Disclaimer: Once again, I own nothing. I take that back, I own Scott. He's mine and you can't have him. :o) I think we all know who everything else belongs to, so let's just get on with it.
Flames – Part 3
"Wow, that was cool," Toby said as they appeared in the living room of Sarah's apartment. "Can we do that again?"
"No," Sarah said as fell down on the couch. "I suggest you go to bed."
"But Sarah, it's not dark yet!" Toby said.
Sarah smiled. Lost memory or not, he was still Toby. Sarah glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was only 1:00 in the afternoon.
~What in the world?~ she thought. ~There's no way! I just ate dinner with Jareth and it was much later than this.~
"Okay, I guess you don't have to go to bed then. Just don't push yourself," Sarah said. "If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen."
Toby turned on the television and Sarah wandered into the kitchen. The light on her answering was blinking and she hit the "play" button while she made some coffee.
"Hello, my name is Abigail Stevens and I'm calling from North Park Elementary. Our records indicate that Toby has not been in attendance this past week. If you would please call the school at 555-8900 to clear this matter up, I would greatly appreciate it."
Sarah hit the stop button on the machine. A week? Toby hadn't been in school for a week? What was going on?
__________
Scott Thomas was sitting at his office desk trying to finish up so he could go home for the day. There was a knock at his door and his boss came walking in.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Wilson!" Scott said as he stood from his desk. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"
"Hello, Scott. I have a new case for you."
Scott sighed. It wasn't that he didn't like his work with Social Services, but sometimes it just got so tedious.
"What are the details?" he asked. "Single parent? Abuse?"
"Well, we're actually not sure of all the details," Mrs. Wilson said. "All we know is that the young boy's parents died a couple weeks ago. His sister now has full custody, but since that time, he hasn't been at school and his sister hasn't been at work. Neighbor's say they haven't come out of the apartment since the day of the funeral and the mail is piled up. They did hear them yesterday, so we know they're both still in there. We're just concerned that the child isn't getting everything he needs."
"I'm on it," Scott said.
"Great. Here's the file. Let's see what we can do."
Mrs. Wilson left Scott's office and he opened the file she handed him and read over what information they had.
Toby Andrew Williams, age 10. Parents deceased, living with sister Sarah Marie Williams, age 26. Both reside at 586 Sycamore St., apt. 3B. Toby has not been in school for the past week and a half and Sarah has not shown at work. Foster home may have to be an option.
Scott sighed as he read over the paper. He could tell this wasn't going to be an easy case. Toby's parents had just died, and now they were suggesting a possible foster home if Sarah wasn't fit to raise him. He would get on this first thing in the morning, but right now, he was going home.
__________
Sarah couldn't believe this. She had never stopped to think about the time difference between here and the Underground. Obviously, time moved slower there than it did here. How much time had passed since her and Toby had left? Sarah opened the door to her apartment and looked in her mailbox. Well, she really didn't have to look in. There was so much in there that her mailbox wouldn't even shut. She grabbed the mail and sat down at the kitchen table with it.
~Bill. Bill. Letter from work. Bill. Letter from Toby's school. Bill. Bill.~ Sarah sighed as she sorted through everything. Setting aside the bills, she picked up the letter from Toby's school and read.
Dear Miss Williams,
We realize that in light of the recent passing of your parents, Toby would have missed a couple days of school. However, the funeral was two weeks ago, and Toby has not yet been back at school. We have left messages on your answering machine that have not yet been returned.
We are concerned about this matter. If this is not taken care of and Toby does not return to school, we will have no choice but to contact social services and inform them of what is going on. Please call the school at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Abigail Stevens
Two weeks? Her and Toby had been gone for two weeks? Sarah's hands started shaking as she looked at the letter from the school. She glanced at the unopened letter from the hospital. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach that the contents of the letter would not be happy. If this is how the school reacted, how would work react with her not showing up for two weeks and for not calling in? Slowly, Sarah opened the letter and read it.
