A/N: I'm sure you're not interested in my personal life or anything, but recent developements in my own romances led the first versions of this plot to be something like, "and Sarah beat Jareth over the head with a shovel for being such a jerk, and went and joined a convent, damn it." Not very applicable to the plot, you see. Hopefully I have something acceptable for you now, and chapter seven is about halfway done. Let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: Chapter title by Savatage, "Chance." Characters, settings, and other recognizable elements should be credited to Jim Henson, Labyrinth Enterprises and others.

Never and Forever

Chapter Six

Father Can You Hear Me, This is Not How it was Meant to Be

No life so short it can't turn around

You can't spend you're life living underground

Far from above, you don't hear a sound

And I'm out here, waiting

I don't understand what you want me to be

It's the dark you're hating

It's not who I am but I know that it's all that you see

                        ~ Savatage "Not What You See"

            Sarah didn't sleep much that night.  She had lain in the guestroom Lomaria had made up for her; staring out the window and watching the stars glow against the night sky.  And then she had watched the sunrise, casting puddles of orange light over the Goblin City.  She'd spent most of the night going over one memory after another, and calculating the days.  One day going through the Labyrinth, two spent unconscious in Jareth's bed.  One day going through the Labyrinth again, then more time in Jareth's bed... Other than coming across a very disturbing pattern, Sarah knew what day it was without a doubt.  Her sixteenth birthday.

~

            "Oh Robert?  Come on down.  It's another letter from Sarah!"  Karen called up the stairs, riffling through the stack of mail she had just picked up.  Robert ran down the stairs as carefully as he could, as he held Toby in his arms, who was soaking wet, wrapped in a towel and laughing brightly as he gripped a small ball.

            "Well don't just stand there," Robert laughed, shifting his son to his other arm.  "Open it."

            "Dear Dad and Karen," Karen read quickly, "I'm really liking it out here at Aunt Susan's.  She's been really sweet and totally accommodating.  She says hi, by the way.  I just wanted to thank you for being so understanding.  School is going much better out here, and Karen, you'll be thrilled to know I met this guy... Sorry Dad!  Anyways, Aunt Susan wants to show me around, so I'll this will have to be a short letter.  One of her neighbors has a stable, so I might learn to ride.  I miss you all very much, and don't let Toby forget who his big sister is!  I'll call once things settle down.  I love you, Sarah."

            Karen and Robert exchanged relieved glances.  "Sending her out to your sister's was a great idea, Rob."  Karen said, smiling.  "She sounds like she'll be all right after all."

            "I hope so."  Robert said, bending down to scoop up the perfectly round, clear ball Toby had dropped.  "You know, I think we're raising a very spoiled child."  Robert joked to Karen.  "I can't even remember where half his toys come from."  He said, holding out the crystal as evidence.

~

            Sincerity woke up early, before the first crows of the rooster.  He scrambled over the sleeping forms of his brothers, all of the scattered throughout one room.  They had spent the whole night planning, and Ceri was sure he had his part down.  Or mostly sure.

            Rem had been so specific last night, he couldn't have forgotten.  Ceri pulled some socks off the floor, shaking the cobwebs off of them before slipping them on.  Something about his mother and a meeting... Oh yes, that was it!  He had to go talk to King Jareth and make sure he would come, and then convince his mother to let that mortal girl go.  Then she would be out of his house and the Goblin King would stop acting so loopy. 

            Ceri smiled to himself as he crept out the back door, shutting it silently as he had learned so well, so his mother would never know he was gone.  He ran over the speech Rem had prepared for him the night before, then decided he didn't like it.  Oh well.  He would just wing it.  His mother's curse had worked, hadn't it?  He wasn't called Sincerity for nothing.

~

            Jareth pressed gloved fingertips against the bridge of his nose.  It had been a long day of seemingly petty goblin squabbles – no, they weren't petty.  They were important, he was sure, but he was having a terrible time concentrating with the mess he had made of things constantly taunting him from the back of his mind.  How unkingly he had acted, how rash.  He had certainly reached the end of his rope.

            "King Jareth?"

            Oh no, here was a lower place.

