Author's Note: Mea maxima culpa for the loooooong delay getting this chapter out. I had a very bad case of writer's block brought on by nursing school. I also want to say, y'all are the most sweet, encouraging, and lovely people. Thank you for the messages! Love and hugs to each of you!

Jareth's hands closed on empty air and his knees buckled, banging harshly on the stone floor when they hit it. She left... how can I bear this again? Tears spilled over and fell on his gloved hands where they rested palms-up on his bruised knees.

Psychedelic colors faded to pitch blackness. Jen groaned: The dungeon again? It didn't sound or feel the same, however. There was no drip of water nor moist chill in the air. In fact, the air was dry and stale. Where had Jareth deposited her now? Was he so angry that he'd voided her victory and thrown her into a different confinement?

Aiden's muffled cry from somewhere nearby jolted Jen out of her abstraction.

"Aiden?!" Jen called out, lifting her hands and feeling forward with them. They immediately contacted a smooth wooden surface less than two feet in front of her. She felt around and found a knob, which opened the door to the tiny lavatory off the disused exam room at St. Kilda's Women's Shelter. The sight of the room from which she'd left Earth was completely disorienting after her time in the Labyrinth. A hiccupping cry from the little office brought her back, and she rushed to scoop Aiden off the cot.

"I'm so glad to see you!" she cuddled the infant close to her chest and peppered his head with kisses. "I bet you need a feeding, don't you? It's been a while."

Aiden calmed quickly once she had settled cross-legged on the cot and begun to nurse him. After he'd latched on, Jen leaned her head back against the wall. Unbidden, the mental image of Jareth's agonized expression as she exited his world came to her mind. Shaking her head firmly against the sadness that the image evoked, she decided to get grounded by singing.

Her welcome, like her love for me,
Is from her heart within:
Her warm kiss is felicity
That knows no taint of sin.
And, when I stir my foot to go,
'Tis leaving love and light
To feel the wind of longing blow
From out the dark of night.

Like the image of Jareth, the song of their dance, Lagan Love, had also come unbidden. It wasn't until the fourth verse that Jen realized tears were running down her cheeks. She looked down at Aiden and brushed one of her tears off his forehead.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to the heartily nursing baby. "I didn't mean for us to wind up here again; I just didn't know whether I could keep you if I lost."

Aiden's only acknowledgement that she'd spoken was to waive his tiny fist and keep on suckling.

Jen scoffed at his indifference, "I guess you'll never remember where we went and what we'll miss out on, will you? You weren't the one who fell in love..."

After switching sides, Jen decided to sing the first not-Lagan Love song that suggested itself.

Come over the hills, my bonnie Irish lass
Come over the hills to your darling
You choose the rose, love, and I'll make the vow
And I'll be your true love forever

"Damn!" she dashed another tear from her cheek and stood up abruptly. Aiden paused his suckling in surprise, but quickly fell to again. "Why is every Irish song such a goddamn, miserable, tear-jerking, heart-stabbing dirge?!"

Looking out the window, she could see that the storm, which had been pounding at the time of her departure, had slowed to tiny droplets. It was still the middle of the night. She jerked back and gasped when she spotted the pale barn owl perched again on the fire escape, this time off to one side instead of directly in front of the window. The bird gazed back at her mournfully, as if the sight of her red eyes and tear-tracks caused it pain, before giving a low hoot and taking flight.

Once the owl had vanished around the corner of the next building, Jen returned to herself and noticed that Aiden was finished. She burped him and then curled up on the cot with the baby between her body and the wall. Pulling the scratchy blankets over them both, she remembered Mother Goose had said something important but the words refused to come to her exhausted mind.

With tears still sliding down her face, she fell asleep.

The throne room goblins were too busy generating mayhem with ale, spitballs, an armored pig, and a flock of chickens to notice that their ruler had returned from the Above and locked himself in the Escher room. They didn't hear the crashing of crystal spheres shattering into pieces against stone stairs, punctuated by occasional wails of misery. None of them were paying attention when he passed through into his personal chambers and collapsed in an exhausted pile on the bed.

A few hours later, Jen woke to Aiden's fussing. She sighed heavily, preferring to lay still under the weight of disappointment and loss, but her baby's needs overrode everything and she attended to them. Glancing out the windows, she noted that it was probably a short time before dawn despite the sky still being overcast. The owl was not on the fire escape.

Jen changed and fed Aiden, packed up their meager belongings, and went down to the dining hall for breakfast. She was the first one up besides the nuns, who looked like they'd only just become ready to serve their lumpy oatmeal and quartered oranges.

Minutes later, she was wandering aimlessly up and down the city sidewalks where she was jostled by crowds of people on their way to work. On the day prior she would have been filling out minimum-wage job applications, checking in with managers at places she'd dropped off completed applications (no phone or address meant face-to-face negotiating with potential employers) stopping at the soup kitchen with almost-edible soup, and browsing the public library. Today, however, her thoughts were still in the Labyrinth with Jareth's beautiful face behind her eyelids at every blink, and she could barely focus enough to look both ways before crossing the streets. As if matching her mood, the sky was grey with heavy clouds and fog.

