Jareth showed up again Monday night as Cara was heating herself a frozen dinner.

"Back so soon, Jareth? No changes in my social life to report."

"I thought I would visit more frequently, that you might be lonely with Alia still away at home."

"But she's back now. Have you heard the news?"

"What's that?"

"Tieran asked Alia to marry him and she accepted."

"I thought they had settled that already?"

"Not formally. It was more like dating, I guess." Cara started loading dishes from the sink into the dishwasher.

"That's not dating. Dating is when you meet people. Different people. Plural."

"Advanced stages of dating then. He's not like you, Jareth. And neither is Alia. If he was, Alia wouldn't have fallen for him. I think you scare her a little, actually. Tieran's much more stable, monogamous."

"I could be monogamous if I wanted to."

"But you don't want to, do you? You're like a lion – you have to have a pride of women to rule, like your Listians. Tieran is closer to a wolf. They mate for life, you know. A pair stays together until one of them dies." Cara paused thoughtfully with a handful of silverware. "Only maybe that's not a good analogy because he's not a member of a pack really. I've been watching the Animal Channel too much." She shook her head and waved the silverware to banish the thought. "Anyway, he doesn't work the same way you do. What's their love life matter to you, anyway?"

"Well, yours is lacking in entertainment value lately."

"And it's likely to stay that way, thank you. And if it changes I doubt you'll be hearing about it." Cara closed the dishwasher and took her dinner into the living room.

"Where is Alia now?" Jareth looked around the apartment as he followed Cara back into the living room. "You said she was back, but I assume she's not here since you're eating alone."

"She's off with Tieran somewhere, as usual. No, wait. That's later this evening. Now she's trying to study at the library. Probably not getting very far. Hey, I've got something to show you." Cara jumped up out of her chair and ran to her room.

"Look, look, look! I can spin three of them now. I've been practicing," she said as she walked back into the living room with a handful of crystals. She tossed two of them to Jareth without looking to see if he caught them and started rolling the remaining one on her hand. "I can't quite get it to roll from one side to the other yet, though," she said as it hit the carpet with a dull thud.

"You are making excellent progress, though. Keep practicing."

.….

Cara slammed the front door to the apartment and threw her purse in the corner.

"What's the matter?" Alia asked, shocked.

"Everything! I let myself be suckered into going to a play with Hadrian, my purse strap broke, I just ripped my favorite blouse, and I've got another one of those damn headaches. It just won't go away. I've tried three different painkillers already and it's still there," she whined on the verge of tears as she flopped down in a chair and held her head together.

"Another headache?" Jareth asked from the couch.

Cara noticed him for the first time and groaned, "You're the last person I want to see right now."

"Could it be a relapse?" Alia asked.

"I don't think it's a relapse – I never had headaches like this before."

"No, it can't be a relapse," Jareth declared. "The peach will have cured that once and for all. This will be caused by something else. Perhaps you should see a doctor about it."

"Really? Gee, I never thought of that. I just wish it would go away."

"Anything to improve your mood. Hold still," Jareth told her as he sat up and reached for her head.

"Wait a minute," she said waving him away. "What are you going to do?"

"I think he's trying to help, Cara."

"Exactly. Now hold still." He placed his hands on either side of her head and ran his thumbs with slight pressure along her forehead just above her eyebrows. He rubbed her temples, then repeated the process several times. "Better?"

"Yes, that helps some."

He began rubbing her shoulders and neck. "What about that?"

"Mm, helps."

"There. Gone?"

"Mostly. How'd you know to do that?"

"I would get headaches like that from concentrating when I was younger."

"Concentrating? On what? I haven't been concentrating on anything."

Jareth thought a moment. "I was concentrating on magic, learning magic at the time."

"Maybe it's just a tension headache," Alia offered.

"Whatever, it's almost gone now."

"Now, what did you say about going to a play?" Jareth asked.

"I swear I said no. I wasn't going to go. Then the next thing I knew, he was setting up a time to pick me up. Somehow things made sense when he said them, but they don't now."

"Well, it's just a play," Alia said. "Next time, you'll know not to listen to him. No big deal."

"Yeah, no big deal."

.….

Cara crunched through the gravel parking lot of the small theater. The play had just finished.

"Did you enjoy it?" Hadrian asked her.

"Yes, I did." And she had. She surprised herself by admitting that she had genuinely enjoyed the play. Called Desk Set, it had been about a group of women proving their worth over the newly invented computer.

Hadrian opened her door for her and closed it behind her. Getting in on the driver's side of his little sports car, he said, "What do you say we go get something to eat?"

Cara looked at her watch dubiously. "It's 10:30 now, by the time we get anywhere it'll be 11:00. What's going to be open at this time of night?"

"We'll find something," he said sunnily, taking Cara's question as an agreement.

They found a Denny's open all night.

"Will this do?"

"Whatever. You're the one who wants to eat," Cara told him.

Hadrian ordered a huge ice cream sundae and insisted Cara order something as well, even though she was not hungry. She ordered a small dish of vanilla ice cream to make him happy.

She played with her dessert and watched him eat his.

"I have another offer for you," he said between bites.

"What's that?" Cara asked, on her guard.

"In a few weeks the opera opens its next performance. I have four tickets to it. Do you know two people who would be interested in going to it?"

"What are you doing with the other two tickets?" Cara was afraid she already knew the answer.

"I assumed you would come with me and your two friends. You do know two people who would be interested?" Hadrian looked at her intently.

Tieran and Alia popped into Cara's head. This sounded like something right up their alley. She debated whether to volunteer them. "If only this headache would go away, I'd be able to think," she thought as she rubbed her forehead absentmindedly. "I know two people who might be interested. When is it?"

