Chapter Twenty-Six: Going Home

With a sigh, Sarah picked up the crystal and held it on her hands as she sat on her old bed. She hadn't even looked at it since she'd arrived at home three weeks prior, appearing on the doorstep without a single bag and just the crystal in her hand. Now she stared at it, trying to decide what to do.

"What would happen if I don't go back to the labyrinth?" She wondered aloud.

The crystal darkened in her hands, then revealed an older version of Sarah, acting on Broadway, with her mother, dating man after man after man, all throughout her life up until she was a shriveled old woman, living alone in a tiny apartment. Then it darkened again before showing Jareth, standing in his tower, looking over the goblin city and out into the labyrinth, giving back the babies his goblins had stolen, being kind to his subjects and taking care of them as best he could, but somehow always looking a little sad and lonely.

"Alright," Sarah sat up a little straighter, "what would happen if I do go back to the labyrinth?"

The crystal darkened again, but only for a second, before it showed her and Jareth smiling and laughing together, and baby after baby after baby between them, until there was a dark-haired child that seemed more beautiful than all the others and whose eyebrows were eerily similar to Jareth's. Sarah watched as this child grew into a handsome young man, battling the dangers of the labyrinth day in and day out, eating meals with her and Jareth, dancing with enchanted goblins at enchanted balls. The crystal faded once more and then showed her an image of the young man with eyebrows like Jareth's standing at Jareth's throne, waving Jareth's cane around. Standing behind him, near the stairs at the back of the throne room, was an older version of Jareth, white of hair and wrinkled of skin, holding the hand of an old woman with coarse dark-gray hair and deep smile wrinkles all over her face. The old Jareth turned to the old woman and kissed her just as passionately as any youth would kiss his first love.

Sarah closed her eyes and sniffed, rubbing the tears as soon as they reached her cheeks. They're equally good lives, she thought to herself, just one has me ending my days alone and famous, while the other has me living forever with Jareth and apparently our son! The tears came harder then. Her son! She was going to have a son! Would she never have any children if she chose to stay and become an actress? Well, honestly, she chided herself, who could possibly live up to Jareth?

She sniffled one more time and took a very deep breath, calming herself. She drew her knees up to her chin and cupped the crystal in front of her mouth.

"Jareth," she whispered, "I'm ready to go home now. Back to the labyrinth. Please come and take me away."

When nothing happened, she opened her eyes and looked down at the crystal, frowning.

"Jareth," she said a little louder, focusing her energy on the crystal, "show me Jareth."

At first, all she could see where dark gray shapes splintered by bright flashes and cut by a constant sheet of pelting rain. Then the clouds parted enough for her to see into the goblin city. Jareth was standing in the rain, directing the goblins to add more sandbags to what was already a low wall along a river.

"Oh no!" Sarah watched helplessly as Jareth ran from one vantage point to another, snatching goblins out of the flow of the river, shifting sandbags here and there. "What's happening? It never rains in the labyrinth!" I need to be able to hear them! She thought desperately.

"What's going on, your majesty?" Middleweed yelled to Jareth above the whooshing of the storm.

"It's the labyrinth!" He shouted back. "It's upset because Sarah's been gone so long!"

"The labyrinth?" Middleweed tried to understand, "the last time it rained like this-"

"Yes!" Jareth agreed, crouching down in front of her, "the last time it rained like this, Sarah thought she had wished me away and I had gone to the oubliette and the labyrinth was upset because we were fighting so much. It didn't clear up until Sarah was well again. Don't worry, Middleweed! She'll come back! Then everything will go back to normal."

Middleweed nodded glumly.

A flash of lightning brighter than any of the others blared white in the crystal, and Sarah saw the tip of the flash strike the top of Jareth's tower. It held for a moment, but then it creaked and groaned and the stones began to topple.

"Go, Middleweed! Get everyone out of here!" Jareth stood straight and faced up at the crumbling tower.

"Oh no!" I should be there, Sarah thought fiercely. I need to be there!

Jareth held out his arms as though he were going to catch the tower himself. He closed his eyes to focus, and a stray brick beaned him directly on the forehead.

"Jareth!" Sarah yelled, jumping to her feet on her bed. I need to be there RIGHT NOW!

Jareth! She closed her eyes and focused as hard as she could until she felt the rain whipping around her. "Jareth!" She threw herself over him and concentrated harder than she'd ever concentrated before.

The bricks clattered all around them, but only against stones and cobbles.

"I'm here," Sarah whispered to the labyrinth. "I'm back, and I'm here to stay. You're going to have to put up with me visiting my family once a year, but other than that, I'm here for life. So, please, please stop this storm!"

The rain lessened and Sarah sat up a little to look down at Jareth and assess his head injury. There was a lot of bright blue blood pooling around him and Sarah's heart throbbed. "Oh, Jareth," she whispered, lifting his shoulder so that she could cradle his head in her lap. "Jareth, I need you." She closed her eyes and bent down to touch her forehead to his, wrapping her arms around his bleeding skull.

Jareth, she thought, please heal. She focused on his head, on clotting the blood and knitting the bone back together. She knew so little of human anatomy, she could only hope that what she was doing was enough, and that his body would naturally take care of any healing she might have missed.

"Sarah?"

"Jareth!" She pulled away to give him some breathing room, and watched him smile in the growing light as the clouds parted above them.

"You came back," he reached up a hand to wipe away her tears.

"Of course I came back," Sarah sniffled, catching his hand in one of her and pressing it against her cheek.

Jareth's eyebrows knitted together. "You came back on your own."

"Yes, well, oh, I'm so sorry, Jareth!" Sarah launched into her weepy excuse, "only I didn't even look at the crystal until just now, and if I had known-"

"Shh," Jareth's gentle whisper interrupted her. "You came back."

"Yes, I did, and I'll never leave again."

Jareth smiled. "Don't promise me that," he shook his head slightly. "You'll never mean that."

Sarah thought about his words and sighed. "How do you know me so well?"

"Well, it wasn't easy to figure you out, and to be quite honest, there are still some things about you that utterly baffle me." Jareth's voice was growing steadily stronger.

"How about this?" Sarah suggested gently, "I promise I'll live here for the rest of my life, and only leave to visit my family or go on other extremely important errands, but this is my home, and this is where I belong," she added, her voice dropping to a whisper, "with you." She leaned down and brushed her lips against his.

"Mmm," Jareth murmured, "sounds good to me."