AN: First off a special thank you to Arduinna and Silver Space for their multiple reviews. And thank you to my other reviewers as for R/R as well! Lots of interesting things revealed in this chapter! Please read on.

Disclaimer: um yeah, still in chapter one.



Shattered

Jareth could only watch her as she struggled desperately to collect herself. It became a losing battle as she buried her face into her hands, soft sobs wracking her body. The images of Mark hitting her, the tone of his voice, his raw anger were so fresh in her mind now that she swore it had happened only minutes before. Her perfect little world had begun to crumble when Laura died and fell further when Mark seduced her that same night. It had nearly crumbled to dust when he had beaten her. She had hidden from him and the only comfort she found was when she spent time with Josh. He made her laugh with his childish sayings and innocence. She had never expected Mark to hit her, never.

Her sobbing subsided, but she let her face remain in her hands. After a few moments she raised her head to see Jareth leaning against a tree opposite of her. She hastily wiped her eyes to gaze up at him. He looked shaken and she could hardly blame him. He had tried to wake her and she had acted as if she were deathly afraid of him. "Jareth, I.." She peered into his eyes and saw her pain and loss mirrored in their depths. Could he be feeling what she felt? But how? He tore his eyes from her and turning his head to the side, closed them. His long wild mane fell around him covering his expression from her. "Jareth." She tried desperately. "Please look at me." Her eyes brimmed with fresh tears when he would not oblige her. "Jareth, please." Her voice sounded frail and as if she would begin to cry again. Finally he slowly turned to look at her. His handsome face was twisted with pain, her pain. She moved to him, suddenly forgetting what she felt, to comfort him. "How is this possible?" She asked. His eyes watched her every movement as she slowly made her way to his side.

He licked his lips. "How is what possible?" He was suddenly becoming cold. His eyes swirled with arrogance once again as he began to fight and block out the emotions he had let invade him.

She stopped her advance as she watched him change his attitude in a matter of moments. "Jareth."

"What do you want from me?" he spit out bitterly.

"Nothing, I…" She began to retreat from him, fear in her eyes.

He sighed heavily and raised one hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry." He whispered. A silence drifted between them and Jareth knew he owed her some sort of an explanation. "This is not any easier on me then it is on you." He let his hand fall from his face to his side and he allowed himself to look at her. She stood perfectly still. Her long hair fell in curls around her shoulders. Even with tear stained cheeks and red eyes swollen from crying, she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The arrogance faded from his eyes and from his stance and he allowed himself once again to appear vulnerable before her. *Twice in the course of less then 10 minutes. * He had never let anyone see him like this before, never mind twice.

Words seemed to fail him now as he desperately thought of what to tell her now that her complete attention was focused on him. *Tell her the truth. * He walked to her and gently took her hand into his own, beckoning her to sit on the grass beside him. Keeping a light hold on her he began to speak. "I must tell you that this is not easy on me. I don't usually bare myself to anyone, let alone allow my emotions to take such a hold over me that their reactions can be seen. I may only be the Goblin King, not the High King of Gelfon or Narea, but I take my duties seriously. I can not appear weak, not even for a moment in front of my subjects or else they may lose their trust and faith in me. Showing any emotion other then anger, dominance or arrogance could lead to appearing weak. I have relied on those emotions to guide me as I rule that I rarely feel anything other then what I appear to show. I don't feel happiness or joy very often and I certainly don't enjoy the feeling of losing." His heart was thumping in his chest as he gazed at her. She was very interested in what he was telling her and her gaze did not falter even as he let his eyes fall intensely upon her. "Everything changed after you defeated me. Everything as I knew it was altered and I did not know how to deal with the after affects. No one has ever felt regret at defeating me and nor should they. I'm a tyrant who wields his power and I am to be obeyed. But you, not only did you defeat me quickly and as deviously as I would have done, but you regretted defeating me." He cocked his head and raised a brow at her. There was a mixture of arrogance and uneasiness in his blue and hazel eyes. "That simply is not done. That still should not have altered things, but it did. After being defeated, it takes me 4 years to regain my strength and power. Normally during these years I rule especially hard, as I plan for the defense of my kingdom. I don't take being beaten lightly and I put all my effort into making sure that I won't lose again. But in the years that followed my loss to you, I didn't plan. I didn't rule with an iron fist and I didn't prepare the defenses of my Labyrinth." She looked confused as he told her this and his lips formed a thin line.