"The Saturday before Valentine's Day. If they're a couple, it's the perfect romantic date."

"That's exactly the problem. 'The perfect romantic date.'" Cara thought.

"Do you think they'll be free, your friends? I'm sure they'd change their plans for free tickets to the opera. They're very good seats."

"I don't know." Cara's naturally dark skin paled and she pushed her dish away from her – the melted puddle in the bottom was making her ill. She rubbed at her temples trying to ease the headache.

"Let's plan on them coming, shall we? They can always change things later. It's a very good opera. Turandot. Be sure to tell them that."

"All right," Cara agreed absentmindedly, distracted by the pain.

"I brought you a gift," Hadrian said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small hinged box then set it front of her.

"What is it?" she asked, leaving the box sitting on the table and eyeing it as if it were a venomous snake. Only one thing came in a little square box like that.

"Think of it as a late Christmas present. Open it."

Reluctantly Cara picked up the box and opened it. Inside rested a gold ring bearing an apple green stone.

"It's a ring," she said numbly. "How nice. Thank you."

"Try it on."

She did as requested. "It fits."

"Good." Hadrian smiled widely. "You can wear it to the opera."

Cara nodded slightly, lips pressed together in a tight straight line. "Can we go?"

"What's the matter? Don't you feel well?"

"Just a headache. I'll be fine. I just need to go home."

"Then we will go." Hadrian left money on the table and ushered her to the door. He helped her into the car and she laid her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes as he fastened her seatbelt for her. He drove her back to her apartment.

"Can I help you upstairs?"

"Definitely not. You're not coming anywhere near my apartment," she thought. "No, I'll be fine." She dug in her purse for her keys while he came around to open her door again.

"Thank you," she told him as she got out.

"You're welcome. Call me about the opera tickets," he requested as she made her way toward the stairs.

"Yeah, sure."

Cara climbed the stairs and entered her apartment without looking back. If she had, she would have seen Hadrian sitting on the fender of his car watching her with a satisfied smile on his face. Things were going just as he had planned.

"How was the play last night?" Alia asked Cara.

Cara poured herself a glass of orange juice and sat at the kitchen table with Alia before answering. "I enjoyed it." She gingerly sipped her juice.

"Have you got another one of those headaches?"

"Yeah, no big deal. It'll go away eventually."

"If it makes you this tense every time, maybe you should quit going places with Hadrian."

"What makes you think it's him?"

"Nothing, it's just that the last time you had one you had talked to him that day."

"Well, it's too late now."

"What? Are you engaged or something?"

"No!" Cara answered immediately, horrified. "Where'd you get that idea?"

"You said it's too late now. I thought you meant you'd committed to seeing a lot of him."

"No, he just asked me to something else. And I, of course, agreed see about it." She sipped more juice. "Actually, it concerns you, too. He has four tickets to the opera and wants me to ask friends if they want to go. It sounds like something right up your alley. He said it was called Turandot. Would you and Tieran want to go?"

"Sounds interesting to me. I'd have to ask Tieran if he had anything planned. When is it?"

"It's a couple weeks away, the Saturday before Valentine's."

Alia called to Tieran and, once he appeared, explained the situation to him while Cara drank her juice and rubbed her temples.

"It sounds as if it would be enjoyable. I had thought of something else to do that weekend, but we will be able to work around it. Is something wrong, Cara?" He had watched her out of the corner of his eye while Alia explained the situation.

"Headache," Alia told him.

"Alia thinks it's because I tense up around Hadrian. Jareth fixed the last one by rubbing my head and shoulders, but it's not working this time."

"Do you know anything to do about it?" Alia asked Tieran. "She says nothing works on them. We can't exactly summon Jareth every time she gets one. He happened to be here last time."

"Perhaps. Have you tried doing what he did last time?" he asked Alia.

"Me? No, I haven't."

Tieran sat in front of Cara and looked at her eyes as he held her head. "I do not think it is simply tension that is causing these headaches. I think someone, apparently Hadrian, has been influencing you, trying to control what you think. These headaches are your reaction to it."

"Then why did Jareth think she was just tense? And why did the headache go away?"

"He must have subconsciously used magic to relieve it for her. If he left his gloves on, he would not have felt the aftereffects of it when he touched her."

"So the question is, why is Hadrian leaning on me?"

"Leaning on you?" The term confused Tieran.

"Trying to manipulate me. The term was used in a novel I read about telepaths. They used it for trying to influence someone like that. It was frowned on."

"And it should be. Is there anything at work that you know about that he would want to know?"

Cara shook her head easily now that he had taken care of her headache. "No, nothing that he wouldn't be able to get to himself. I only have access to the general system really, not any of the private stuff. He says he's there to analyze the computer system, so he'd probably have just as much or more access than I do."

"Then whatever it is, it must be personal."

.….

Hadrian stared out the window of his high-rise apartment again. He focused on nothing in particular, eyes glazed, mind elsewhere, not paying much attention to the view of the city or the phone conversation he was having.

"Yes, I've got her now. She will do anything I want. She'll come and she'll bring her friends. It was child's play," he said. "It's set for the day we talked about. Be sure to have everything ready. If you manage your part, you will have exactly what you want."

His mind wandered from the voice on the phone again. "And if you don't have things ready, don't expect help from me," he thought. The success of this plan didn't matter to him. Loud praise from the other end of the line brought him back to the conversation, the female voice reproduced shrilly by the cellular phone.

"I will see you in a few weeks," Hadrian told his business associate and turned off the phone. "As if your praise matters to me, you insufferable twit." He tossed the phone on the table.

"The only thing making this whole effort worthwhile is the prospect of the entertainment it will provide. I only hope it lives up to expectations."