Coming Together

12

It took hours before Sarah finally fell asleep that night. Like a thunderstorm, Devinee had thrown a tantrum that rattled the walls of the massive stone castle. Her screaming pierced the stonewalls and her throwing anything she could find sent shivers rippling through the floor to shake her bed. Glad she didn't have to handle the outrageous behavior, Sarah couldn't imagine what Jareth had done to finally convince the woman to finally subside her rant and depart. Even when quiet once again swept the castle, her ears continued to ring, but not with the remnants of Devinee's screams. Instead she heard the threats from Devinee and insinuations from Jareth coalescing into the forefront of her thoughts. What had she revealed to him? Nothing, he was simply manipulating her thinking. She was just looking out for his well being, she had no other motive in that moment of excitement when she'd spilled Devinee's secret.

.

Sarah couldn't remember falling asleep, but she must have because she found herself waking up. As she felt the world lazily materialize around her, the room that appeared wasn't the one she'd fallen asleep in. It was a room made of fantasies, swathed in elegant fabrics from floor to ceiling, her bed posts carved from white marble. It was all too elegant to exist anywhere but in dreams. With a bang, that somehow failed to change the image into something more realistic, Peggy bustled in.

"Oh, so it's true! You really be in here!" she tittered excitedly.

Sarah blinked. "Where's here? Its not a dream?"

"Oh it might as well be me dear-y! But no, this room is real and you really in it! Come down from there and let ole Peggy get princess girl dressed up."

Sarah slid down from her bed, almost tumbling off when she shot off at an alarming speed. Pulling herself to her feet she smoothed a hand across the silky texture of the bed sheets, then fingered the slippery silk material of her new nightdress as she shook her head numbly. "Um, so the usual chores today then?"

"Chores? Oh dear-y me you ain't got a chore in the world!"

"Pardon?"

Peggy nodded briskly as she helped Sarah change into a much fancier dress than any she remembered being provided with before. "You're a guest now! I dunno how ya dunnit but I'd appreciate ya sharin' the knowledge." Peggy chirped with a wink. "Come on ya chit, breakfast."

Peggy escorted her to the dinning hall, where Sarah had served Jareth and Devinee just the evening before. Already seated was Jareth and before him sat a table full of breakfast morsels.

"Sit Sarah, it is awkward to have you hovering like that." Jareth called from his seat.

"What's going on?" she demanded halfheartedly. She wasn't so stupid as to try too hard to burst the unbelievably plush bubble her life had suddenly become.

A smile crept across his face. "Things have changed."

"Why? Because of last night?"

His eyebrow quirked at her defiant tone. "Back to being stubborn are we? Or is this unintentional idiocy?"

Sarah clenched her teeth and took her seat. She remained unmoving while he watched her.

"Hmm, and I thought after last night the ice, as some put it, would be broken between us."

She looked up at him silently, confused and mistrusting.

He smirked back at her. "Perhaps the hole has glazed over in the night."

"What will happen to Devinee?" asked Sarah, tactlessly changing the subject.

His face pinched slightly in distaste. "I've sent her home, but not to worry, I'm sure she'll be back before we get the chance to properly begin missing her."

Sarah stared down at her plate. "Why did you send her away? I thought you liked her? If you knew all along that she was sent by your parents, and yet chose her anyway-"

Jareth leaned forward. "It's amazing. I, for the life of me, can't tell if you're being daft intentionally or not. I know you were present during the whole conversation last night, I now you were awake, yet you act as if you have absorbed nothing of what was said."

She remembered all to well what had been said. The two fantastical beings had spat and hissed at each other, about each other and about her.

Jareth sat silent for awhile, waiting for a response that did not come. "Devinee wasn't what I had hoped she would be. In fact she didn't live up to my hopes longer than ten steps out of the ballroom. I knew what she was but I gave her the chance anyway. I always give everyone their fighting chance, Sarah."

She couldn't argue with that, though she happily would have the first time they met. "So, no marriage."

His lips quirked. "It has eluded me thus far."

"But your parents want-"

He slapped down his silverware, making Sarah jump. "My parents have little control over how I live my life," he interrupted stiffly, his face had gone blank.

"They don't want me here," she urged.

He looked over at her as he calmly resumed eating. "It's what I desire that matters."

She was silent for a heartbeat. "What do you desire?"

"Something not so distance from what you desire Sarah."

