Jareth reached the castle in record time.

"Reagan!"

He received no answer to his call, and quickly started a search of the building. She was not in the throne room, nor their suite, not even in the tower.

"Draco!"

The dragon would be able to hear him anywhere on the castle grounds, or in the Goblin City. And he would be able to hear any answer, yet he heard no response. Had that blasted dragon really just flown off with his wife, and dared take her somewhere else? He was going to skin that animal when next he saw him.

"Reagan!"

He sank onto the chaise as he realized that while Reagan might be free of Galen's clutches, she had not returned to him. Where could she have gone? He could not feel her anywhere in his kingdom. Where would the dragon have taken her? Why would she not return to him?

"Jareth."

He looked up as a crystal floated into his view. Reagan? Not Reagan. Saoirse. He carefully reached out and grasped it, pulling it to him.

"Reagan is missing," he informed her without preamble, "Draco flew with her out of the Dragon lands, but she's not here. I don't even know where to begin searching for her."

"She's here."

He was stopped mid-rant by her simple declaration. Reagan was safe?

"She's with you?"

"Yes."

"I'll come immediately."

"No!"

He stilled. How could she expect him not to come to his wife? After so many months of her gone missing? High Queen or not, no one was keeping him from seeing with his own eyes that Reagan was safe.

"Saoirse, if you try to stop me—"

"She doesn't want to see you now, Jareth."

That stopped him in his tracks. Reagan didn't want to see him? But—he knew she remembered him. He saw the recognition in her eyes, before she took off with Draco.

"She's much changed, Jareth. She's asked for time to be alone, before you come. I will call you when she is ready to see you."

"Saoirse-"

"Please, Jareth. Leave this to me. Give her the time she asks. She is perfectly safe here at Court. Not even Galen would dare try to take her from here."

"Very well." He would honor her wishes, for the moment. "You will keep me informed as to her welfare."

An order, not a request. He would give Reagan the time she believed she needed, but he would not be kept in ignorance. If he was not to see her, he must know how she was doing. Saoirse nodded her agreement, and he let the crystal dissolve. Reagan would be safe in the High Court.

L-L-L-L-L

The summons came nearly two weeks later. Jareth had never had to practice so much patience as he did in that time, and more than once he very nearly violated his agreement to stay away, wanting nothing more than to go to the High Court and bring her home. The moment he received the crystal, he took to the air. Transporting himself would be faster, but he wanted the time to calm his raging thoughts. He had to get himself under control before he saw her.

He was admitted into the High Court without a murmur of objection, and quickly escorted to his sister's apartment. He found her seated in the parlor, a number of ladies in waiting surrounding her. She dismissed them all the moment she saw her brother.

"Jareth."

"You said she wished to see me?"

"She asked for you. I'll take you to her now."

He followed her down the hallways of the private residential wing. Jareth was only vaguely familiar with this section of the palace, having spent little time in the Court, and certainly not enough time groveling to Marek to be invited to the royal apartments. He could not bring himself to regret that ignorance. They came to a stop in front of a door, and Saoirse stopped before opening it.

"Be careful with her, Jareth. She has been through much."

She pushed the door open and stepped back, allowing her brother to enter, before pulling it closed again. Jareth stepped inside to find himself in a sitting room not unlike Reagan's rooms before they married. She was seated in a rocking chair, before the fire roaring in the fire place. There was another chair across from her, and Jareth took his seat in it.

"She was my friend," Reagan began without preamble, and Jareth stilled the hand he reached out for her.

"She was my closest friend when I was in Charleston. I'd known her for years. So when I saw her here, I trusted her. And she drugged me, and then stole me from my home."

"Reagan."

His heart broke hearing her statement. He had his explanation for how she was taken from their home, but he could not but feel the pain of the betrayal she must have felt. It could only be Galen's sister that she spoke of. How long had they been planning her abduction?

"I am so sorry, Reagan."

"Galen—Galen claimed that I was meant to be his. That Norah had foreseen it, and I was his rightful queen. He honestly believed that. I was supposed to be HIS wife and the mother of his children, regardless of what choice I made."

Jareth was seized with a fresh desire to kill the Dragon. The words she didn't say were as telling as those she did. If Galen believed she was his, he very likely forced her into his bed, reawakening the nightmares she had periodically suffered. If Jareth was to meet Galen again, the man would not survive the encounter.

He wanted to take Reagan home, and hide her away from the rest of the world. To keep her safe, and protected. She'd suffered far more than any person should be asked to suffer, and for no reason other than a fool's desperate grasp at a dream.

"Come home, Reagan. Come with me, and put this behind you."

"I can't put it behind me. Galen—he did something to alter my memories. It wasn't enough that the bastard raped my body, he raped my mind as well."

She looked him in the eye, for the first time since he entered the room, and the despair and confusion he saw in hers nearly crushed him. He would give anything to remove that look from her face.

"I have memories of an entire lifetime with him, Jareth. A life here, Underground, with him. Loving him. Memories of a life I never lived, so that I can no longer decipher what's real from what he made me believe was real."

She choked on a sob, and Jareth left his chair to kneel beside her and cradle her face with his hand. No wonder Saoirse had warned him to be careful of her. She'd been through a worse hell than he'd even imagined.

"None of that matters, Reagan. You are still my wife. Come home with me, and I'll show you what's real."

