EEEE! A new chappy! This story will end eventually!

Thanks go out again to Lex who's about the only thing I have next to a beta, and who always offers her moral support and kicks me in the ass when I fall behind. Also thanks to everyone who's left me reviews, I love reading them!

Andrea

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Chapter 14: An explanation is due

Dawn held her finger over the "1" button on the cell phone and waited for Rob to start speaking.

"Okay.." he said slowly, and held up a hand towards her. "It's not what you think. Just hang up the phone- the police wouldn't believe you anyways- and let me explain." Dawn wrinkled her eyebrows.

"I'm not going to harm you or your daughter. You ought to know by now that that isn't my intention." Dawn realized he was right, so she turned the phone off, though she still held it in her hand. They were both silent for a moment as they tried to figure out the best way to start. Dawn found her voice first.

"Why do you have a picture of my mother?" she asked quietly. "Were you involved in her death in any way? And what do you really look like?"

Rob held a hand out cautiously, and stood up from the couch. Closing his eyes and concentrating, he let his body morph into his Fae form; his hair lengthened and changed to a blonde color, his face elongated slightly and became more defined, and the rest of his body took on a leaner, more muscular shape. As he opened his eyes to look at Dawn his clothes finished changing also. Instead of the faded, worn out clothes that were given to him, he was wearing dappled tan pants, a long sleeved white shirt, and a simple leather vest; not exactly clothes fit for a King, but he didn't wish to overdo it.

Dawn's mouth hung open slightly as she witnessed his transformation. If she had been anyone else she probably would have screamed. "You really are him, aren't you? My mother wasn't crazy, or wrapped up in her play.."

"Jareth, at your service," he said seriously, and bowed low. "And the portrait was amazing, I may have to hang it on my bedchamber wall, but you missed one detail.." When the gold and silver pendant appeared around his neck, she stood up quickly and pointed at it.

"That! I found that shape on my mothers body! What did you do to her?!"

"I never hurt your mother. Those shapes appeared when I healed her at the castle. They always do."

"At the.. castle?"

Jareth sighed as he nodded. "Perhaps it would be easiest if I started at the beginning.."

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During the course of his narrative, Dawn had calmed down and come to sit on the couch with him. Jareth was generally managing to keep an amazing control over his voice as he told his story, but Dawn had tears streaming down her face as he spoke.

"She died in my arms…I carried her here," his voice broke slightly, "and lay her in bed as if she'd died in her sleep. I didn't wish to alarm you or Heather." Dawn nodded. He'd been through so much over the years; he really did love her mother.

"But I just had to have something to remember her by, so I took the picture frame off the wall. She had dozens of pictures, I didn't think one would be missed. I kept it on the small table by my bed.. I saw her face every day when I woke up, and every night as I went to sleep." Dawn nodded.

"I.. I ended up staying too long here. I came last night with the rose from your mother's headstone to say goodbye, but I was too exhausted to make the return trip." He looked up at her. "I'm leaving tonight."

Dawn was surprised when she heard herself gasp.

"But you can't." Jareth avoided her eyes.

"I have no choice. I am King; my brother cannot rule for me forever."

She shook her head.

"Give it to him, let him have it." Her mouth seemed to be running on autopilot, though she meant what she said. "You have a life here with us." Jareth shook his head. "That book told me everything I need to know. You hate it there; you're stuck ruling these disgusting creatures, and you're lonely." In the first move of genuine trust she'd shown since she found out who he was, she placed a hand on Jareth's knee. "Stay with us. Please." Jareth kept shaking his head as he looked at the floor.

"How.." Dawn said with the calm one finds before the thunderstorm, "am I going to explain this to Heather? How am I supposed to tell that little girl upstairs that not only did her father leave us, but you did too? How can I tell her that her 'honorary grandpa' walked out on her? That he'd rather return to a job he hates, than stay here?" Jareth did not look up, though a tear ran down his cheek and fell to the floor, quickly absorbed by the carpeting.

A voice interrupted them.

"Mommy?"

Both adults quickly looked up to find a pajama-clad Heather at the top of the stairs, clutching her stuffed Didymus, watching them. Dawn and Jareth quickly looked at each other.

"Come here, please, Heather," he asked. To Dawn's amazement, her daughter walked downstairs, sat between them on the couch, and gave Jareth a hug.

