And after it had all been over, and the party poppers went off in her room that was filled the cheers of newfound friends, he had faded into the distance as he knew he should. But the offer still stood, the unspoken echo of the words mirrored by his subjects - "Should you need me..."
Sarah lay quietly, trying to process it all. She definitely could have done without knowing about all those infinite Sarahs out there in their other worlds. She squirmed at the thought of it. That meant somewhere - somewhen - out there, there was a Sarah who had never done the things she had done, never started on writing her books, never really got very far at all. "Oh well," she thought. "Sucks to suck, I guess." But as much as it disturbed her, she was equally comforted by the thought of a Sarah who had grown up happy with her original parents.
Her parents. She thought back on those oh so difficult days. It seemed like lifetimes ago, like some other universe like Jareth was talking about. She wished so badly she could go back in time and give herself a hug and whisper to herself that everything would turn out ok in the end, that she wouldn't always feel the hurt and betrayal so keenly. But she wouldn't have believed herself back then. Maybe that was ok. Maybe some things just had to be lived through, trudging forward one day at a time until suddenly you look around and the seemingly eternal storm has passed but you aren't certain when exactly it had gone.
But she was fine now. She was better than fine. She marveled at the thought of eternal iterations of a soul being forever drawn through time and space to another soul over and over on endless shores.
It made her feel small, but also important. Mostly, though, it just made her feel cross eyed a little on the inside, and somewhat queasy. So she tried to think of something else.
"Jareth?" she finally ventured.
"Yes?"
"Thank you."
Jareth squeezed her a little tighter in their embrace and reminisced on those days. He had known, of course, with an almost certainty, what her response would be on the top of that tower when he offered one last time. It had been the response he wanted - in all honesty he wasn't quite sure what he would have done had she finally reached the end of it all only to abandon her baby brother. He was definitely grateful that he didn't have to find out - he did not relish the idea of stealing away teenage girls.
When he had flown away that night, he knew that he might never see her again in this timeline, and he had had to make his peace with that regardless of how it made him feel. That was why so many years later, when heard that faint whisper of those fateful words, his heart had nearly hammered out of his chest and he half questioned his own sanity- if he were not merely hearing a voice of his own invention. But the voice was there, and it was hers, really and truly and he could have wept with joy at this unexpected but wholly welcomed turn of events.
He didn't reply to her hushed thanks - he couldn't find the words. He simply leaned forward and gently placed a kiss on her forehead.
~~~
"One last ski trip?"
"One last ski trip." she smiled.
She had thought a lot about what he had said the previous night. She still replayed parts of it as they hit the slopes one final time before moving on.
She wanted to forever remember the way the light glistened off the powdery hills and the way the birds called to each other and how the air turned her cheeks and nose cherry red. She didn't know if she would come back here again, she didn't know a lot of things about what the future for her held - but she knew with an unwavering certainty that no matter what was ahead, he would be at her side. And that meant everything to her.
They finished packing whatever belongings they wanted to take with them. Some items Jareth had sent Underground. Sarah sighed at this.
"Do you have any idea the amount of shoes I'm going to amass now that I have unlimited storage?" she asked.
He winced.
"I only have one kingdom, dearest. Although I would do anything for you, please don't ask me to conquer the neighboring kingdoms so that we can have more room to store slingback mules and ballet flats."
When the last of their boxes was put into the trunk of their car, they took one last look around the cabin that had been their first home. It was nearly empty now, waiting for someone to come and fill it with all the little trappings that make up a life. It held a sense of expectation, and also a sense of something that had already ended. Dust motes floated through the sunlight that poured through the widows and settled on the shelves where their Jareth and Sarah's personal belongings used to rest. A deep quiet had had filled up every room.
Sarah stopped one last time in doorway, looking back and reliving the first time she has stepped across the threshold. Her heart ached at the feeling of leaving this all behind, but she knew that this chapter here was over and it was time to move on. Although there was a final sadness to the sound of the lock clicking as she closed the door for the last time, when she turned around to leave the porch she could feel it in her bones that her future lay out there - somewhere, somehow, it was out there and she would find it.
As they drove off, away from the little town and it's now familiar buildings, Jareth glanced back at it in the mirror.
"We can always go back, you know, anytime we want." he offered, sensing her melancholy perhaps because he was feeling the same way.
"Yeah," she said as she gripped the steering wheel. "That's true."
And she smiled and nodded at him, and they both contented themselves with that thought although neither actually knew if in fact they ever would visit this town again, if they'd ever see that cabin again. But they might, and so when leaving felt a little sadder than they'd like, they held on to that thought, and if doubt or reality started to creep in to that thought, well - there were so many other Jareths and Sarahs, weren't there? And surely some of them decided to stay there in that town. If there was something good that had to be left behind, leave it - but smile for the self of yours that was still able to enjoy it somewhere else out there, and smile for your own self who was about to discover something new that your other self wasn't.
That was the mood as they set out into the great unknown with a tank full of gas, hearts full of hope, and a bag full of trail mix.