She frowned at him. "And what is it you think I desire?"

He grinned secretively, spoke sensuously. "Desire is an uncontrollable emotion Sarah."

She blushed at the heat in his words and implied understanding of her. "Then what do I desire Jareth? What is it we both desire?" her voice rose as she became more agitated. Her discomfort expressing itself as anger.

He considered her agitation before answering, seeing her bristling he couldn't help himself but to poke at her. "No, telling you would be no fun. I want to watch you struggle to realize and accept it."

"You're sadistic and most likely wrong," she spat.

He laughed, the rich sound disrupted when the heavy door to the dinning hall creaked open and a goblin rushed to Jareth's side.

"I know already," Jareth grumbled as he waved the goblin away before he could transfer the message.

The miserable creature wrung its hands. "But she's already forced her way inside, she's on her way-"

The doors were slammed back as Devinee stormed in, causing Sarah to jump to her feet and the goblin to scurry away.

"Ah Devinee, we were expecting you." Jareth greeted as he carefully set down his utensils and turned to face her.

"Don't toy with me Jareth," she spat, "my orders are clear and you cannot stop me. Sarah, you are to come with me by order of the High Court."

Sarah frowned in confusion.

"You are mine now girly," she said with much pleasure. "I've always wanted a human servant. Jareth had his chance with you and wasted it, I won't be so easy on you."

Sarah glanced to Jareth who stood stone still facing the intruder, his energy focused solely on Devinee. When Devinee moved to grab at Sarah, Jareth was suddenly there, hand pressed to her chest, it's position pointedly drawing attention to the closeness of her throat.

"I hope you don't presume to come into my home and order me and mine around Devinee," his voice emanating as a low rumble.

She glared up at him, unperturbed by his had. "You heard me. I have royal approval, my actions are sanctioned." Her delicately fingers rose to cup Jareth's clenched jaw. "You can't protect her Jareth, not from them," she whispered sweetly.

He leaned down to her ear, his hand simultaneously sliding to rest on her throat. "Watch me." He pushed and sent her flying backwards into one of her accompanying guards.

"Jareth!" Sarah screamed in horror at the inhuman show of strength.

He went to her, lightning fast, gripping her hand. "She's fine darling, she'll not even have a bruise." He held up a glittering crystal. "I have a promise to protect." He gazed intently at her face which was turned away looking at Devinee rising from a crumpled heap. "You must look at me Sarah, in the eyes."

It took her two tries but she finally stared into his intense gaze and held it.

"There's a good girl," he praised warmly.

He pressed the orb into their clasped hands and Sarah blinked rapidly up at him as she felt her body being transported. Suddenly he released her grip with sly smile and walked away. Around them floated masses of glittering crystal balls.

"They're beautiful,"she murmured, gazing around. She turned searching for Jareth, spotting him hunched beside the largest sphere in the room where it rested in the embrace of metallic twigs swirling to form a nest.

"Tell them they will speak to me immediately!" He shouted at the globe, hands tightening around the edge of the nest, knuckles white.

Sarah jerked back from where she'd slowly drifted to his side. She peaked over his shoulder to see the face of a nervous man scurrying away.

"Who are you trying to get a hold of?" she whispered hesitantly, startled by his angry demeanor. He'd been upset downstairs but it had been tempered by his playfulness, now he was simply angry.

"My parents," he spat.

"About Devinee?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head wearily. "No, about you," he sighed.

"So... that I won't have to go to them?"

He turned to her quizzically, wearily. "Do you wish to go to such brutes that would employ the likes of Devinee?" he asked with mild sarcasm.

"Actually, I've made sure not to wish for anything since I've gotten her."

After a pause, Jareth erupted into laughter.

Sarah fidgeted with her hands. She hadn't meant it to be funny, she'd earnestly monitored what she said. She respected the power of wishes and words and their devastating effects and planned to never fall into a trap by using them without thought or even at all.

Jareth quieted observed her keenly until a cough came from the globe and they both started and looked down.

"Not to disturb the moment, but you were quite adamant to speak with us immediately my child."

Sarah peaked over Jareth's shoulder and saw, as she'd expected, a quite beautiful, regal couple gazing back.

"I've taken an issue with an order you've made of me mother."

"Oh?" the Queen mother asked with a raise of a delicately blond eyebrow. "It wouldn't be about the strumpet standing much too close to you would it?"