She shook her head, taking his hand as she did so and sliding it down to her stomach. His gut clenched as he felt the hard roundness; the change from the smooth planes of her body that he knew so well, that said that she was with child.

"The Healer said that I'm four months gone. I don't know whose child this is, Jareth, and I won't know until after it's born. I can't come back to you, asking you to take another man's child. And I can't come back only to have to leave you again, if it's not yours. Saoirse has said that I am welcome to stay here, or that it might be possible to let me go back Above."

Sending her Above—No. He wouldn't allow it. He didn't care if the child she carried wasn't his; that would be dealt with after the birth. She was still his wife, no matter what she'd been through. He wasn't going to send her away as if she was disgraced, or leave her here to live out her life apart from him.

"You're coming home with me. Reagan. I care not if the child is mine; your home is with me."

"I can't do that to you, Jareth. If it's not yours—you're King. You can't have an heir that's not your blood."

He threw caution to the wind and pulled her into his arms. He'd missed her terribly all those months she was gone. He ached to have her back by his side, and he would show her that if he could. She tensed, so he loosened his hold, but did not let her pull away from him. He would force nothing, but he wouldn't let her run away.

"Reagan, love, this child could very well be mine. After all, you were my wife before Galen took you. And it could just as easily be a daughter as a son, in which case it would be irrelevant. Even if it is a boy, and not mine, we can always have another: we have an eternity for children."

Leaning back slightly, he could see the uncertainty in her eyes. He felt sure that she wanted to come home; he just needed to nudge her in that direction.

"Come home to me, Reagan. Surely you don't want to leave Marley with only the goblins for company any longer than absolutely necessary, do you?"

A smile, as he'd hoped to achieve. It wasn't a full smile, and it was there only fleetingly, but he saw it, and that was what mattered.

"Jareth—"

"Hear me, Reagan. No matter what the monster has put you through, or what happened as a result, you are still my wife. I still care deeply for you, and that will not change because of events that were not of your making. Come home."

At her nod, he released her and stepped to the door, calling for one of the servants he knew roamed the halls. The Fae woman appeared immediately, and Jareth sent her to retrieve his sister. He wasn't willing to wait and give Reagan time to change her mind. Only a few minutes later, Saoirse stepped into the room.

"We're going home, Saoirse."

His sister looked to the woman in the chair, who just nodded at her. The look Jareth gave her suggested that any objection would be considered unwise. She simply nodded her acceptance.

"I'll have your things packed, and—"

"We're leaving now," Jareth interrupted her. She opened her mouth to object, but took in the look on her brother's face, and the objection died. Instead she pushed into the room, to give Reagan a tight embrace.

"Should you need anything at all, Reagan, you know how to reach me."

"Thank you, Saoirse. For everything you've done."

Reagan watched the other woman embrace Jareth quickly, and issue some sort of warning before leaving. She wanted to call Saoirse back, to say that she'd changed her mind about the entire thing, but Jareth was right. It was time to go home. She couldn't hide out here forever, and she didn't want to stay any place Galen could enter. She was relatively certain that her decision to not tell Jareth that the Dragon's sister had already attempted to see her was the correct one. Home was protected by the Labyrinth: Galen couldn't even enter the maze's boundaries.

"Are you ready, Reagan?"

"Yes. Let's go home."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The moment they reappeared in the throne room of the castle, she was pounced on by Marley. She picked up the squirming animal as he tried to climb her dress, and bathed her face with his tongue. Months of separation only made the dog more determined to cover every inch of her, regardless of her half-hearted attempts to push him away.

"Alright, boy, down you go."

As soon as she said the words, Jareth removed the animal and set him down on the floor. He soon disappeared into the melee, as the goblins crowded as close as they dared to see that "Queeny" was indeed back. Jareth's glare at them was enough to ensure that they kept a respectful distance, but not much more than that. The throne room was filled with a cacophony of voices as they all spoke to each other, some yelling over the din of the clucking chickens. Jareth watched his wife closely as she inched even closer to his side.

"Reagan?"

"Sorry. I'm just really tired," she glanced up at him apologetically before looking away.

Needing no further encouragement, he escorted her from the throne room, Marley trailing close behind them. The walk through the castle seemed to revive her a bit, which he took as a positive sign. They were silent as they roamed the halls, but the silence wasn't stilted or uncomfortable. Jareth stopped short when he reached their chamber door. After everything she'd been through with Galen…he should have thought that she might wish for her old room. She might not want any close contact with him at present.

"If you wish, I can have your old suite made ready for you—should you wish to sleep alone, that is."

"Thank you for that. But I don't think that it would be any easier to be alone than to be with you. And I'd rather not—our room is fine."

He pushed the door open and allowed her to precede him. She immediately headed for the bedroom, but Marley beat her and jumped up onto the bed before she could reach it. Jareth stood in the doorway, watching her as she pulled down the cover and sank into the mattress.

"I'm sorry, Jareth," he heard her say barely above a whisper as she curled onto her side, and he immediately joined her.

"Don't be sorry, Reagan."

"I don't know why I'm so tired all the time."

"Perhaps you simply need the rest to heal. It is nothing to apologize for. Sleep now, Reagan."

Her eyes closed, and in only a few minutes her breathing evened out, and he knew she'd fallen asleep. A chair materialized behind him, and he sank into it, watching his wife sleep. He might have her home with him, at last, but he knew in his gut that he would have a long and terrible road ahead of him before she was fully healed of her time with the Dragon.