to run a hand through his hair in irritation. "I cannot let my feelings dictate the consequences here, not again… Not after last time."
"Or it will be my head on a platter presented to Father, the King of the Sidhe," Finn finished for him. Jareth nodded solemnly.
"Could we… Can we petition this King of the Sidhe for our daughter's release?" Sarah asked uncertainly. Both Finn and Jareth raised their heads to gape at her. Then they looked at each other.
"Father would not receive you," Jareth explained. He held up a hand and began to tick off the reasons. "You are mortal. You are not of royal standing. You are aware of magic, but you do not wield it. Ergo, you have no power."
"Also, you are married to an ex-communicated brethren of the realm," her husband added. "While I was once loved, I cannot return to plead for our daughter's cause.. and I refuse to let you go to the UnderGround without me."
"We have to do something, Brian!" Sarah said desperately. "We can't just leave her to such a fate!"
"It's not all bad," Jareth began without thinking. The ice cold glare from Sarah made him shudder with fear. He composed himself again and pushed away from the kitchen counter. The Goblin King lifted his chin and tried to regain some of his royal bearing. "I will do what I can to make your daughter comfortable in my realm. I will see that young Thomas is returned unharmed. For now, that is all I can offer to you both."
"Please, Jareth," Sarah begged again. The Goblin King watched as the Celtic Hero's hand found that of his wife's. The Champion's hand fit neatly into the strong, worn hand of her husband.
"That is all I can do for now," Jareth amended. He couldn't look them in the eye as he began to disappear from their kitchen. Through the shimmer of magic, he saw the tears streaming down Sarah's cheek before Brian pulled her into a comforting embrace. Something ached in his chest again, a sweet bitterness at what he once had and had lost. His mind drifted back to the thought of what their life would have been if Sarah had chosen him over her familial duty, if Sarah had truly loved him, if Sarah had stayed with him forever.
[A/N: Sarah: "Legendary Irish hero, eh?" (angry look)
Brian: "And leader of the Fianna."
Sarah: (frustrated sigh) "Is your name Finn or Brian?"
Brian: (hugs Sarah) "You can call me whatever name you want, my love, as long as you call me your husband." END SCENE.
Author: Score 1 for him. To quote Encyclopedia Mythica, "no man could hope to be better in magic, poetry, or wisdom then Finn Mac Cumhail" ( articles/f/finn_mac_ ). It seemed rather apropos for an adult Sarah to fall for Finn.]