Sarah jerked back, and took a few steps away to be sure she was out of view. Strumpet, she didn't deserve that.

"Mother, I have a raging woman downstairs to deal with and I'd like to have these issues settled quickly before she tears my home apart."

"It doesn't sound as it you are in a situation any different than a thousand that came before," a masculine voice chimed in.

Jareth couldn't help but grin at his father. "I suppose not, but those women were never here under your command, it complicates the affair."

"Oh Jareth, did you not enjoy her company? We picked her very carefully, she is quite lovely when not enraged."

"Although to be honest," the King piped in, "Most creatures can be described as such."

Jareth shook his head in teh way of the long suffering. "Call her off, I beg of you."

"Not a problem my son," Jareth's father chirped jovially. "If her task is complete you'll never have to see her again."

Jareth's had no response but silence.

"As I suspected-"

"As you suspected," interrupted the queen exasperatedly. "You saw the girl sanding there just as clearly as I yet you insist and draging it out."

"What do you want of me? I enjoy these rare talks with my son!"

Jareth spoke clear and strong over the squabbling voices of his parents. "She is not yours to control."

"Jareth," scolded his mother in a chiding tone.

"No, she belongs, as does everything else in this kingdom, to me. It is clearly stated in the oath I took as a boy when I came into power. You have no power over her."

Sarah blinked at the familiarity of the phrase. No power over her. Over and over it came up, no power over her. No one had power over her it seemed, not even herself. She didn't feel in control of anything.

"You think we will just let her roam freely around the Underground even though she made her choice? She choose to return Jareth, she did not choose you, she did not choose the Underground, she chose her previous life. It is not a decision to be taken so lightly that a few short years later she can prance back in with no consequences, she has trying to have it both ways. She is making a fool of you Jareth and you just sit there and let her."

Sarah could see Jareth physically bristling, even though when she looked at his face it was blank and composed. She had to admit, it was an impressive trick.

"Mother-"

"Get that child back at the very least!"

"No!" Sarah yelled, panicking when she realized they meant Toby.

Jareth's face moved almost imperceptibly in her direction, but his focus remained on the image in the globe. A hand shot out to gently cup her arm and deter any further outburst.

"I have already worked out her payment mother, the one she must fulfill in exchange for her return."

"Not from what I've heard," His mother said disapprovingly.

After a moment of silence, Jareth's voice took on a tone of strength and accusation. "Do you choose now to strip me of my powers mother? To debase me and return me to the years of my youth? My kingdom is solid and strong and I have run it well. Do you deny my ability?"

There was silence from the other end.

"Trust me to handle this. You are right, our deal struck at her departure from the Underground still stands and we are both bound to it. But it means you could no more take her from me than I could your people from you."

"We understand Jareth, we just worry you will take this too far with her."

Their voices lowered so that Sarah could not hear, when she moved forward Jareth pressed her back to as far as his arm could extend.

"I have restraint-"

"It is weak with her, you cannot deny it. You may be king now but you are still our son and we know you well. She is not good for you or your kingdom."

His face tightened stubbornly in the familiar way it had when he was a child. "You know me, but you do not know her."

"She is human."

"See what she has done here!" he hissed. "The Labyrinth was defeated, then using only her own power she returns, undetected. If she were one of us you would adore her for her skills, her accomplishments. Her's is a power not to be taken lightly."

"She is a young, lucky human," his mother quipped.

"She is compelling and resilient, I have seen it first hand," he assured.

His mother sighed. "Have you not grown out of this stubbornness?" her voice returning to a normal level.

"It serves me well mother."

She searched his face. "You already know you have won, your agreement is binding. Send Devinee back."

Jareth sighed and sank into himself as the crystal cleared, his head coming to rest on its surface. "You will be staying here."

"Because... of the deal? The deal I turned down when I left?" She had heard of course, she was only an arms length away after all.

"You did not turn it down, you chose the other option. When you returned you automatically switched to exist as if you had chosen the other option. You are safe from them because of that agreement. Bargains hold fast here, even a bargain of words."

"You are a man of rules and promises."

"I have to be, or the Labyrinth would be chaos."

"Would you have fought for me even if the bargain had not been struck, obligating you to protect me?."

He didn't answer, releasing her arm. When it became clear he had no intention to reply, Sarah was forced to face an issue that had been pressing her mind.

"I heard you, ya know."

Jareth had his eyes closed and was rhythmically massaging his jaw.