"I was confused as well." He nearly cried out, raising both brows and shaking his head. "Why wasn't I running around shouting orders for new weaponry to be made? Why wasn't I making sure that the Goblins sharpened their fighting skills?" He let a silence sit and when she shrugged at him he leaned in closer to her. "I was preoccupied. Preoccupied with these new feelings that had found their way into my being. I was too busy using my crystals to look into the Aboveground instead of creating new spells to distract new comers. And I was too busy making sure that the little girl who had pitied me was still alive and well." Her eyes widened when he told her this and he sat back releasing her hand. "Only the little girl was not so little any longer. By now she was 17 years old and very quickly becoming a woman." Jareth leaned back on his hands and bent one long leg towards him. "She was alive and very well. Doing well in school, taking incredibly good care of her little cousin and she had captured the heart of a young man." He sat up crossing one leg over the other and pulled at his black gloves, pulling them further onto his hands. "This should have satisfied me, yet it didn't. In fact seeing this young woman again for the first time in 4 years, made me yearn to see her in the flesh. But that was a very foolish thought. I may be a creature of magic, but even that magic has its limits and I am not above rules. So I watched in silence. Occasionally traveling to the aboveground in the form of an owl to see her, but never letting myself to be seen. My goblins grew fat and their fighting skills did not improve. Their armor grew rusty and sat in closets forgotten by all but the dust. And their King became obsessed with this girl. He was not content unless he knew that she was content and well. And for a time, she was and the King began to become involved in his Kingdom again. He began to forget about the girl until something awful happened. Grief seeped into his soul, a sense of loss he had never known. The girl was in trouble. She felt loss and so did the King. He began to watch her again and he watched as she was taken advantage of, as she fell into despair and ultimately as she was changed forever by the hand of a man she loved and who claimed to love her. The King tried to protect her but he was nearly powerless to help her. Even as he stood over her and willed her to sleep and forget what the man had done to her. For he didn't possess the power that could make her forget her ordeal. And so they both suffered in silence. A little different then the fairy tale ending they give in the book. Perhaps I should add a few chapters to your favorite childhood novel." He added almost bitterly.

By now Samantha had shifted her gaze and she couldn't look at him. If he had become obsessed with her and so closely linked that he could sense her emotions, could he be… *No way! Jareth could not be telling me he fell in love with me. Could he? * She looked at him quickly to see him staring at her curiously. She looked away and then to him again to find him still looking at her in the same manner. "I..I had no idea." She managed to let out.

"No you didn't. And that's what nearly hurts the most." He admitted. "You knew nothing of my anguish, only your own. You had even forgotten me, but of course I didn't know that. I thought you remembered me and my Labyrinth. I had even dared to hope you would call for me, on more then one occasion, but you never did." His tone remained bitter. "So I tried to pick up the pieces and move on to show my Kingdom that their King had not faltered. They had not seen me suffer, I had not allowed them to see it, so things went on almost like usual. All except for their King, who at every opportunity sought to see the girl and gave into temptation." Jareth leaned closer to her. After a few moments he dared to lean closer so that the two of them sat with very little space between them. "And he finally found the courage to go to her. For only two things can bring the Goblin King to the Aboveground in his true powerful form. When he is summoned…" he leaned closer and Samantha found herself leaning towards him. She parted her lips and closed her eyes as she felt his warm breath on her face. Jareth's eyes searched her face and then he too closed his eyes, leaning closer still. His voice became a passionate whisper. "And to tell her that he-"

"Your majesty there you are! The cooks bid me to tell you that dinner is ready." Jareth's eyes shot open at the sound of the voice behind him. The moment he had waited so long for was shattered as easily as one of his crystal balls. He pulled back from Samantha with pure rage in his eyes and he stood quickly to address the goblin that had dared to take from him the moment he had waited 5 years for. The goblin shrank back in fear at the sight of the enraged Goblin King. *You could not have waited just a few more moments before you interrupted me, could you? * He wanted to cry out. Instead he sighed.

"Tell the cooks that we will be in shortly and that my dining room had better be cleaned, the table set and the fire lit by the time we arrive." His tone was angry and the Goblin nodded quickly and made himself scare in an awful hurry. Jareth waited until his anger was under control before he turned to Samantha. She was still sitting on the grass, leaning back on one hand with her legs bent forward in front of her. She gave him a lop-sided smile and despite himself he felt the corner of his lips turn up slightly. He sighed and bent down offering her a hand, which she accepted. He pulled her to her feet and for a moment more he held onto her hand. "We should both wash and dress for dinner." He said regretfully.

She nodded and together they began to pick up the remains of their picnic. Jareth put the handle of the basket over his arm and they walked into the castle. They went their separate ways upon entering, her to the left so that she could go to her room and he to the right to find the safety of his own private quarters. He stopped to watch her walk the other way and he felt the anger rise in him again. A crystal ball appeared in his clenched palm, only after she had walked up the stairs and away from his field of vision. He angrily hurled the crystal into the hard stone wall finding a sick satisfaction at watching it shatter into thousands of tiny pieces. The anger faded rapidly and he looked at the broken glass with heartfelt misery. "I was so close…" he whispered and he continued to his own room.