PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE CONTINUING!: Author's Notes: So you readers aren't confused, the reason Sarah ran away from dancing with Jeremiah was because the song he was singing was the song playing on the radio when her mother died. Sorry I didn't specify before. Also, when I call Jareth: Jeremiah, or Mr. Smith, we are in the real world, and he, well, looks normal. However, when we are in the Underground, we call him Jareth. Read on and if I still haven't answered any questions you want answered by the time this fic is over, put it in your review, and I will answer it during the Author's notes. Don't worry though…this story is nowhere near over yet. Nowhere near it.
From Mary Poppins…don't ask why. Read on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter 4: Doctor's Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A sudden bright light in her face made Sarah wake up from a fitful sleep. "Where…" she began. She was surprised at her own voice. It was hoarse and weak. She then realized she was not in the park, nor was she at home. She sat up and found herself in a bed in a room themed completely in red and white with black accents. "Well you've finally woken up. Feeling any better?" Jareth said calmly from the window. He was twirling 3 crystal balls in his hand and smiling at her. Despite his smile, however, he looked exhausted, as if he had been up all night. "You look terrible." Sarah said. Jareth laughed softly. "You're looking about the same." Sarah didn't see any mirrors, but did notice she was still dressed in the clothes she had on the night before, but they were not soaking wet, but dry. She looked at Jareth. "A little spell on my part. Frankly, I don't like getting wet. I don't know about you, though." Sarah laughed.
"Where am I?" It was the first question on her mind. "Underground." Jareth said simply, making the crystals disappear with a small ~pop~. "Why am I Underground?" Sarah asked slowly. "You need to rest, Sarah." Jareth came over and sat on the edge of the bed, a worried look on his face. A look Sarah had never seen on him before. "You have been running around for the past four years, trying to do something that is, in fact, impossible. Even here." "And that is?" Sarah asked impatiently. "Change the past. You cannot undo what has been done, Sarah, and avoiding the past altogether is killing you. This is how weak it's made you." Sarah frowned. "I'm not weak!!" She sat up but when she went to get out of bed, she couldn't. "Ow…alright, so I was wrong. Am I this weak back home, too?" Jareth nodded slowly. "On the inside. You have such a strong will…it's no wonder you've been able to stay on your feet this long. But you're lucky I came when I did. You could've been seriously hurt." You have such a strong will. The words stuck in Sarah's head.
"I don't want to think about it." Sarah said suddenly. It was true--she was avoiding the past. Why she was doing it, she didn't know. A searing pain shot through her head, and she lay back down. "Ow…owowow…" "See? You are hurting yourself." Jareth said with a smug expression on his face. "You should get some sleep. Your mother would've wanted you to rest. She wouldn't want you to be running away from what happened. She just wants you to accept it, Sarah." "What do YOU know about my mother?!!" Sarah snapped at Jareth. As soon as she'd said it, she regretted it. "Oh…Jareth…I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." But the look of hurt on his face didn't go away and Sarah wondered why she had never seen this side of him before. Jareth sighed. "It was expected. I didn't tell you I know your mother."
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"YOU WHAT?!!!" Sarah exploded. Her voice, however, was still hoarse and cracked. "Why didn't you tell me?" She said. "You wouldn't have believed me then." Jareth said. "YES I WOULD!!" Sarah retorted. Then she thought about how she was last year, and how she had changed since then. She realized maybe she wouldn't have believed him. "Well, I guess I wouldn't have then, but tell me now!" She said with all the hopefulness of a child waiting to hear a bedtime story. "Some other day. For now, you need to sleep. You need it." Sarah gaped at him. "You expect me to go to sleep after I find out you've met my mother before?!!" Jareth grinned. "Yes."
Sarah pondered it for a moment. She would certainly like to be away from all of her responsibilities for a while…her responsibilities… She sat up quickly, only to fall back down. "Toby! Who's going to watch Toby? And what if Karen and Dad come home and don't see us there? They're going to think we ran off or something…or worse, that you kidnapped me." Jareth smiled. "Don't worry about that. I froze time. We will get back at the same time we left…not in the pouring rain though. I took liberty and brought us back to your house, so we could dry off." Sarah gaped at him. "How did you do that?" Jareth gave her a childlike grin. "Magic."