She almost lost the guts to continue, but didn't. She had to have his response, it was gnawing at her since he'd said it.

"You called me darling," she whispered. Hoping slightly that he might not hear. "Downstairs."

Jareth stilled momentarily, then finally opened his eyes and gazed at her. the slightest of smiles pressing at the corners of his mouth.

"Devinee is downstairs, waiting for the news."

Sarah's body wilted. Jareth eased from the bench and grasped her hand in his, running his thumb over her knuckles. With his other hand he picked a sphere from the air and played with it between his fingers.

"The fight isn't over until Devinee is gone." He squeezed her hand, causing Sarah to look up. "One thing at a time," he whispered, pressing the sphere gently into her lips.

"Jareth you bastard how dare you leave me here! I've come-"

Jareth waved his hand exasperated. "Let it go Devinee! Go home, your orders have been dropped."

She stared at him suspiciously, then glared at their clasped hands. Sarah deftly slid hers out of his and Jareth turned, offering his hand to her once more. Sarah glaredat it, then him, defiantly. She crossed her arms, tucking her hands away.

Devinee chuckled. "She won't be your doting pet Jareth. She won't be all you've built her up to be," she hissed, stalking towards him.

"It's what I expect Devinee, she is her own person."

"She won't be able to satisfy you Jareth."

Sarah suddenly ducked between the two, stepping up to face Devinee. "You don't know me Devinee. You're so ridiculous, we've never even really talked to each other and you think you can claim all these things about my character."

"You shut up little girl."

"Jareth's not stupid. Stop treating him like a child that doesn't know any better."

"What I have seen of his ruling, I don't think he's much better than a spoiled brat." A glimmer in her eye sparkled as an idea struck her. "I've seen the royal couple's dissatisfaction with you over the years Jareth." her voice calming, growing light and airy.

"That is nothing more than the frustration of any parent when they lose control of their offspring's every action."

A grin darkened her face as her voice grew sickly sweet. "You would like to think so wouldn't you, but you have not heard them first hand. I have. They would be weak to propositions from someone more capable that wished to replace you."

Jareth stared at her in disbelief. "Surely you don't mean yourself Devinee. You madness surely can reach only so far."

"My madness has a way of getting me what I want. I got all the way here from the dregs of fey society didn't I?"

Jareth nodded. "Your are resolute in your pursuits, yes."

"Do you know the first thing I would do? I would deal with that human loving sister of yours."

"Devinee!" Jareth roared.

"What a horrible attribute to run in a royal fey family. Tainting herself, a fey princess, with the company of a human," she spat the last at Sarah. "She degrades us all, and you, following so closely in her footsteps."

"Your threats will get you no where Devinee,"Jareth spoke wearily. "They have never come true in the past and they will not start now."

Devinee stalked towards him. "Think of all the fun I could have in your place. Those idiot humans making their wishes, I would have fun with them. The Labyrinth would be my playground."

Jareth's face looked ill at her words. "I would die before letting you harm any human who ran my Labyrinth, they are children, not toys!" His rumbling voice scathing.

Sarah looked to him in surprise, his protectivness unexpected.

Devinee grinned. "It would be so-much-fun." She punctuated each word with a finger to his chest.

Sarah's skin crawled at the thought of Devinee as Goblin Queen. She was tired of this insanity and worried that the threats were not as empty as Jareth was assuming they were.

"He's the Goblin King for god's sake!" Sarah cried desperately, hoping to break up the constant bickering. Maybe Jareth would come to his senses and strike her down where she stood. "Treat him properly."

Devinee spun to Sarah. "For now he is."

"She is right Devinee." Jareth's voice regaining it's usual cool disdain. "For all your hopes to take my place, you do not have it yet. Leave here and darken the room of someone else's home with your musings."

"You know you would not dare kick me out if it were not for-"

"I never had any intention of courting you Devinee. It's time to stop acting as if the throne was snatched out from under you."

Devinee was a head strong, independent woman, but to Sarah's dismay, her face fell in the universal look of a heartbroken woman for just a second. It was quickly overshadowed by the look of slightly mad animosity she had been wearing since she arrived, but they had both seen it.

"I will leave. There is much for me to do at the high court Jareth."

"Best of luck then."

Devinee sneered and spun to storm out as fiercely as she had entered.

a/n: hi again, meant to get through more of the action in the story than this, but oh well.
Devinee wouldn't let me.