Miss Williams,
It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter to you. Over the past two years, you have been an incredible addition to the staff. You're personality and humor have been warmly welcome. We realize that you parents have recently passed away and that you did in fact need a couple days off. However, you have not been at work for the past two weeks, and you didn't call and let us know and that left us understaffed during some of our most critical times.
Unfortunately, we cannot tolerate this irresponsibility in our nurses. Due to your continued absence and lack of communication, I regret to inform you that you are being released from your duties at the hospital. If there were a way to keep you on staff, we would take that route. However at this time, termination of employment is the only option. Your final check will be mailed to you at the end of the month.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mike Watson
Chief of Staff
With trembling hands, Sarah laid the letter down on the table. Fired. She had been fired. Anger welled up inside Sarah. This was all Jareth's fault. If she found out the he knew about the time difference, she would kill him. She knew there was only one way to find out if he knew about the time, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to see him or not. But it wasn't like she had a choice.
"Toby, I'll be in my room, okay?" Sarah yelled into the living room.
"Okay!" Toby answered.
Sarah walked down the hallway to her room and shut the door behind her. She sat down in front of her vanity mirror and took a deep breath.
"Jareth! I need to talk to you!"
"And what exactly did you want to talk to me about?" a voice said from behind her.
Sarah turned and saw Jareth lying on her bed. She thought back to dinner and couldn't help but think that she had been right. After all, he did show up on her bed.
"Do you think you could get off my bed?" Sarah asked.
Jareth realized how it must look to Sarah after the accusation about dinner, so he stood from the bed and went and leaned against the window.
"Thank you," Sarah said.
"You're welcome. Now what did you wish to see me about?"
"Well, I was wondering if you could explain to me about the time difference between here and the Underground."
Jareth's face went pale as he realized what had happened. He had completely forgotten about how time ran up here as opposed to down there.
"You knew, didn't you?" Sarah asked. "How could you do this to me? To Toby? What were you thinking?"
"I wasn't thinking, and for that I apologize," Jareth said. "I wasn't thinking about the difference in time."
"Do you even realize what has happened?" Sarah said, her voice raising with every word. "Toby has missed two weeks of school and the school is threatening to call Social Services. They can't do that! They can't!"
Sarah collapsed onto her bed, her body shaking with sobs. She couldn't let them take Toby. She wouldn't let them. Jareth walked over and sat on the edge of bed. Sarah felt the bed sink when he sat down and she turned to look at him.
"I can't do this, Jareth," she said between sobs. "I can't lose him to a foster family. He's the only family I have left! But I can't even support him now because I lost my job at the hospital. What am I going to do?"
Jareth pulled Sarah to him and wrapped his arms around her. To his surprise, she didn't pull away. He sat there holding her until he crying had stopped and then looked at her.
"I truly am sorry for everything that happened, Sarah. And I promise you, I will die before I let them take Toby from you," he said softly. "But right now, you need to rest. I'll go out and keep an eye on Toby."
Sarah curled up and laid her head on her pillow. Jareth waved his hand over her and she was soon asleep. He then walked out into the hallway to find Toby. It wasn't hard to find him since the apartment wasn't exactly what you would call big. He looked into the living room and saw Toby asleep on the couch. Jareth decided to just leave him there and walked into the kitchen.
Jareth was surprised at the pile of mail on the table in the kitchen. He didn't think Sarah would mind a little bit of help, so he sat down and started sorting through her bills. He opened each one and read the amount. Using his magic, the money needed to cover the bills and any late fees were deposited where needed. He figured it was the least he could do to help her out.
With the bills taken care of, there wasn't much more for him to do. He stood up from the table and then noticed an envelope lying by the door. He walked over and picked it up.
~State of New York Department of Social Services~ Jareth read. ~This must've fallen when Sarah brought in the rest of the mail.~
Sitting back down at the table, Jareth opened the envelope and began reading the letter.
To: Miss Sarah Marie Williams
From: New York Department of Social Services
Miss Williams,
It has been brought to our attention that you have recently become the guardian of Toby Andrew Williams. We realize that you are legally of age to be his legal guardian, but recent events have caused us to doubt your ability to support your brother.