"Still…I still want to be at home." "Why?" "Well…" Sarah looked guiltily at him. "I want my cat." Jareth smiled and produced a crystal out of thin air and threw it onto the bed. But when it hit the covers, Sarah felt something soft hit it, not hard glass. A muffled, pitiful mew came from inside the deep folds of the bed. "Alpha!" Sarah cried while scooping the cat out of her feathery prison. "Are you okay?" Sarah grinned at Jareth. "I love it when you do that." "Now will you go to sleep?" Sarah sighed. "Fine. Goodnight." Alpha settled down in a small, furry ball by Sarah's head. She lay back down in the covers as Jareth turned the lights out and stepped out of the room. "Oh," he said absentmindedly. He walked back over to where Sarah was, and kissed her lightly on the forehead. "Sweet dreams." He strutted happily out of the room, Sarah still gaping at him as he shut the door behind him.
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Sarah wasn't sure how long she slept. She would wake up in-between long periods of blissful sleep to see either a goblin or Jareth by the window, staring at her. She didn't feel the need to sleep or drink, or do anything for that matter, except sleep. But the sleep was good, and every time she woke up she felt a bit stronger than she had before. It was, unfortunately, a dreamless sleep, so Sarah had no idea what her brain was doing while she was asleep. Soon she thought she would die of boredom when she heard voices in the hallway. They sound familiar… Sarah thought to herself. Jareth entered the room and looked her in the face. "Ah, you're awake. Excellent. Come on in, if you must, but don't keep her up too long or I will throw you in the Bog of Eternal Stench."
Four familiar faces peeked around the door as Hoggle groaned. "We know, we know." "Makes no difference to me, your highness." Said Sir Didymus, walking in. "Sarah." Ludo said. "HOGGLE! Ludo! Sir Didymus! Hi Ambrosious." The four of them came up to the edge of the bed and grinned at her collectively. "Hello, my lady. How art thou?" Hoggle patted his hand on the bedspread. "Hope you're feeling better. Sarah." Ambrosious, seeing this as an invitation to jump up on the bed, did so. Alpha, who had been staring curiously at the visitors, now hissed. "NO! Ambrosious! NO!" Sir Didymus scolded. The dog whined and jumped back down as Alpha stopped hissing at him. "Sorry, my lady." "Ludo, feel bad. Sarah okay?" Ludo asked gently. "Yes, Ludo, I'm feeling much better. Maybe only one more day of sleep and I'll be fine."
"That's good." Jareth said, appearing in the doorway again. "Oh. But we just got here, your highness!" Hoggle said. "Well, you can talk to her after she's better." Ludo frowned. "Sarah, feel better soon." "Thank you, Ludo. I will." Ludo walked past Jared, looking forlorn, and proceeded out the door into the hallway. "Well, m'lady, I hope you will fare better. It gets quite boring around here without you." He took a gracious bow and got on Ambrosious to leave. Hoggle looked at Sarah with a smile. "Remember, should you need us," "Yes, should you need us, for any reason at all…" Sir Didymus finished. "She'll call." Jareth finished. Hoggle glared at Jareth for speaking for him, but walked back out with a smile. Sir Didymus was last, leaving Jareth and Sarah alone. "Well, do get better soon. Everyone is waiting until you do." Jareth said coyly. Sarah smiled. "I think I will." They both smiled at one another, and Jareth left again while Sarah fell asleep.
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The next day, when Sarah woke up, she felt extremely hungry. She sat up and got out of bed before she even realized what she was doing. "Hey…I got up." She looked around and stretched along with Alpha. "I got up!!" She ran to the door and opened it. A really long hallway was in front of her, with tons of doors in every direction. Not sure where to go, she instead shouted: "I FEEL BETTER NOW!!!" She heard a shout downstairs echoing her cry, and a few more. Suddenly there was a scuffling noise, and a bunch of goblins ran through a door, panting and tumbling over one another. They skidded past her and tumbled into her room as Alpha came out to see what all the noise was. The door slammed shut behind the goblins, trapping them inside and narrowly missing Alpha's tail. Sarah picked up the cat and watched a small crystal bounce up the steps in the doorway and go back down. "This way, Alpha." She followed the crystal downstairs and smiled as it landed in front of Jareth. "Hello, Sarah. Your hair is messed up." Sarah realized there was a mirror in the corner of the room. She walked up to it and saw that her hair was positively messy, but her face was shining and not quite as pale as it had been before. She looked ten times better, and Jareth didn't look like he had been awake all night.
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