"Sarah? Sarah, my darling, I need you to focus on me." Sarah turned her head to face the voice. Jareth was crouched in front of her, one hand holding hers and the other resting against her cheek. "There you are," he smiled. "I know it's difficult right now, but the detective needs to ask you some questions. I tried to answer in your place, but he said he needed to speak with you."

Sarah felt like everything was moving in slow motion. Nothing really made sense. Up was down and down was up. However one thing clicked. One terrible thing that couldn't possibly be true. Her father was gone. Karen was gone. She supposed she should be grateful to have one parent left… but Toby… he had… Toby. She sucked in a breath. "Toby," she whispered, her eyes growing large and her back straightening.

"I've already taken care of informing him, Cariad," Jareth murmured. "He… he's in shock, I think. He could really use you right now."

She rose from her seat and moved into the living room where Toby sat in the armchair, hugging himself tightly and rocking back and forth. Detective Brennan was crouched in front of him, one hand resting on the teen's knee. "Toby," Sarah mumbled as she moved towards them.

The teen looked up with reddened tear filled eyes. "Sarah," he replied. "Sarah, it's not true. Tell her it's not true."

She paused for a moment and looked at Valenti who stood behind the coffee table. He frowned and looked like he didn't know what else to say. She moved forward and slid into the chair next to her brother, wrapping her arms around him and pressing him tightly against her side. He clung to her, hiding his face in her shoulder and shaking.

"Ms. Williams," Detective Brennan said quietly. "I need to ask you a few things. I know this is a difficult time, but it's important that I speak to you now." Sarah took a deep breath and nodded. "Good, now, first and foremost, where have you been the last few weeks?"

Her mind raced. Why would she be asking this? "I've been here," she replied carefully. "I returned from my tour of duty a couple weeks ago and before that I was visiting some friends and family. You can ask them."

"You returned from your tour of duty a couple weeks ago? Our records indicate that it's been nearly five weeks since your tour ended."

"Five… That…" Sarah felt sick. She had to tread carefully here because apparently the time spell had not worked. Why wouldn't it have worked?! "Yes, that's what I meant," she tried to recover. "My tour ended nearly five weeks ago. I spent about a week visiting friends and family and have been here since then."

The Detective's eyes narrowed. "Ms. Williams. I know you've had a terrible shock, and perhaps it is messing with your memory. So I'm going to tell you right now that that's not possible. We tried to contact you when we first found your parents a couple of weeks ago, but you weren't here. All we found was an annoyed landlord complaining about a broken door and you skipping town and leaving all your things here. Cameras caught your truck leaving the parking lot twenty three days ago at roughly three thirty in the afternoon."

"Ms. Williams," Detective Valenti spoke up. "I have to be honest with you that events and facts aren't in your favor. You disappeared around the same time as the deaths of your father and stepmother and you take their son with you."

"Wait, are you suggesting I had something to do with this?" Sarah asked. "I thought it was an accident?"

"The cause of the accident is currently under investigation, but our initial evidence suggests tampering with the navigation systems may have been the cause," he said.

"I did not kill my father and stepmother!" Sarah vehemently denied.

Toby had stopped crying at this point and was looking between his sister and the detectives with concern and a little anger. "Sarah would never hurt my mom and dad!" he piped up as he shifted to face the detectives.

"We want to believe you," Detective Brennan interjected. "So just tell us where you were for the past few weeks."

Sarah opened her mouth to respond, but wasn't sure how to. They hadn't prepared for this. Anything she said right now would be either an obvious lie or easily checked out and proven wrong. "They came to visit me," Jareth stepped in. He moved closer to stand beside brother and sister.

Both detectives turned their focus on him.

Jareth sighed and seemed to gather his thoughts before speaking again. "Sarah and Toby were visiting me at my family's vacation home in northern Vermont. We told Robert and Karen of the trip before we left and they gave their permission."

"And you did not think it strange to not hear from them for several weeks?" Valenti asked.

"There is no cellphone service up there, and the few times we journeyed into a town we tried calling, but received no answer. We thought we just kept missing them," Jareth shrugged. Both detectives eyed him suspiciously, but couldn't find fault in what he was saying. "Now if you don't have any more pressing questions we'd like to mourn in peace. Should you need us, you know where to find us." He gestured to the door.

Detective Brennan and Detective Valenti made their way to the door. However the later turned back when he was halfway through the door. "We will have more questions for you later," he said. "Think about what you want to say Miss Williams, because we will find out the truth eventually."

With that, they left and Jareth closed and locked the door behind them. He turned to face Sarah and Toby again. "Jareth, what happened?" Sarah asked quietly in case they were still in the hall.

Jareth sighed and ran a hand back through his hair. "I don't know. Obviously the time spell didn't work. We only went back a few hours instead of a few weeks." He moved closer to them and sat down on the coffee table where Detective Brennan had been sitting.

"Why wouldn't it have worked?" Toby asked.

"I don't know. I did the spell correctly. However I could feel something fighting the spell while I was doing it. Almost like a barrier I had to fight through."

"Yeah, I noticed that the light turned red for a second," Sarah mentioned.

Jareth nodded. "I don't know why it happened, but it did. We'll have to figure out how to proceed from here as we've already interacted with this timeline and to reverse it now would not only be difficult, but dangerous."