In the two weeks that you have had custody, Toby has not been in attendance at school. We also contacted your place of employment and they informed us that, due to lack of communication and not notifying them that you would not be at work, your employment with them was terminated.
Miss Williams, we believe it to be in the best interest of young Toby that a social service representative come once a week to check on you. One of our representatives will be contacting shortly regarding the information discussed in this letter. If improvements are not made or anything is found to prove that you cannot support Toby, he will be taken from your custody and placed into a foster home.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Anita Wilson
Director
Jareth sat the letter on the table. He was debating waking Sarah up to inform her of the letter, but knew that with her emotions in the state they were in now, she might very well murder him for reading the letter. He decided to just reseal the envelope and act as though he knew nothing. Things were going to bad enough for her as it was. Toby currently had no memory. Sarah was in great danger of losing the only family she had left.
__________
Sarah woke up and looked at her clock. It was six o'clock in the evening. She couldn't believe she had slept that long. She got out of bed and headed down the hallway to find Toby. She looked in the living room, but he wasn't there. Trying not to panic, Sarah headed to the kitchen hoping Toby was there. She found Toby and noticed that Jareth was also still here.
"Decided to join the land of the living?" Jareth asked as he saw her enter the kitchen.
"Yeah," Sarah asked, her voice still somewhat groggy from sleeping. "I can't believe I slept that long."
"Well, part of that would be my fault. I put a spell on you so you would sleep easier."
"Oh," Sarah said, coming into the kitchen and pouring herself a cup of coffee.
"You're not mad at me?" Jareth asked. He figured Sarah would want to spit nails after finding out he put a sleeping spell on her.
"No. Truthfully, I'm glad you did. I needed the rest."
"Sarah, I'm hungry," Toby said. Sarah looked down in surprise. She had completely forgotten that he was even in here. "Can we go get some food?"
"Uh, sure," Sarah said. "Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know," Toby said. "I don't remember what I like."
Toby looked down at the table, trying hard not to let the tears come. He hated not remembering anything and he knew it wasn't making things easier on anyone. Sarah noticed this and sat down next to her brother.
"Well, your favorite restaurant is Tony's," Sarah said as she ran her hand through Toby's hair. "I remember when you were first learning to read, you thought it said 'Toby's' and decided from then on that it was your restaurant. Do you want to go there?"
"Yeah, let's go there," Toby said. "Is Jareth coming with us?"
Sarah looked up at Jareth, her eyes pleading for him to come.
"Sure, I'll come," he answered. "But I think it would be best if I put on more appropriate attire." With a wave of his hand, Jareth was clothed in blue jeans and t-shirt and actually looked normal. Sarah ran back to her room, grabbed her purse, and the three of them headed out the door.
They arrived at Tony's and were seated in a booth at the back. Their waitress came and took their drink order and left them to look over the menu.
"Sarah?" Toby asked after a couple moments of silence. "Can I get the kids spaghetti dinner?"
Sarah's mouth fell open as she looked at Toby. She tried to control her voice when she replied.
"You're absolutely sure that's what you want?" she asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Because that's what you order every time we come here," Sarah told him. Jareth's eyebrows raised as he realized what was going on. "Did you remember that?"
"I don't know," Toby said. "All I know is I was looking at the menu and that was the only thing I could focus on. No matter what else I looked at, I just kept coming back to that."
"Maybe you're starting to remember," Jareth said. "This could be an indication that you're memory is on it's way back."
"An indi-what?" Toby asked.
"A sign," said Sarah.
"Oh. But can I get that?"
"Of course you can," Sarah said. The three of them looked over the menu's for a couple more minutes and then the waitress came back with their drinks. They placed their orders and the waitress took the menu's and left.
"Does anything else look familiar to you?" Jareth asked.
"Mom! It's Toby!" someone yelled from across the room. "Can I go say hi, please?"
A moment later, a dark haired boy was standing at their table.
"Hey Toby. Where've ya been? I haven't seen you at school."
Sarah looked up at Jareth, panic in her eyes. Toby couldn't tell where they had actually been. They would think he was crazy. Quickly, she spoke up before Toby could say anything.
