She turned Jareth's words over in her mind the rest of the day. She could see the obvious wisdom, of course. But knowing something and being able to do something we're two different things entirely- she couldn't just turn her worry off like a switch no matter how much she wanted to.

But as they visited truckstop gas stations and perused carousel stands of magnets and postcards and keychains, and found every oddly flavored snack they'd never seen before and stuffed them into the ice chest in the trunk, Sarah found the concept of not writing again a little easier to bear.

Somewhere along the line, between the endless chatter of the rest stops and the also endless hum of the engine, she let it fully take root in her soul. She wouldn't write, for now at least. And it would be ok.

She found she loved practically everything about the trip so far - she could do without the sunburn on her arms and the ache in her legs on long driving days, but even these weren't terribly unbearable. In addition to the changing scenery, she loved seeing the changing stores and looking in as many of them as she could.

It was in the city, on the busy sidewalk along the crowded roadway that the little boutique caught her eye - a jewelry store. She stopped in front of the glass, drawn to the display of rings. They were beautiful, sparkling in the display case lights and resting on velvet and silk pillows.

She caught sight of her own grinning reflection in the spotless glass, and a moment later Jareth appeared beside her. Curious what had made her jog up ahead of him, he glanced at the display case and frowned.

She turned quickly, blushing and looking down at her shoes.

"I was just looking." she aimed and almost succeeded at nonchalance.

When she finally looked back up, Jareth was looking at her with a sad smile.

"What's wrong?"
she whispered, taking a step closer to him.

"There are a number of drawbacks to how I live between worlds, Love. Not many of consequence, but... It does make legal matters quite difficult. Magic can fill in some of the little gaps and convince humans to look the other way every so often, but when it comes to anything requiring a lot of paperwork, it can become quite complicated." he paused, then lowered his voice just slightly.

"I'm afraid my one regret is that can't offer you an Aboveground wedding, not a legal one, anyway. I simply wouldn't be able to get the license, and even if I did it would surely unravel somewhere down the line if anyone looked too deeply into it. It's never been much of an issue should something of mine get found to be a fraud, I can always pack up and leave and slip into a new identity. But if you were involved, there would be actual consequences for you. I couldn't stand for that to happen."

Several emotions swirled in Sarah. First was sympathy for the man standing in front of her. The look of abashed regret colored his features, and she took the extra step towards him and wrapped her arms around him.

The next feeling was a warm and gentle wonderment at the fact that this conversation would not be happening between them without the unspoken agreement that they both wanted to marry each other. She couldn't keep from smiling as she buried her face in his shoulder. It wasn't necessarily a surprise to hear him say such a thing, or even to consider it herself, but to hear it out loud made her heart sing.

She also felt a spark of creativity as she considered his words once again.

"Oh, Jareth. It's okay." she paused before continuing. "Maybe we can't have an Aboveground wedding, but what if we had an Underground wedding instead?"

"Of course we can." he smiled but hesitated, a touch of concern in his voice. "But don't you want a ceremony in your world, with your own traditions?"

"We could still have a ceremony here, if we wanted to." she thought about the wedding traditions and found many of them unappealing, especially compared to the mystery of what an Underground ceremony might entail. "Besides, if we love each other and promise to always be there for each other, aren't we already kind of married in the way that counts? For us, I mean."

Jareth was silent a moment, just long enough to let Sarah's mind wander. A legal marriage had many benefits in this world, but Sarah knew in heart that she likely wouldn't be spending too much time around here to actually reap those benefits. For that matter, how does one even file taxes when they're only living in this dimension part time?

"Well," he finally spoke. "If we're already married, then I think it's long overdue that my wife have a ring."

He turned her around and led her into the boutique.

All throughout dinner that night she kept looking at ring, running her fingers over it, twisting it. She loved it. She loved how it clinked against her wine glass, she loved how it caught the few rays from the accent lighting and sent tiny rainbows across the table. She loved how it felt against her other fingers when she squeezed her hand shut.

Jareth raised an eyebrow at her as she grinned down at her hand, wiggling her fingers.

"I daresay you've been looking at your ring more than you've looked at me today." he teased.

She scoffed.

"Jareth, I've been looking at you for ages." she clutched her bejeweled hand to her heart. "And this is new! How can I not look at it?"

He sighed in a good nature manner and shook his head at his wife, grinning at her joy.

Sarah loved her ring for many reasons, but the biggest reason was because it would remind her forever of Jareth.