When they walked back inside the castle, Jareth dropped his cloak and his arm from around Sarah. She would be warm enough inside. The Labyrinth usually kept the temperature of the castle according to the inhabitants' needs, and he felt the warmth around them as the air heated to accommodate Sarah's chill.

Jareth ignored the way Sarah sighed contentedly as they walked onward; she had clearly enjoyed being outside. He might have left her out there for longer, but he had called for dinner to be served promptly and now was the time for it. Jareth led her toward the small dining room that he usually ate in, and when he opened the door, he noticed her pause.

Sarah entered the room when he shot her a curious look though. As she stepped inside, her eyes travelled around the room. It seemed so simple; too simple for Jareth. Then again, none of the rooms she had been in so far in the Goblin King's castle had been what she'd expected.

This room held a long, wooden dining table, with a chair set up at either end of it. There were two places set with golden plates for dinner, and a matching golden goblet aside them. The room was lit by a roaring fire, as well as a number of candles held in holders that lined the stone walls. In all honesty, they gave off a lot more light than Sarah had thought they would. There was a large, golden-framed mirror on one of the walls, but apart from that, nothing else really caught Sarah's eye.

Jareth ushered her to one of the chairs, and proceeded to seat himself in the other. He knew that Sarah hadn't eaten since being reborn. He knew how hungry she would be, even if she didn't seem to realise it yet. But as soon as the food magically appeared in front of her though, Sarah felt it. She was starving; so much so that she didn't know how she hadn't noticed it.

She was quite quick to eat things- anything. Anything that tasted nice and was real. Anything that was part of an actual meal that you would feed a normal person. Anything that wasn't like the processed rubbish that they tried to force her to eat in the Institution. It was such a change. Jareth smirked; he was watching amusedly as she ate quickly.

"It's nice to see that your appetite has improved."

She frowned, confused.

"I seem to remember in your institutionalised days that you ate very little."

Sarah paused. It was true that she had tried to eat as little as possible of whatever they tried to pass off as food.

"If you'd tasted any of that stuff that they tried to call food then I think you'd have done the same," she replied.

The Goblin King inclined his head.

"Well, I'm glad you find the food here satisfactory," he smirked.

But something occurred to Sarah then, as he smirked at her. How did he know that she tended to avoid their food? She thought that he only knew that she was in the Institution for the few days on which he'd actually spoken to her. Something didn't add up.

"How long were you watching me in there, Jareth?" she asked cautiously, placing her knife and fork on her plate.

"Long enough."

"When?" she asked, something more forceful in her tone.

His eyes flickered, a refusal to answer her question. A show of power. Sarah just stared; she wasn't going to be the one to back down. This was extremely important to her. And it seemed that they were at an impasse.

"Why does it matter to you, Sarah?" Jareth asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.

She frowned. Why did he have to ask that? What business was it of his?

"It just does."

"You're going to have to give me a better answer than that if you expect a reply."

She scowled for a second, tension easing into her expression. So this was the cost for her answer; tit for tat...

"I just... I guess I just don't... I want to know because..."

For once, she was finding it hard to say what was in her mind.

"Sarah," he warned, trying to stop her mumbling, stuttered sentences.

"I want to know because... I need to know how long that someone actually cared- and how long I had no idea about it."

He stared.

"What?"

She nibbled her bottom lip, as if it made her feel horrible to even consider this.

"In there, I was forgotten- even by my own family and friends. I wanted to know how long you knew and how long you watched me without my knowledge... I need to know."

Jareth continued to stare at her. It seemed to him that she was troubled greatly by this. He supposed she deserved an honest answer, though he knew that it wouldn't sooth her. It would probably only hurt her.

"I knew about it from the beginning."

She glared at him with wide eyes.

"You did?"

He nodded.

"From your first appointment with that psychiatrist that wore thick-rimmed glasses and the overly-large tweed jacket."

She didn't break her glare. She remembered that psychiatrist well; he was the one who had referred her to a specialist after a few appointments. He was the one who had begun her descent into the hell that was the Institution. And if Jareth knew about him, then he really did know everything. Then why didn't he save me sooner?

"Why now? Why did you wait until now to come and get me? Why did you let me suffer in there?"

His lips formed a thin line. He knew that this would hurt her, but he had reasons for everything that he'd done.

"I had to be sure this path was the best for you; only when I was certain of that did I chose to present you with this option, Sarah," he said carefully.

"It took a year for you to realise?" she asked sadly.

He could hear the hurt in her voice. It was just as painful for him to hear as it was for her to experience it, he was sure- though he didn't quite understand why.

"I had to absent myself from you to be absolutely certain that your obsession with the Underground could not be cured."

"Cured?" she said, outraged.

"You sound like them."

He could see the disgust in her expression. The way that she stared at him made him feel as if he had disturbed something more than painful in her. Sarah stood up and made for the door. She tried to leave, but the door wouldn't open for her. The castle wouldn't let her leave. Jareth stood from his chair, placing his linen napkin on the table. He walked over to the door and stopped behind Sarah.

"Sarah," he said quietly.

She didn't look at him; she just carried on trying to pry the door open in some desperate attempt to get out of the room.

"Look at me."

Still, Sarah refused, and Jareth had to take hold of her wrists, wrench them from the door handle and forcibly turn her around to make her look at him. From the look in her eyes, he could see that she really was upset.

