Sarah walked through the door to her house with her backpack and a fresh Blockbuster movie in her hand. She'd told Karen that she was grabbing a movie before she left for school, so she'd known Sarah would be a little later than usual. Things went so much smother between them when they just told each other their plans. "Hi, Karen."

"Hello, Sarah. What movie did you pick out?"

"One of the new releases, that Star Wars film. Wanna watch it with me later?"

"Eh, that looked weird. No thanks. Oh, I put your owl back upstairs. The marathon was done for today and he looked sleepy."

"Okay, thanks." She walked up the stairs and opened the door to her room. "Hey, Jareth, just so you know Fran and Lulu are coming over tomorrow, so…" Uh oh. He's sitting on the windowsill again. Last time he did that was when he was mad at me for the Scratched Shoulder thing. I hope he's not upset again. What would he be upset abo…

Sarah's thoughts were interrupted when she remembered something. She remembered how she felt in the Labyrinth. She was scared. There was a point where she just wanted to give up and hope Jareth wouldn't really turn Toby into a goblin. She felt like she didn't have a chance to get to the castle. After all, she had no idea what she was doing. She was in a world she knew very little about full of people she didn't know, trying to complete a task that was next to impossible.

And now here he is, she thought, in a world he doesn't understand full of people he doesn't know, trying to complete a task that is next to impossible. He's probably really scared and...maybe feels like there's no hope of solving this mess.

Something about that made Sarah really feel for the Goblin King. He had seemed so arrogant before all of this, so sure of every move he made in the Labyrinth. Fearless. It was one thing that she actually liked about him. The confidence in himself, the fact that he didn't seem to have a weakness or fear. Part of her hated that about him, part of her wished she could be like that. And now he seemed to be the complete opposite.

She approached him slowly and knelt down to his level. He didn't even turn to her. "Hey...what's the matter?" She asked softly. Still no reaction. It seemed he was embarrassed that she was seeing him the way he was. "C'mon, Jareth, you're obviously upset. Maybe I can help." She reached out and started to stroke him, lightly. Sarah knew he did that care for it, but it was the only way she could think of how to comfort him. She did that for a minute until when she saw the clues were sitting in front of him. "Oh, so that's it. You're worried we won't be able to figure these out. Well, it's okay because Fran and I were trying to figure them out at lunch...today...Wait, what is this?" She was looking at the back side, and saw that there was a fourth things he had to do, not three. He doesn't know what this means either. He's giving up because he doesn't know what he has to do to change back. That scared her. Jareth hadn't seemed the type to give up in the Labyrinth. "Hey...it's alright." She reassured weakly. But it's not alright. We need to figure these out or he'll be stuck. He can't give up, though. We need to keep trying until his wing is one-hundred-percent healed. She sighed and tried to get him to look at her. "Jareth? ...I know you're scared. I know you're frustrated with these clues and don't understand them. But we can't give up. If we give up, you're guaranteed to stay like this. At least if we try we have a chance to fix this. Fran's helping now and she's great at puzzles. And you know...even if we don't do this before you're wing is better, we can still keep going. I can come find you in the forest. We can keep working until you're back where you belong."

He turned to her slowly with sad eyes and a bleak expression. She kept going. "So there's one more thing you have to do. That makes four things. I know that's scary because you don't know what to do but...I promise once we figure out just one of them, things will look up. We just need to keep trying. It'll be okay."

He looked to brighten a little and Sarah knew it was working. She smirked. "Besides, if worst comes to worst, you won't be alone forever. Fran told me barn owls can have up to five to seven owlets." Jareth's eyes widened, horrified. Sarah had figured he really wasn't planning on having children. Especially not owl ones. She'd cheered him up, now it was time to have some fun to make him forget about why he was sad at all. "What? It's a lot easier to have your own kids rather than stealing someone else's...I think. I don't know, I haven't done either obviously. Then again...you'd have to convince a female owl to fall for you. That might be hard. I don't know how attractive you are in the owl world."

He let out an annoyed screech and Sarah laughed. "I'm just sayin'! Courting owls might be harder than people. But at least if you did that, you'd have a big family full of owlets. I love saying that. Owlets. It's almost as fun as saying 'comeuppance'. Anyway, do you feel better now? Because I'm not giving up on you, so you can't give up on you either. Like I said, like it or not, we're in this together."

Jareth hesitated but nodded slowly. "Good." She pet his head a little more before getting up. Sarah looked down at Star Wars again. She really didn't want to watch it by herself. But Karen was busy and Toby didn't have an attention span for movies yet. Or really anything for that matter. She slowly scooped up Jareth and carried him downstairs. "I think we need a break from clues. We need to just relax. I've realized when I try to think of something really hard and it doesn't work, if I leave it alone for a while it comes to me. Therefore, you and I are going to watch this movie and see if it's any good...Wait a second. Have you been able to become an owl since you were little?" He nodded. Sarah gasped happily. "So when you transformed as kid you were an owlet! Aww, you were probably so cute just full of fuzz and all small! Aww, owlets!"

Sarah set Jareth down on the sofa next to her and went to put in the film while he looked at the cover. Why in the world does this woman have a hairstyle that looks like she's got two bagels on the side of her head? This is going to be horrible. But I suppose it's better than trying to make sense of those clues. And at least Sarah stopped saying "owlets". What was that even about? I'm handsome in both of my forms! Any female owl I came across wouldn't be able to keep her wings off me. But five to seven kids?! That's crazy! Note to self: If I can never transform back and end up living in the woods, no owlets...great, now she got me saying it.

The film started, and right off the bat, Sarah had a problem. "What? You have to read all this just to know what's going on? Uhh." But as it went on, he and Sarah began to get into it.

"Never tell me the odds." Han Solo told C3PO, sternly.

"He sounds like you." Sarah told Jareth.

Only because we're both sarcastic. And for the record, you're just like the golden robot: Annoying, a know-it-all, and always in the way. But he didn't mean it. Even he knew that. If he was honest with himself, she was more like Princess Leia: Stubborn, strong, determined, speaking her mind. When she'd ran the Labyrinth, he watched as she seemed to become stronger the more obstacles he threw at her. She was determined to get to castle and retrieve her brother. Even when he'd offered her everything she'd ever wanted, she'd refused. He had to admit that there was something he liked about her: Her refusal to give up even when the situation was impossible. Like the situation they were in now. There was a good chance they would never be able to turn him back from an owl ever again. And yet she was still going to give it all she had. He thought of how she'd spoken to him when she'd gotten home. She'd kept saying "we". "We can't give up", "We have to keep trying". It's like it's as much her problem as much as it is mine. But this really isn't her problem. It's not her fault.

And there it was. He'd been blaming Sarah this entire time, telling himself she must've had a hand in his situation, but now he had to admit it. The Wise Man hadn't given him a note that said, "Sarah ruined your life". He gave him a list of things he had to do. It wasn't Sarah's fault at all. If anything, it could've been something he did that caused all of this. And yet, she's dead set on figuring out on how to change me back. Why? Why is she doing any of this? She could've refused to let me into her house. Hell, she could've left me with Natas if she really wanted to. But she's really trying to help me.

The more he thought about it, the better he felt. He wasn't alone in this. He had Sarah. She was annoying, whiny, and embarrassing, but...she was all he had in this world. He needed Sarah, like it or not. But she didn't have to help him. It seemed like...she wanted to. And not just to get him out of her house.

And that was what made it just a bit easier to tolerate Sarah Williams.