She is called back the very next day, and she is lucky that she even managed to get dressed. As it is, her wet hair drips down her back.

"Sarah!" He crashes into her, almost knocking her off balance and into the loose dirt at her feet. She knows this place, but the last time she saw it the sky burned as lava. Now it is a clear, flawless blue.

"Jareth, what's going on?" Her voice shakes, making her sound terrified, but in reality she is trying not to cry, again, because he still looks to be years younger than her, again. But at least this time he is a little more mature, a little more familiar to the man that she first met. Perhaps seventeen.

"I am confused, Sarah. I do not know what to do."

"What's wrong?" She asks, returning his hug and resisting the urge to stroke his hair in comfort. It's still wild but it isn't nearly as long.

"My father is dying."

The words are enough to make her take a shaking breath, because although she does not know his father she can feel how Jareth is torn, she can feel his sadness and grief.

"I'm sorry, Jareth, I—"

"I am thinking of abdicating the throne." Sarah stiffens, and although she believes that it hasn't happened yet, she can feel her time in the labyrinth slipping away.

No! She thinks! No! I already secured Hoggle's friendship, now he's going to—no!

"You can't do that." She tells him harshly.

"I might." He baits her.

"If you do that, I can never visit you again. Never. Do you understand me?" Her words are harsh, even cruel to the suffering boy, but panic swells in her heart so big that she feels as if she might be sick.

His eyes grow wide—"I won't, then!"—and she breathes out a shuddering breath.

"Thank you, thank you."

Silence. And then—"You're coming back, then, are you?"

"I am." She assures him. "Of course I am. At least twice, I think."

"What do you mean?"

"It's time. It's weird. I'll see you in the future, but it will be my past." She feels almost desperate to tell him this, and she thinks that maybe if he understands, maybe he won't grant the wish later.

"What do you mean?" He sounds worried all over again.

"I'm not sure, but I think—"

And then she is torn away, back staring at her bathroom mirror. Sarah sinks to the floor and tries desperately not to cry.