"Hi there Peter," Sarah said. "How are you?"
"I'm good," Peter answered. "Mom's been worried about you guys, especially when she found out that Toby hasn't been in school. Where has he been anyway?"
"Well, Toby hasn't really been himself lately," Sarah said. "I didn't want to push him to hard after what happened, so I've been staying with him at home. Hopefully he'll be back in school soon."
Just then, Peter's mom came up to the table.
"Hello, Sarah. How are you?"
"I'm doing good Mrs. Anderson. Thank you for asking," Sarah replied. It was almost too much for Sarah too handle. Karen and Mrs. Anderson had always gotten along well, so seeing her was a reminder to Sarah of how much she had lost. Mrs. Anderson then saw Jareth and turned towards him.
"Hi there. I'm Mrs. Anderson, Peter's mother. I don't believe we have met."
"This is uh… my friend Jay," Sarah said quickly as Jareth reached out to shake Mrs. Anderson's hand. "He's a friend from school and came down after he heard about what happened."
"How nice of you," Mrs. Anderson said. "You must think a lot of Sarah and her brother."
"More than they could ever know," Jareth said, glancing at Sarah out of the corner of her eye.
"Well, it looks like our food is arriving at our table. We best be going before it gets cold. Come along, Peter."
Mrs. Anderson and Peter walked back to their table and Toby turned to Sarah with questions in his eyes.
"Who was that?"
"That was Peter. He's your best friend," Sarah replied.
"Oh. And why were talking about me like I wasn't here?" Toby asked.
Sarah looked at Jareth. This wasn't going to be easy. Toby didn't remember his parents, and now he would have to find out that he would never get a chance to meet them.
"I wasn't talking about you, Toby. But this is a conversation that needs to wait until we get home, okay?"
Toby resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn't find out anything more from Sarah at the moment. But that was okay because a few minutes later, they're food arrived and they spent the rest of the meal in silence. Jareth watched them the entire time knowing that the conversation tonight wouldn't be an easy one and wishing will all his strength that there was something he could do to prevent that pain that was sure to come.
__________
Sarah opened the door to her apartment and held it open for Jareth, who was carrying Toby. He had fallen asleep in the car on the way home and she didn't have the heart to wake him up. Jareth carried Toby down to his room and laid Toby down on his bed. Sarah took his shoes off of him and pulled the covers up around room. Silently, she closed the door and walked down to the kitchen. Jareth had already walked down and had coffee waiting for Sarah. She knew he had made it with his magic because there was no way he could've had it made already and she was pretty sure he wouldn't have known what to do anyway.
"Well, it looks like the talk with Toby has at least been delayed another day," Jareth said as he and Sarah sat down at the kitchen table.
"Yeah," Sara said. "I must say that part of me is glad. It'll give me more time to actually think about what I'm going to say to him. It's still not going to be easy, but at least now I can think it through."
"I agree," Jareth stated. "However, I do believe that you and I need to talk."
Sarah looked down at her mug. She knew he wanted to talk about dinner at the palace, but Sarah didn't want to talk about it. She was still a bit angry at him over the whole thing and the last thing she needed right now was to get into another argument with him.
"There's really nothing to say. We both know that I'm upset over what happened," Sarah stated.
"I know you're upset, but I still think you need to hear me out," Jareth said.
"Fine. Talk. I'm listening."
"Very well. I must admit, I was a bit shocked at your outburst during dinner. I couldn't for the life of me figure what had happened to make you so angry," Jareth began. "It was only after you left the dining room and I sat down that I realized what had made you upset."
"Right," Sarah said, looking up at him with disbelief in her eyes. "I'm supposed to believe that you had no clue that I had a plate full of foods that are known aphrodisiacs? Give me a break."
"Sarah, you have to believe me," Jareth said. "I would never to do anything to intentionally harm you, I think you should know that by now. When I realized what my goblin chefs had done, I went to find you. I was going to explain everything then, but that's when you decided that it would be best for you and Toby to return here."