"That was not my intention, Sarah. And you are aware that you are free of them forever now, aren't you? Because of what I did."

She bit down hard on her lip and nodded.

"Good."

She did have to remember that. She was free now, and no one could take that away from her. Free, but she did have to play by a totally different set of rules. She had a King here, instead of doctors and nurses. And she couldn't quite get her head around how she was supposed to talk to him.

Every time she thought she could get comfortable talking to him, he turned the tables and said something that put her in a place she wasn't used to being in. She just hoped he didn't do that again; and she hoped he wouldn't temper the freedom he said she was now granted.

But right now, she had to drop the feeling of betrayal she had when she thought about how Jareth had left her in the Institution all that time when he had a way out for her. He had saved her, after all.

"Are you finished?" Jareth asked, questioning her momentary attempt to storm out.

She felt like a child being rebuked for a tantrum, even though she'd only gotten angry because of Jareth.

"Yes," she answered quietly.

He dropped one of her arms and shifted his hold on the other so that he now only lifted her hand. Sarah found it odd that he had managed to turn his grip from restraint to politeness in a moment.

"Good. Now come," he said.

The door opened for him immediately and she couldn't help but feel irritated. Even the furniture was choosing Jareth over her. Frowning, she just followed him out of the room, led by the hand he still held. They down a number of corridors and walked into a room that was relatively similar in size to the dining room, but was far more well lit. And all of the walls here were covered by wooden shelving that in turn was covered in so many books.

"Wow... You have a lot of books..." Sarah murmured.

Jareth smirked a little.

"Why yes, I do. This is my personal library."

"Oh, it's... wow... I'm really not sure why you having this room surprised me."

He raised a brow, and asked, "You were surprised?"

"Well, a little... I didn't- I just didn't expect it."

"Hm. Well there could be a lot of things around this castle that you don't expect."

Before Sarah could reply, Jareth released her hand and moved over to one of the tall columns of shelving.

"Would you care to read?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered, without thinking.

"They wouldn't let me read in the asylum. Too stimulating for the crazy girl, apparently," Sarah tried to explain sadly.

"You may come here whenever you wish, Sarah. I will not stop you."

She looked up at him, the expression in her eyes grateful. She hadn't been so thankful in a long time. Jareth was giving her so much more than he could even know. Even if he had waited so long to give it to her.

"Thank you," she whispered.

He said nothing. Sarah walked towards him, her eyes running over the spines of the books. There were many that she didn't recognise, but many that she did. She picked one at random, and it turned out to be an old favourite. Louisa M. Alcott's Little Women.

"You didn't strike me as the type of person that would ever have read Little Women," she said.

He smiled, withdrawing a book of his own from the many on the shelves.

"As I said before, there are a lot of truths about me that you won't expect."

"If you say so."

Jareth sat down in one of comfortable chairs that were dotted around the room and started reading. And Sarah watched him for a moment before he noticed and raised a brow at her, making her look down. She quickly followed suit after that, and took a seat in another of those chairs.

She read for a while, the feeling of a book in her hand and the written word at her fingertips was almost too much. She realised that she was going to have to ease herself back into reading the way that she used to. Apparently, this much stimulation was a little overwhelming.

So after some time, Sarah placed her book in her lap and just sat there, staring into the fire. As she relaxed in the comfortable armchair and watched the flames lick each other in their fiery dance, she realised how tired she was. Overwhelming, indeed.

But Sarah couldn't help but think about how brilliant it was to be back in the Underground, regardless of how long it had taken Jareth to bring her here. Everything was so different here- and mostly in a good way. Even facing those tests didn't bother her so much as long as she got to stay in a place where her freedom was hers.

Jareth had been carefully watching Sarah over his book, of course making sure that she didn't see him watching. She was too wrapped up in her thoughts to notice that he was looking though. He'd seen her drift off eventually with a contented expression lining her features.

Placing his book back on the shelf, he went over to Sarah and lifted her into his arms. Cradling her like one would a child, Jareth took her back to her room. The Labyrinth formed a pathway that allowed him to walk from this room to the corridor that ended in her room, so it didn't take long. He watched as her eyelids fluttered somewhat, threatening wakefulness, when he placed her in her bed.

"Jareth?" she whispered, though her eyes didn't fully open.

"Hush, Sarah."

She was asleep, she didn't need to talk right now. He turned to leave but stopped quickly, surprised. Sarah's hand had shot out to grab his forearm, holding him there. She looked up at him, her eyes still shrouded with sleep.

"Please, don't lock me in. I can't deal with being locked in again," she murmured in sleep haze.

He nodded.

"Never, Sarah."

"Please," she repeated.

There was a desperation in her voice that appealed to him, that made him almost sad to think about, though he wasn't entirely sure why.

"I wouldn't dream of trying to lock you up, Sarah," he assured her softly.

Jareth pushed a thick strand of hair out of her face and looked at her for a moment in the dark. With his reassurance, she had drifted back to sleep quickly, and only then had he left. And even that was somewhat reluctantly done.

How troubled she is, he thought.

Author's Note: Sorry it has been a while since I've updated; finally got the chapter written though. :) Hope you liked it and will let me know what you think! :)

Kit xx