Notes at End.
How dare you. How dare you!
Jareth stalked down the hall to his bed chamber, passed the door and spun on his heal. He was not ready for sleep.
First you break me; I won Toby back, but you broke me.
He broke her? Look what she had done to him! For sweet sake, he was pacing his own corridor in the middle of the night because a mortal girl spoke a mortal boy's name, a boy she'll never see again.
He comes into my life, picks up the pieces, pieces that never all came back, pieces you took from me.
What about the pieces she had stolen from him. She was so selfish; did she ever think of others? Hadn't she been horrible to her step mother the first time he had entered her life? Pieces! She was the one who had shattered his dreams, his desires – his crystals!
He tells me he loves me, loves me! Wants nothing but to love me, something you'll never understand.
Jareth stopped in front of the high white double doors that opened into his room and let out a slow breath. But it's something I understand all too well. Jareth lightly shook his head, trying to rid himself of the resurgence of the pitying thoughts that had dominated his thinking for the last five years.
I'm damaged Goblin King. Thanks to you.
Jareth reached to twist the door knob, if you saw me Sarah – really saw me – you'd realize just how damaged we both were.
Before he could walk through the door, Hoggle cleared whatever was filling his throat. "What is it Haggle?"
"Hoggle."
"Yes, Hoggle. What do you –"
"It's about Sara—"
"Keep her busy."
"Excuse me?" If Jareth cared to look outside of his own mind he would have been able to see that Hoggle was severely confused.
"Keep her busy. Find things for her to do."
"Well, ye—but –"
"I want her to be happy here," he said nodding towards the small goblin, "she was always happy in the Labyrinth with you." Before Hoggle could even remember that he had come to ask Jareth to let Sarah go, the Goblin King closed his bedchamber door.
"Alright fine. Don't spray the fairies. But you're gonna be the one complain' when they tug at your hair." Hoggle finished, tossing his hands in the air and stalking over to a swarm of fairies Sarah wouldn't kill. He left her to keep scrubbing at the grungy statue in the middle of the swampy pond.
Sarah had gotten only the arms of the statue clean when she smashed her finger, blood escaping from where her nail ripped the skin. She threw her rag down and leapt out of the fountain's bottom jerking her hands to ignore the sting. "Hoggle this is horrible! And in a dress?!"
"You said the farthest job from the castle."
"Well, I've changed my mind." The little dwarf laughed and took Sarah's hand. Entering into the same archway she did 5 years ago, Sarah pressed on her finger and wondering if the Underground made band aids.
"Well, then let's go get lunch and I'll eat and you can polish the door knockers."
Sarah shook her head and smiled, turning the corner at a place that didn't look like a corner at all, the sponge she had been playing with soaked up a few of the small drops of blood which she had dripped.
"What do you mean 'we might as well give up'?" Hoggle yelled when Sarah told her three closest friends about her lack of hope to escape. She stretched and hit her head on the thatching of Hoggle's roof. Poor Ludo looked worse off than she did.
"Yes, but you said the Labyrinth won't help. How does anyone leave this place if the place wants you to stay?"
"This isn't about leaving, where's your spunk?"
Didymus chimed in, "It isn't my dear maiden, that we don't want you to stay, but we don't understand why you say there is no hope. You've always been our hope. Don't tell us you hath lost your light. That means we have failed miserably my lady. And I cannot think of taking breath if I have --"
"Friends fail." Ludo moaned.
"Can it." Hoggle said sharply, taking a small dagger away from the silly fox before he could do something stupid with it and giving the big beast a glare.
"But Hoggle if I'm going to be here I might as well make is easier on myself, and Toby."
"No, Sarah. This is what he wants. He wants you to give up. I bet he told the Labyrinth he did want you to leave." She knew Hoggle was right, but she hadn't seen Toby in days. And he'd been so very angry with her at dinner and she hadn't seen him since and everything was going wrong. Yes she wanted to go home, but – where did this hopeless pity come from? Since when did a no mean she just gave up? Wasn't she happy she hadn't had to talk with Jareth for a good few days? Why would a little back-track mean she just went to Jareth and gave herself away?
Sarah laughed out loud. "Hoggle, I think you've helped me find my spunk again."
"Never thought you'd lost it."
"So, we're escaping on our own."
"We have more magic than Jareth gives us credit for. WE steal the babes. WE cross to the above more than he does. Yes, we're escaping on our own."
It had been a week since dinner. A week since Sarah has seen Toby. Nine whole days since her and Toby had come back to the Labyrinth. The work Hoggle had given her the past few days had been complicated. She learned quickly that anything simple in the Labyrinth was really some of the most confusing tasks – just making sure she got to where she was supposed to be was hard enough with all the Goblin's tricks and the walls always moving. She found she did best when she didn't think about it, when she just took faith that she would get there. And by the time she had found her way back to her bed all she wanted to do was fall fast asleep on it. But every morning she would wake up thinking of Toby.
Sarah walked down the hall which led to Jareth's study and hoped he wouldn't be in there. She desperately wanted to talk to him, but even more powerfully didn't want to see him. Why didn't the Underground have answering machines again? Before Sarah could get up the gumption to knock herself, Jareth opened the door in full stride – bumping right into her.
They were a mess of limbs and Jareth couldn't believe how good she smelled so close. The honeysuckle essence still lingered on her sink, as though it was within the very heart of her. He wondered deviously if all of her would smell that way and how long it would take to imbibe him.
Walking out of the circle of his arms and interrupting his train of thought, Sarah asked, "Jareth, why can't I see Toby?" a little too forcefully.
"Maybe you haven't asked for what you want?" He said half startled and completely not paying attention to her elevated tone.
"Of course I have."
Jareth let a soft little smirk whip over his face as his stare matched Sarah's. He lifted a crystal from his hand and began to lazily spin it. When Sarah's gaze flickered on the orb, Jareth presented it to her to look into. There was Toby, happily writing away with a quill pen, learning something about the moon.
Sarah smacked the crystal out of Jareth's hand.And before the crystal hit the floor, Jareth grasped Sarah's arm in a vice-like grip and renched her close. "Why are you always so difficult?" Sarah screamed at him, her breath washing over him.
"I do everything you ask and still!" He matched her
"Just let me see Toby." She whispered desperately. They stared at each other for a long moment.
"See me as something other than a villain and then we'll talk." Jareth dropped Sarah's hand and stalked down the hall.
Speaking more to herself, Sarah asked, "What are you then?"
"More than you make me," Jareth softly replied. Sarah wasn't sure, in fact, if he has said it or if she had imagined it.
I know, this is terribly, horribly, completely, by two weeks late. I'm so sorry for those who've been waiting to read. Thank you again for reading! (times a million!) I just wasn't happy with a particular section. I'm still not really happy with it. But I figure it can be a work in progress. And to make up for it, I gave you an extra scene at the end that was for chapter 12. We've hit the section where a large chunk isn't pre-written, but I do have the outline. Never fear, the Goblins have quieted down and I'm working vigorously to get to the !naked Jareth part. ;) (yeah, don't w00t too fast, its a few chapters ((chough cough a lot of cough)) off)