"So you seriously had nothing to do with dinner?" Sarah asked.
"I swear to you on everything I own, I had nothing to do with dinner."
"Then what happened?" Sarah asked.
"Well, I told them to prepare a meal fit for a queen," Jareth said. "I should've known that they would at least know that queens are married to kings and therefore would share the same bed. I guess they were just trying to help out."
"Well then, I am sorry for jumping to conclusions," Sarah said. "But you have to admit that I really didn't have a reason not to believe you had something to do with that."
"You never learn do you?" Jareth asked.
"Learn what?" Sarah asked.
"Never mind," Jareth said. "I have an idea though. What do you say we just start over. We can pretend the whole dinner fiasco never happened."
"Deal," Sarah said. She got up from the table and headed towards the living room. Before she left the kitchen, she turned back around. "Just wondering, how long do you think it will last?"
"How long will what last?" Jareth asked as he also stood up from the table.
"Us getting along. It's only a matter of time 'til one of us says or does something to set the other one off."
"Who knows. But let's not worry about that right now."
Sarah walked into the living room, sat on the couch and turned on the television. Jareth followed and sat down next to her. In no time at all, both of them were sound asleep.
__________
Sarah awoke the next morning to the phone ringing and reached for the phone next to the couch.
"Hello?" she said, trying to sound alert.
"Hi. My name is Scott Thomas. Is this Sarah Williams?" the voice on the other end asked.
"Yes, this is she. May I help you?"
"I'm calling from the Social Services department concerning Toby Williams," Scott said. "I've been assigned to the case and I'm wanting to set up a time to come over and meet with you."
"What case?" Sarah asked.
"A letter was sent out a couple days ago informing you that because of Toby's continued absence from school and the loss of your job, social services was being called to make sure everything stayed in order."
"I'm afraid I haven't seen the letter," Sarah said. "Although I did receive a letter from the school expressing their concern. But I think it is rather unnecessary for social services to be involved in what is strictly a family problem."
"Yes, I realize that your parents have recently just passed away," Scott said, "but two weeks is a bit long for a child to be out of school, especially without notification. So I would appreciate it if you could make some time for me to meet with you."
"Okay fine. Um, do you want to come over around one o'clock this afternoon?"
"Sounds fine. I'll see you then. Bye."
Sarah hung the phone and closed her eyes to go back to sleep. Her eyes flew back open as she realized that she wasn't in her bed and she wasn't alone either. She was lying on the couch and there was someone laying there with her. Sarah turned her head and screamed when she saw Jareth sleeping next to her on the couch.
"Ahhh! What are you doing?" Sarah screamed. Jareth woke up and sat straight up.
"What's going on?" he asked. "Sarah, are you okay? Why are you screaming?"
"I'm screaming because I woke up and found you sleeping next to me! What do you think you were doing? What if Toby had come out here and saw you there?"
"I guess I fell asleep and didn't realize it," Jareth said as he got off the couch.
"So we didn't…" Sarah trailed off, not wanting to finish her question.
"Not to my knowledge," Jareth said. ~And that's one thing I would never forget.~ he added to himself.
"Good," Sarah said with a sigh of relief. "I hate to do this, but you're going to have to leave now. A guy from social services is coming at one and I have a lot of work to do. I have to convince him that I can take care of Toby."
"Why don't I stay for just awhile," Jareth suggested. "Cleaning this place with magic would be a lot faster."
Sarah had to agree with him on that.
"Okay, that's fine. But I have some bills I need to sort through. That I have to do," Sarah said as she headed towards the kitchen.
"Actually that's already taken care of," Jareth called after her. "I took care of that yesterday while you were sleeping."
"How?" Sarah asked. "You don't have access to my bank account."
"I just looked at the amount on each bill and sent the money wherever it needed to go."
"You did what?" Sarah asked, shock registering on her face.
"I took care of it while you were sleeping," Jareth stated.
Sarah was silent. There wasn't really anything for her to say. She stood there for a moment trying to decide what to say. What could she say?
