Disclaimer: The Labyrinth and all related material do not belong to me. They belong to Jim Henson and George Lucas. I wish I owned Jareth.

Losing Time

Sand slipping through an hourglass.

Kate closed her eyes as the sand flew past her face, through her hair. Somehow, she knew the sand was supposed to take her back to the beginning and four hours… There was no way she could make it through the Labyrinth.

"No!"

Kate pushed out of the sand tunnel and clawed her out way. The sand gave way under her fingers, falling away, making it a struggle to get out.

"Lighting sand."

Creative theft, Jareth was stealing from Princess Bride.

She laughed and collapsed on the top layer. The sand still moved under her, but didn't make an effort to re-claim her. She laid there, eyes closed. She had no idea where she was, where the castle was, how much time she had left.

For a moment, it didn't matter.

She rubbed her hands over her face, the loose sand falling away and joining the sparkling mass below her.

Maybe Jareth was stealing from Harry Potter and the Time Turner sand instead.

She shook her head.

Part of her was aching to go on, but the rest of her knew there were important issues to tackle. Issues that the shape-shifter and Jareth had brought to light.

That and she couldn't wrap her brain around the idea of more walking. This journey was more boring than the afternoon shift at Dunkin' Donut, because who the hell needed coffee and donuts at four in the afternoon?

With a groan, she hauled herself into a sitting position and crawled off the sand. The sand had not reacted yet, but there was no telling that it would.

Once on dying grass and not sand, she lay down again, a hand over her eyes to shield against the setting sun.

Yes, she was running the Labyrinth for the one she wished away, but what about when the time was up? Win or lose, what was she going to do?

The one certainty was Conner. She was not giving up her baby. End of discussion.

But what about Charlie?

Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. She had loved him, might still love him. But there was no way she was opening herself up to him again. It had taken some serious therapy just to let him into Conner's life, to take the suggestion of living together and working together to raise Conner.

She wondered if it was the best idea at the time and even more so now.

Living together was killing them.

Jareth was right; she was letting him kill her dreams.

And she didn't know why.

She might still love him in some way, but after he slept with Kayla and truly broke her heart, there was no way they would be as close as they were. She would always wonder if he was looking at someone else and that was no way to live.

She couldn't do it.

What did that leave her with?

She sat up, shaking sand out of her hair.

She could leave. Tell him that living together wasn't working out and go. Conner would stay with her and Charlie could have custody. There was no reason not to work it out.

Two tears squeezed out of her eyes. She wiped them away before they were partway down her cheeks.

She may still love him.

But it just wasn't enough.

And she had lost so much time thinking that it could be.

From when she got pregnant to now. The moment he first suggested that she give the baby up or get an abortion, she should have… There were so many things she could have done. Offered him a chance to leave; Conner would be hers now if she had.

And he had gotten distant during her pregnancy, like he was ashamed to be with her. She laughed and gushed and shown off, and he would be sulking in a corner, hiding. When she was five months along he proposed, but only because his father had encouraged him to do 'the right thing' and not because Charlie had wanted to marry her. She had smiled and turned him down, saying 'the right thing' was not a good enough reason to marry.

And then the baby shower… Kayla had shown up at the restaurant looking smug and had waved to the party before sitting with her own group. She had laughed and told her friends, loudly, what a great time she had just had. How he hadn't lost any of his stamina even though the bitch was pregnant and probably running him ragged.

And Kate had known Kayla was talking about Charlie. And that they slept together.

She had known then that he would never touch her again. He could be part of the baby's life, but not hers.

Except that it had been much easier to raise Conner living together than living apart. So they tried. For fifteen months, they tried.

And it was slowly killing her inside.

The arguments, constantly bringing up the past, her fault for getting pregnant, for not getting rid of the fetus, his fault for sleeping with Kayla, over and over. It wasn't what she wanted to live in; it wasn't what she wanted Conner to grow up in.

No, love was not enough anymore.

She wiped her eyes for any stray tears and stood up.

Time for that later. She still had to finish this Labyrinth and get both of them back. She and Charlie could sit down and work things out after she beat this maze.