Sarah closed her eyes and rubbed her hands over her face. "This isn't how this was supposed to happen," she muttered.

"I don't think anyone could've predicted this, Cariad." He leaned forward and rested a hand on her knee. "However I can help you get through this, I will."

Sarah's hands fell to her lap, covering his. "Thank you," she whispered. "I suppose our first step will be finding out where they are and arranging the funeral."

Toby turned large watery eyes up at her. "Yeah. I know mom always said she wanted to be cremated and have her ashes spread at that park she loved by the willows."

"Yeah, and dad would want to be with her," Sarah added on. "Right… it's already been a while since they died, so I'd best get to work." She stood up and walked over to her landline phone. She still needed to get her cell phone replaced… that is, if it would work with her magic.

The next week was a whirlwind. The funeral arrangements were surprisingly easy to do. Her dad had been a successful lawyer and had put away a sizable amount of money, so expenses weren't a problem. She was able to track down her mom, Linda, to help her and several of Robert and Karen's friends were there to help them out too. Robert's law partners even helped Sarah with the estate management process. All in all, things went smoothly and Linda was even kind enough to stay through till the morning after the funeral service. However after that she'd said she had an important audition she had to get to in New York.

Sarah, Toby, and Jareth returned to the family home that evening after everything was done and sorted. Jareth loosened his black tie as he entered the kitchen and grabbed a couple bottles of water from the fridge. Sarah had plopped on the sofa in the living room and Toby was lying on his back on the floor, just staring at the ceiling. The Goblin King came back into the living room and handed them both a bottle before sitting next to Sarah and wrapping an arm around her. "Thanks," she said after taking a sip.

"Do you have to meet with the estate lawyers again tomorrow?"

Sarah shook her head. "No. They've got everything they need for now. But Detective Brennan called earlier and wants us to come in tomorrow afternoon for some more questions."

Jareth frowned. He was not a fan of either detective. "I'll come with."

She nodded. "I think they expect you to. You're just as much a suspect as I am right now. We should come up with a similar story. And an actual location for the cabin you invented."

"Oh, I didn't invent that. I actually do own land in northern Vermont, and it has a cabin on it."

"You do?" Sarah turned and gave him a bewildered look.

Jareth nodded. "Yes. Though it's not as weird as you're thinking it is." Sarah gave him a raised eyebrow that clearly said Go on… "When it became apparent that humans were quickly destroying nature along with the fairy rings in the Aboveworld, I took action. I used my own funds to purchase approximately fifty acres of land, mostly wilderness, in Vermont. The land I purchased had two fairy rings on it. Essentially I purchased the land to preserve it and to give fae a place to easily transport between worlds. I eventually decided to build a cabin there as a kind of retreat. Though, I must admit, I have not used it in many years. I'm not sure what state it's currently in."

Sarah and Toby were quiet for a moment until Sarah asked, "Any particular reason you chose Vermont?"

Jareth smiled and nodded. "The area I chose was extremely isolated and unlikely to be approached by developers any time soon. I also have similar land purchased in Scotland, Ireland, and Iceland."

"Why there?"

He shrugged. "The cultures traditionally believe in my kind and the people there have gone out of their way to preserve some historical sites that are important to both my and your people."

"Not to interrupt," Toby grumbled from the floor. "But why even go in to the police station? Why not just go back to the Underground and stay there? Not like we got anything keeping us here now."

"Tobes," Sarah said quietly. She set her water bottle down on the side table and slid to the floor to sit beside her brother. "We do have things here that are important, you know that. And don't you want to find out what happened to your mom and dad?"

"Why? It's not like it matters. They're dead. Finding out what happened won't change that."

Sarah reached out to run her fingers through his hair, but he jerked his head away. She sighed. "No, you're right about that," she agreed. "But if what the police are saying is true and that someone intentionally killed your mom and dad, then I would like to make sure that it doesn't happen again to someone else's parents. Wouldn't you?"

Toby was quiet for a moment before he just shrugged and started to get up off the floor. "I'm going to bed."

Sarah and Jareth watched the teen climb up the stairs and heard him close his bedroom door a moment later. "Great, one more thing to worry about," Sarah mumbled as she pushed herself up off the floor.

"He's in mourning, Cariad, as are you. Give him a break." Jareth stood as well and grabbed a hold of her hand. "Come, you could use some sleep too."

She sighed and nodded. "Yeah. Okay." She let him lead her up to her old bedroom that had been converted into a guest bedroom. There were no more shelves filled with teddy bears or books scattered everywhere, but the old vanity was still there and the single-wide bed had been exchanged for a double. Jareth used magic to change them both before they climbed in. Unlike their first night back, Sarah had no issue cuddling up with him now. His solid warmth gave her strength and kept the nightmares of her trying and failing to save her parents at bay. She rolled closer to him under the blankets and rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes and breathing deeply a he gently rubbed her back. Tomorrow would be another long day.

A/N: Welcome back! Apologies for how long it took to come out with this sequel, but I wanted to have it mostly written before I started posting. As of right now, I only have one more chapter to write. I'm editing chapters (for like the 3rd time) as I post them. I plan to post two chapters a week on Mondays and Wednesdays.

This story has been in the works for almost two years now, so hopefully you all like it!