A.N.: Well, I've been getting good responses so far, so I guess my little story isn't a completely lost cause. Lovely. In that case, I'm going to try and start making these chapters a little longer – consider it a show of my appreciation for you and the reviews I know you will dutifully leave at the end of the chapter. Theme song: "Half a Mind" by the Verve Pipe.

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine except for the 5 shady guys at the end of this chapter.

2 months later

"Shit shit shit! Oh fuck!" Sarah wailed.

"What's your problem?" Beth asked from the couch. Sarah emerged from the bathroom, a pregnancy test in one hand.

"Well, at least this explains the vomiting every morning" she said as she held up the stick with the bright blue plus sign for Beth to see.

"Oh holy…wait a sec, how did this happen? I'm your best friend Sarah, why didn't you tell me you were with someone?"

Sarah sighed and tried to think of the best way to describe her rather surreal night without sounding completely nuts. She decided to be as honest as possible; Beth certainly deserved that much, even if she wasn't quite ready to hear the whole story.

"Because I wasn't even sure it had happened."

Beth looked a bit skeptical.

"Remember my birthday?" Sarah pressed.

"Of course…most of it. And you were with me the whole night."

"Until you passed out. I wasn't tired and, well, you know me when I've been drinking. I get kind of…"

"Horny?" Beth suggested.

"I thought lecherous sounded a bit nicer" Sarah said, "but anyway, you passed out and I wasn't ready to call it a night so I…ran into a guy I used to know. I guess we were on the same wavelength 'cause one thing led to another… Anyway, the next morning I was in bed, alone, and just hung-over enough to think it was a dream. I mean, hell, I even had pajamas on!"

"That must be how you got that tattoo too, then. See, I knew it wasn't with me. Even drunk I would have remembered those needles" Beth shivered at the thought. Sarah rubbed the back of her neck absently. She had gone to a couple of doctors to see about getting it removed, but nothing had worked. She had grown used to it over time although she had puzzled for the last two months why it had seemed to be completely healed the morning after. "Guess that answers that" she mumbled, a little peeved that Jareth had marked her without so much as a by your leave.

"So who was this guy? It wasn't Jeremy, right? Please say no" Beth asked, concern written in her blue eyes

at the thought of Sarah re-entangling herself with the ex.

"Oh Lord no. I already gave him my virginity, I'll be damned if I give him a child."

"Whew. That's a relief. But then who was it? Someone I know?"

"No, no, but um…do you remember that guy I was so hung up on in highschool?"

"The one you wrote bad poetry about?"

"Yeah…let's not mention that, alright? Diaries are generally considered PRIVATE you know"

"Come on, it's me. You should have known better. So you're telling me five years later this mystery man shows back up, on your birthday no less, convinces you to get a tattoo and then gets you fucking pregnant! Are you sure it wasn't a dream? Those things can be wrong, you know."

"Not if you consider the other two in the trash can that say the same thing."

Sarah flopped down on the couch, burying her head in her hands. Beth sat down next to her and wrapped her arm around Sarah's

shoulders.

"Do you think you'll…you know…keep it?"

"Of course. Don't worry, I won't offend your pro-life sensibilities, Beth." She smiled bitterly, running her hand over her stomach. "No, I want this baby, but I don't know what I'm going to do. I mean, I can't really explain this and I certainly can't stay here where everyone knows me. Can you imagine me running into Karen at the grocery store or something? I'm not ready to handle all this!"

They were quiet for awhile until Beth shot up and exclaimed, "Wait a sec! My aunt Tori! She lives in Florida, far away from everyone we know. She's got a little shop down there and I know she'll help us out!"

"I don't know, Beth, I don't want to impose."

"You won't. I will"

When Sarah looked at her rather blankly Beth just rolled her eyes.

"You don't really think I'm going to let my pregnant best friend go out into the world by herself, do you? Now stay here while I call Aunt Tori."

* * *

Jareth slammed another book shut and flung it off the desk. "Damn, damn, damn" he muttered to himself. He had searched through just about every book in his library looking for some sort of loophole, but it seemed nothing short of a miracle was going to let him cheat destiny this time. He had known that dawn would automatically return him to the Labyrinth; he had meant to tell Sarah as much, but then nothing about that night had gone quite the way he'd planned. He smiled in spite of himself; he certainly hadn't minded the way it had turned out, only that now he had no way of getting back to her on his own. He had left the owl etched on her neck in hopes that it would remind her – something a little subtler than a Dear John note left on the pillow. However, she either had no interest in contacting him again or she had been drunker than he thought and didn't remember. He found the latter highly unlikely, but it was a much better option than thinking that she now wanted nothing to do with him, and so he clung to it and continued searching for some way to contact her. He hadn't even been able to watch her through his crystals anymore, a side effect he hadn't counted on. He had known after his visit on the eve of her adulthood that he could not come to her anymore without her calling him, but he had thought he would at least be granted the gift of watching over her. Fortunately, the tattoo he had left was imprinted with a protection spell.

Meanwhile, deep in the mountains bordering Jareth's realm a group of five men met in the conference hall. Once used by kings, it had fallen into dusty ruins. The five gathered were the only ones left of their kind who remembered – for now.

"It's definite. She's with child." The first, Azreal, announced.

The other four whispered amongst themselves before Goden asked, "Does he know?"

"How could he? You know the rules as well as I do. He cannot contact her in any way unless she initiates it."

"And what's to stop her from doing that?" Briant, the youngest, pressed.

"I distorted her memory of their night together. She has passed it off as a dream for two months now only to realize that it was in fact true and he has made no effort to contact her. She will assume he wants nothing to do with her and so will not initiate contact herself."

"You seem to know an awful lot about the minds of women Azreal. What makes you so sure of yourself? If you're wrong it will be the end of us." Keiv countered.

Trey, the only one who had remained silent up to this point, now spoke up, "He won't be wrong because I am going to ensure our success."

"And just how do you plan on doing that?" Keiv asked.

"We are sending him Aboveground" Azreal answered. "He will gain the woman's confidence and thus secure the child for us. Once we have the child we can harness its power to regain control of the kingdom. The Goblin King won't be able to do anything to stop us."