At the corner of 86th and Burke, Jen waited for the light to change and glanced at a clothing store across the street. A sign in the window proclaimed, "More choices for you!" She stood there staring at the sign while the light changed and people surged around her on their way to busy workplaces. The light changed twice more before she crossed the street, mind churning.

Her feet carried her to the city park and down several randomly-chosen paths before she plunked down on a bench overlooking the foot-bridge dividing two halves of an enormous pond. Her backpack went on the ground between her feet, and Aiden on the ground, shielded from damp by one of the shelter's blankets. Swans paddling gracefully to and fro failed to distract Jen from her ruminations.

"Choices. That's what Mother Goose said. I have more choices than I know," Jen thought to herself before growing frustrated. "But it would sure as hell help if I knew what all the choices were or how to make them!"

A nearby birthday party attended by a group of squealing kindergarten-aged children forced itself into her attention. Jen frowned at it. The parents obviously had a great deal of money to be able to afford a massive cake, caterers, and actors to portray Disney characters for their little darlings. Enough money that they could probably do a lot for the homeless with the amount they'd spent on the fete.

A young woman dressed as Princess Jasmine was helping the birthday girl get ready for the cake, "Now close your eyes, make a wish, and blow out the candles to make it come true!"

"If only it were that simple," Jen thought. She straightened up suddenly, "What if it is that simple? A wish got us into the Labyrinth to begin with... perhaps another wish will get us back?"

She picked up Aiden, glanced around to make sure no humans were within earshot, and whispered, "I wish we could return to the Labyrinth."

Nothing happened.

Crestfallen, Jen slumped forward to set Aiden back on the blanket and then buried her face in her hands, elbows braced on her knees.

"Now, why would someone so eager to escape my realm wish herself straight back into it?" a velveteen voice purred from behind the bench.

Jen bolted to her feet and spun around, "What?"

"I said..." he began, clasping his hands behind his back and half smiling at the ground as he stepped slowly around the bench toward her.

"I heard you, I just expected a different result," Jen explained.

"I imagine you did," he murmured, raising his eyes to hers. He paused two paces away, becoming as still as a statue as though afraid to scare her off.

"You came here." Jen noticed that he seemed even more pale than usual and his odd-colored eyes were reddish. Had he been crying?

He raised his eyebrows and one corner of his mouth at her statement of the blindingly obvious, "Well, you did say, or rather shout, that I should, quote, 'come and convince you in your world.'"

Jen blushed at the memory of her hasty, angry words and glanced at the ground before looking back up at Jareth with a mischievous smile, "So, should I insist on making you work for it or just go on and say I'm convinced?"

With barely audible sigh of relief, he stepped closer and brushed a stray lock of hair back from her face, "Given that we are no longer constrained by the rules of solving the Labyrinth, precious thing, I am pleased to inform you that it is entirely up to you."

She tilted her cheek into his lingering hand for a second before straightening as a thought occurred to her, "I need to know: if I had stayed or lost or whatever, would I have kept my son and would he have stayed human?"

Jareth dropped his hand, "The dispensation of failed challenger and the wished away is up to my sole discretion... but I promise you that I would never separate you nor change him against your will."

"Oh," she blinked.

Jareth smiled before his expression turned rueful, "The rules of the Underground are somewhat... whimsical, shall we say, and seldom convenient."

Jen scoffed, "No kidding."

A short cry from Aiden, lying by their feet, made them both jump.

"Speaking of seldom convenient," Jareth murmured and scooped the baby up, patting his diaper. "Oh dear, it seems he is in need of a fresh nappy."

"Gimme, I'll do it," Jen held out her hands and Jareth passed Aiden over. While she managed the task, the Goblin King became still again and studied her face carefully, "Do you have any further business in this realm, or would you like to see the accommodation I rather presumptively... and hopefully... arranged for you?"

"I don't have any further business, and whatever the accommodation is, as long as it isn't overrun with goblins, I'm sure it'll be great," she smiled widely.

Jareth grasped the strap of her backpack and offered an arm, pleased that he had correctly predicted she wouldn't want goblins around the baby.

Jen took a deep breath, put a happily-cooing Aiden over one shoulder, and looped her free arm in Jareth's. "Let's go."

"As you have wished, my lady," Jareth twisted his hand, conjuring a crystal ball, and simply dropped it.

Upon impact, the sphere exploded in a shower of glitter. When it cleared, the trio had vanished.

Author's PS: Finally done! Tell me what you want next - I do have some ideas for continuing Jen/Jareth and/or some other Labby AU type fun ;)

Thank you all again for your kindness and patience!