"What's wrong, Mommy?" she whispered, slightly scared. "Is Rob leaving?"

Dawn looked quickly at Jareth, then down at her daughter. "Honey, I have to tell you something." Heather nodded. "Rob's real name is Jareth, okay?" Heather's eyes grew wide and turned to look at Jareth.

"She knows?" she whispered. Jareth nodded and looked at Dawn's stunned face over the girl's head.

"Yes. It's okay," he told her.

"How did you know who he was, Heather?" Dawn asked.

"I dunno, I guess Gramma's book. I just knew when we met," she answered simply.

"I think since she is still a child and believes in her stories and the magic of things, she was able to see me as I really was. We sort of came to a silent agreement over Didymus when we met."

Dawn just nodded, still slightly flabbergasted. Jareth turned back to Heather.

"Love, your mother and I were talking because I have to go home." Heather nodded.

"Can we come see you tomorrow after school?" she asked.

"No. I have to go to my home. Where I lived before I moved next door. Do you understand?" He could see she did by the way tears started to form at the corners of her eyes.

"To your castle?"

"Yes."

"You don't want to stay here with us anymore?" Heather buried her face in his shirt and clung to him.

"I do, but I have to go home and take care of everything. I need to make sure that my brother is okay, and my house, and my land." He pulled her away from his shirt and wiped her eyes with his thumbs. "I would stay if I could, but I can't." She nodded, and he kissed her on the forehead and stood up.

"Dawn," he picked up her hands and held them for a moment, "keep your portrait, and hang it somewhere you both will see it and think of me." She nodded, then dropped his hands and gave him a big hug, the way she had before out on the front porch. When she finally let go of him, he picked up the picture frame from where it sat on the table.

"May I take this with me?" he asked. Dawn nodded.

"Of course you can," she told him with a minute smile. He tucked it into his vest, and started walking towards the door, then stopped. Reaching up, he pulled another picture frame off the wall.

"May I take this one as well?" He held it up and showed her the picture. It was a more recent one of herself and Heather. Dawn nodded, tears at the corner of her eyes.

"Thank you," he said, and made sure that one was also secured in his vest.

He opened the window, and after taking one last look at them both, he closed his eyes and concentrated as he turned into a barn owl. With a flick of his wings, he readied himself to launch into the air.

"Wait!"

He stopped mid-hop and looked back at Dawn.

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A loud noise somewhere downstairs woke Adair from a deep sleep, and a good dream. Irritated, he rolled over and tried to get comfortable again. Closing his eyes, he tried to relax.

A nearly impossible thing to do when there's several voices and a multitude of feet running around downstairs.

Blast the wretched creatures. They all knew better than to be up, at least up and making noise, this late at night. While his brother would stay up at all hours of the night, Adair didn't. He required sleep. And on a fairly normal schedule. And he thought he'd made that very clear to them. Several times.

He flipped the covers off of himself and stood up. Wrenching his bedchamber door open, and not caring that he was only clad in his silk sleeping pants, he angrily charged downstairs, ready to toss the noisemakers straight into the Bog.

He turned around the last corner that lead to the great staircase that lead down into the Great Hall, and raised his voice.

"And just what do you think you rotten little buggers are doing awake at this-" He stopped dead in his tracks at the foot of the stairs.

"Dawn?"

Surrounded by a pool of goblins carrying off several suitcases and small packages to rooms, Dawn turned to face the half naked, black-haired man.

"Adair?"

Heather clung to Jareth's knee, confused from all the noise and creatures.

Jareth turned around from giving orders to a few goblins and stared at them both.

"Would anyone care to explain?" he asked.

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Wanna see a sneak preview from the next chapter?

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Adair reached his bedchamber's heavy wooden doors and yanked them open, strode inside then slammed them shut behind him. He was certainly not a quick-tempered person, but this went far beyond any wrong that had ever been done to him…

…Still, such things are not thought of when you feel as wronged he did.

Adair stopped pacing, and walked to the large bedroom window overlooking the Labyrinth. Pulling it open, he stood on the edge of the stone balcony and overlooked the land spread beneath him. The night wind rustled tree leaves and whistled through hedges far below.

"Well, Jareth, I hope you're happy.." he whispered, and jumped…

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evil laugh