AN: Oh, my!! I'm sorry, guys! I honestly didn't mean to let this go so long without updating. And, then, this week was finals week…I'm glad to say it's finally over though! Anyway, this chapter is short, a transitional chapter, but still rather important. There are only a couple of chapters left! Anyway, I once again give you all my deepest apologies. Expect the rest to be up relatively soon. And, this has absolutely NO relation to anything, but… I have David Bowie's songs "Absolute Beginners", "John I'm Only Dancing", and "Blue Jean" stuck in my head (I'm known for getting multiple songs stuck in my head at the same time)...and wouldn't you know they don't sound too bad mixed together….however, "Dominic, the Italian Christmas Donkey" is throwing things off a bit… Maybe I should lay off the Starbucks for awhile, my body's not used to processing excess amounts of caffeine. In the meantime, enjoy, read, and review!! ~ Saphire

Disclaimer: What would happen if I actually decided to take credit for the Labyrinth? Would anyone believe me? Yeah…I didn't think so. Y'know, I've heard that, while polite, disclaimers are useless and don't really change the "illegality" of fanfiction. But, maybe that's just a load of…yeah… Oh, D'Vinnian, Kajna, Peake, and Drathsar are mine.

Chapter twenty-four: The Reminder

Sometime later in the night, Jareth awoke. The Labyrinth sky was pitch black, dotted with the diamond glittering of the stars. Light from the crystalline moon poured in through the window, casting a silver glow over everything. For a moment, the Goblin King thought of nothing. Slowly, he let the memories from the evening seep in, a smile curling his lips. He felt Sarah shiver slightly beside him and he turned to look at her, pulling the covers up higher around her, though he wished he could admire her in the moonlight. He swiped a lock of her still damp hair off of her forehead, and Sarah shifted towards his touch in her sleep.

"Precious thing, you've done so much," Jareth whispered gently.

Everything that the woman had been through in the past few days, and she had risen above it all. Jareth was not surprised; he would have expected no less from Sarah. She looked like an angel to him in the moonlight, and he smirked, knowing that the description was less than accurate in daylight. Ten years he had waited for the privilege of being where he was now. In the position he was in, next to her body, looking at her sleeping form, it didn't seem like such a long time.

Now, things would be as they were. His Labyrinth had grown, his kingdom had healed. His power had returned in full. And, now he had Sarah by his side. And, for a moment, as he lay there, Jareth was truly able to live a fantasy.

But, as he knew, all dreams end, and his were no exceptions. Sighing gently in her sleep, Sarah moved her hand to the top of the blanket. The moonlight streaming through the window was just enough to catch on something on her finger and it flared white in Jareth's eyes. Picking up her hand softly, so as not to wake her up, the Goblin King looked at Sarah's engagement ring, all mirth leaving his body completely. Now was the time to face facts. No matter how many times he called her "his Sarah", it wasn't true. The ring was glaring proof of that. And, she had never taken it off. He sighed.

"What have I put you through?" he whispered to her and Sarah sighed again.

What indeed. He had taken her from her home, forced her back Underground, yelled at her, manipulated her. Nothing to earn her love, her heart. And yet, here she was beside him, in his bed….where she didn't belong.

She was a human. She was from Aboveground. And she had gone ten years without thinking of the Labyrinth. Ten years in which she moved on and lived her life. No, Sarah was not his.

He dropped her hand and rolled away from her, looking out his window at the sky. What to do? Force her to stay and never mention her fiancé again? Convince her to give up her life, her friends, her family, her fiancé Aboveground to be with him? Send her home?

How could he possibly send her home when she slept beside him so peacefully, so trustingly? How could he cope knowing that she loved him and would never be his? And yet, how could he keep her here, knowing that she should be somewhere else? Loving someone sometimes meant losing them. And Jareth knew that he was going to lose Sarah. After ten years of waiting, after one night together, he would lose her. It was true. Love was pain. And he wished that he had never felt that softening of his heart that decade ago as she traipsed through his land. He wished that his soul hadn't melted during their first dance together when she was still a child. His whole life he had believed emotions to be a weakness. And he had saved himself pain and humiliation by shunning them all.

Now, here he was, every beat of his heart pumping a pain through him because of one simple mortal that meant more to him than anything else in his life. He knew the pain would be worse when he actually sent her back. She wouldn't understand. She would fight him. And Jareth, even with all of his full power returned, wasn't sure he could handle that. So, how to make her want to leave? The only way he could think of…his eyes clenched tightly knowing the outcome already.

He rolled back over towards Sarah, wrapping her tightly in his embrace and continuing to watch her the rest of the night.