"Um, okay. Thanks," Sarah said. "Well, since I guess there's nothing left for me to do out here, I'm going to go take a shower. If Toby wakes up, tell him just to sit tight and I'll be out shortly."
Sarah turned and walked to the bathroom and Jareth watched her go, muttering to himself as she walked away.
"If you need any help, I would be more than happy to assist you."
__________
Sarah emerged from her bedroom thirty minutes later. Her hair was still wet and was hanging down her back. She had pulled on a pair of jeans and one of her nicer shirts so that she wouldn't have to worry about changing before the social services worker got there. When she walked into the kitchen, the smell of bacon, eggs, and pancakes hit her nose. She stopped in mid-stride and couldn't believe what she saw. Standing by the stove was Jareth and sitting at the table was Toby, happily eating breakfast.
"What in the world is going on?" Sarah asked.
"Jareth can cook!" Toby said. "These pancakes are really good. He even brought peaches for them! You should try some!"
Sarah sat down at the table and stared at the plate that Jareth sat down in front of her.
"Don't worry, Sarah," Jareth said. "The peaches are safe."
"I'm not sure if it's the peaches I'm worried about," Sarah said. "I think I'm mostly worried about the fact that you can cook."
"I can't cook," Jareth stated. "It's the magic."
"But you're standing over the stove," Sarah pointed out.
"All for appearances. Believe me, you wouldn't be in this room right now if I had actually tried to cook."
Gathering up all the nerve she had, Sarah took a bit of the food in front of her. She had to admit, it was pretty good.
"Hey Sarah, are you going to finish the conversation from last night?" Toby asked.
"What conversation?"
"When I thought you were talking about me but you said you weren't."
"Oh, that conversation," Sarah said, her voice becoming softer. "Toby, why don't we go into the living room, okay?"
Toby and Sarah walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. Jareth followed behind and sat in the chair. He wasn't sure if Sarah wanted him in there or not, but he knew this wasn't going to be easy so he decided to be there in case he was needed.
"The truth is Toby, I was talking about our parents at Tony's last night," Sarah began. "I know you don't remember this, but before we went to Jareth's place, something bad happened. That's why you were at my house to begin with."
Toby didn't like the sound of Sarah's voice. True, he didn't remember anything about her, but he knew that whatever she was going to say wasn't going to be good.
"What happened?" Toby asked.
"Well, there was a fire. You had gone to stay all night with Peter," Sarah said.
"The kid from the restaurant, right?" Toby asked.
"Right. So you were there and I was sitting right on that chair looking out the window. I heard the sirens going off and since I was bored, I decided to follow them. They went to Mom and Dad's house." Sarah stopped talking as the events from that night started replaying in her mind.
"You'll need to stand back, Miss," the officer said. "Give them room to work."
"You don't understand," Sarah said fighting back tears. "This is my parents home."
The police officer looked at her sadly. Sarah saw the look in his eyes.
"What?" Sarah asked. "What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"They just wheeled your parents out of the house a moment ago. It appears they were asleep when the fire started and didn't get out in time. I'm sorry."
Toby shook Sarah to try and get her out of her trance.
"Sarah? What happened?" he asked, his eyes wide with concern.
"Mom and Dad were asleep when the fire started. The police think the fire alarm failed to go off. Mom and Dad didn't make it out of the house in time," Sarah said, looking at Toby to see if he understood.
"They died?" Toby asked, tears starting to form in his eyes. Sarah eyes started tearing up as well.
"Yes, they did," Sarah said softly, the tears she was trying desperately to hold back falling freely down her face.
"I don't even remember them," Toby said, tears starting to fall down his face as well.
"I know you don't. But remember this, they loved you very much and want you to be happy."
"But I'll never get to meet them!" Toby said. "I don't remember them and now I'll never get to see them again!" Toby was crying freely now, the pain of losing the parents he didn't remember hitting him full force.
Sarah wrapped her arms around Toby and pulled him to her. Brother and sister clung to each other and cried the tears that Sarah thought were long gone. Across the room, a tear slipped unnoticed down the cheek of the King sitting in the chair.
__________