            Jareth raised his eyes, then lowered them again to find one of Lomaria's brats, Sincerity, standing before him, eyes wide and innocent.  Well, innocent this young goblin certainly was not, but something about those curious, soft eyes... Damn Lomaria and her imprecise magic.

            "Hello, Sincerity."  Jareth said, considering him from his throne.  The goblin approached earnestly, his twitching fingers displaying a small bout of nervousness.  "May I help you?"  Jareth couldn't help but smile at the little thing's awe, taking in the surroundings of the throne room.

            "Mother sent me."  Sincerity said, all toothy smile and wild hair.  "She said to tell you that she was fine taking care of that mortal girl –"

            "Sarah?"  Jareth asked patiently.

            Of course Sarah.  Ceri thought to himself.  How many other mortal girls are in my house?

            "Yeah, her.  Mother said she was fine taking care of her until you, uh," Ceri took a deliberate pause, pretending to think things over and press his memory, "until you, uh, oh!  Until you two were ready to get together."

            "Is that what she said?"  Jareth asked, a little too quickly.

            "Uh-huh.  She said that Sarah just had to come around and little, and then Sarah said she would never come around to a kidnapper –"

"You're nothing but a kidnapper!  No wonder the mortals can't stand you!"

            "Quiet, Jareth!  I'm not a kidnapper; I'm their saviour.  And you will be too, can't you see that?"

            "What if I don't want to be you, father?  Had you even considered it?"

            "You are the crowned prince, Jareth.  You don't get to consider it."

"King Jareth?"  Jareth's eyes focused again on the here and now. 

"You're excused, Sincerity."  Jareth obliged, with a wave of his hand.  "Give your mother my regards."  Ceri smiled again, then backed out of the room as customary.  Once he was a safe distance from the door, he burst out laughing.  Another adult falls to Ceri.

Jareth folded back against his throne.  He had one day to right his wrongs.  One day before he had to go out and face another complication.  Why did he have to need her so?

~

Sarah was walking in circles around the Goblin City.  She felt restless, useless, and yet had no desire to do anything but wake up in her own home, and run down the stairs and throw her arms around her Dad, and Karen, and Toby.

Lomaria was busy conducting school with her eight children, though how she got those jumpy little creatures to settle down was beyond Sarah.  They were cute, and sweet, and Ari was almost achingly human – none of them compared to Toby, though.

Sarah sat down on the thick rim of a fountain in the centre of the city, then reconsidered and lay down against the smooth rock, watching the setting sun slip down behind the Labyrinth's walls.  That was what she had done, all day.  Watch the sun, watch the people of the Goblin City, and she hadn't absorbed any of it.  Of all the ways she had imagined spending her sixteenth birthday, this was not one of them.

Birthdays had never felt much different then the day before them for Sarah, but today she felt inexplicably older, and undeniably trapped.  She was already a year older, and destined to spend any other years that passed her by in this same situation.  God, would she still be wandering around the city, years from now?  Could that horrible King hold a grudge for that long?

"Sarah."

Question answered.

"Will you be doing this every day for the rest of my life?"  Sarah asked without preamble, turning her head to look at him.  "Showing up and being cryptic and then leaving again?"

"Is that what you want?"  Jareth replied just as simply.

"I can't have what I want."  Sarah said finally, pulling her eyes away and staring back up at the colourful sky.

"I wouldn't be so sure."  Jareth answered so softly, Sarah wasn't sure she heard him right.  "Sarah, we must talk about Lomaria.  There are some things you should know, before it goes too far.  Come to the castle.  Celebrate your birthday."  If anyone else had said it, it would have been a request, a plea, even something resembling an apology.  Everything Jareth said was just a statement, though a statement clearly directed at Sarah.

"How did you know it was my birthday?"  Sarah asked, sitting up very suddenly.  She hadn't told anyone. 

Jareth acted as though he hadn't heard her, or if he did hear her, he didn't care.  He simply held out his hand, face composed and eyes framed with a slight inquiry.  Sarah glanced from his face to his hand, then decided that not only could she not go back to Lomaria's house just now, she could not be alone any longer.

The air whooshed around them the moment she took his hand, and the next thing Sarah knew she was standing inside the castle, in a room she had never seen before.

What have I gotten myself into?  Sarah wondered, not even realizing that she still held Jareth's hand.