The family had settled down to play respectable family games, such as cards and backgammon, at various tables around the room. The aunts elected to sit around the fire with Sarah and sip their tea.
"So what are Jareth's parents like? You have met them, haven't you dear?" Aunt Maggie piped up, smiling at Sarah as she took a ladylike sip of her tea.
Sarah's gaze sought Jareth's, hoping to skewer him with a stink eye, but he was fully involved in some sort of card/toy/ball game with Toby (Bakugan?).
"No, I haven't met them. We've been rather...isolated...the past few months. Now it's hard to get out, you know, with the weather and all. I think they were supposed to come this week, but I'm not sure now." Sarah nursed her ginger ale, waiting for the next question because she had recognized this sit down for what it was – an inquisition to rival the Spaniards'.
"Oh, well, that's not a good sign! You've been married for months now, and they didn't even come to the wedding! Maybe you should push Jareth a little into meeting his family and get a firm vacation date. Especially now with the little ones coming, you'll want more support." Aunt Gaby voiced her opinion, supported by the nods of her sisters.
It was interesting to note that Karen had not shared details of conversations she and Sarah had had over the past few months. Not that Sarah had been expecting a tell-all book written about it, but she had assumed that some things might have slipped out. There had been several long conversations via Skype about Sarah and Jareth's relationship, a few bits of useful advice had been shared, but those talks had turned into bonding sessions with stepmother and stepdaughter.
"Speaking of middle of nowhere...how are we going to get out for Black Friday? I'm sure that the stores will be open, as long as we can get to them! The vehicles we came in were nice and roomy, I'm sure we can make a family outing of it, for sure." Aunt Sally, a consummate shopper, inquired, her teacup rattling a little in its saucer as she squirmed with excitement (which, to be noted, was a little awkward. Aunt Sally is not a small woman, her squirming borders on indecency).
"Um, let me check with Jareth. I'm not sure that the driveway will even be clear, much less the roads for driving. We don't even have a paper for everyone to check out the sales – where would we go?" Sarah knew that this could lead to disaster, if the aunts pressed hard enough.
"We MUST go to Williams Sonoma, no question about it! They have fabulous sales and oh how I love love love their pancake mix!" Aunt Hilde added her two cents.
"Lord." Sarah sighed. "Let me ask Jareth tonight, I'll get back to you, all right? Now, how about that blog you were going to start, Aunt Gaby? How's that going?"
Across the room, Jareth heard the conversation and rolled his eyes. He and Sarah had talked about his family many times, but he had asked them to not come this week, as there would be an overwhelming number of people and his father wasn't known for his likeability.
"I gotcha!" Toby shouted, jerking Jareth's attention back to the game.
Jareth sighed, propped his chin on his hand and dived back in to the next round.
The rest of the evening passed uneventfully, besides the one occurrence of a sweater catching on fire (which may or may not have been an alcohol-related event). The family adjourned to bed early, with promises of a hearty breakfast and outdoor games, weather permitting.
Jareth and Sarah had retreated to their suite, Jareth sitting at the little secretary, doing some sort of paperwork, while Sarah watched a Dr Who episode on Netflix with the laptop on their bed.*
Sarah sighed and stretched, deciding that now was a better time than ever to ask Jareth about his family.
"Jareth?" Sarah asked quietly, peeping over the top of the laptop. She had managed to get über comfortable, half-propped on the headboard and the laptop resting on a pillow on her stomach. No point for moving from her comfortable spot if there were to be an uncomfortable conversation.
"Mm hmm?" He mumbled as he continued to scribble on some papers.
"Why did you tell your parents to not come this week?" Sarah asked from behind the protective shell of her computer.
"There are too many people here, they would add to the chaos." Jareth pulled open a drawer and grabbed a calculator (real men use calculators rather than make accounting mistakes).
"Oh." Sarah hunched back down over the laptop and pressed play on the show. She decided it wasn't worth it. She had her family and her brother and now she had Jareth. She didn't need more family, it would only add to the Christmas card list. Although it would be nice to have another set of grandparents to foist the children off on when she needed a break. And it would be nice to get to know the people who raised her husband, especially to get the dirt on his growing up years.
She had decided to give up on it, as Jareth was known to be a rather inflexible man, so there was no point to fight this battle – there were others pending that had more value (like the battle over keeping crunch or smooth peanut butter in the house. It'd scaled to almost a full waged war at this point, as Sarah's crunchy PB kept disappearing, but Jareth's smooth had no problem keeping on the shelf).
She had just gotten engrossed in the Dr Who episode when the laptop lid shut suddenly. Her eyes flew to those of her husband, he was now sitting on the side of the bed, his eyebrows knit together as he looked down at Sarah.
"Yes? I was just getting to a good part! The Doctor was fighting off the Cybermen!" Sarah made no attempt to sit up, assuming that Jareth would ask his question and leave her be.
"Why did you ask about my parents? Is this because of your conversation with the aunts?" He continued to stare intensely at Sarah, his hand keeping the laptop lid closed.
"No reason. Now leave me be, Jareth, the Doctor is in a pickle!"
"Tell me." Jareth demanded.
"Fine. I'm starting to think that you don't want them to meet me. For the sake of the Bog, we have hundreds of rowdy goblins running around this castle at any given time! What's two more? For a few days?"
"Father is rather crabby. He's not very likeable. I don't want him to get in an altercation with your cousin or Karen's parents – which would be inevitable." Jareth sighed, glad to finally know the reason for Sarah's questioning. He rolled to his side to lie next to Sarah, enabling her to open the laptop.
"Oh, who cares, broken bones can mend. I'm sure that Cousin Mark could take him." She pressed play, trying to play off the family visit nonchalantly.
"Fine. I'll invite them again. They may not make it until this weekend, though, as they are busy people. Now, turn up the volume, I can't hear it."
*the author of said fanfic does not necessarily promote the product featured herein. However, Dr Who is a very educational show and Netflix streaming can beat the pants off of illegal downloading with a big, red stick of justice.