Sara was in the back of the smelly little restaurant cooking for the nighttime rush when someone out front started calling her name. "Sara? Sara, are you here?"

Sara came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on her apron. "Toby? What are you doing down here?"

"I slipped away from Karen. She didn't want you to know about Dad. She keeps telling him that you don't care."

"What about Dad? What's going on, Toby?" Sara was worried. Toby never got upset.

"He's in the hospital, Sara. UCLA. He had a major heart attack last month and a massive stroke just last week. The doctors don't expect him to last long. You have to come see him. He wants to see you."

Just then, Karen Williams came through the door looking for Toby. "Toby, what are you doing in here, talking to her?"

"He was just letting me know how my father was since you are too rude to let me know."

"Why should I have told you? You haven't tried to get a hold of him before this."

"You just never gave him my messages. You were always jealous of the relationship between my father and I."

As she grabbed Toby's arm and dragged him out of the restaurant, she threw a careless comment over her shoulder. "How could I be jealous of a relationship that doesn't exist?"

Sara couldn't respond to that. Even though she just wanted to run after Karen and claw her eyes out. She wanted to scream that she had had a wonderful relationship with her father until Karen had entered the picture. But the comment just made her freeze in her tracks.


"So are we on for tonight?" The young man had been trying to get Sara to go out with him for a couple of months now.

"I can't. Family emergency came up. I just found out that my father's in the hospital and not expected to make it much longer."

"Sara, you've been putting me off for two and a half months. When are you just going to give in and go out with me?"

"David, I'm not just trying to put you off. My half-brother came in today and let me know that Dad had a massive stroke and a massive heart attack. I have to find a way to get over to UCLA medical center to see him. They don't expect him to live much longer." She was almost in tears now. David felt bad, driving her to tears but he knew that if he could get alone with her, he could screw her.

David had a reputation of sleeping with every girl he ever went out with and then dumping them. Sara would be no different. He could easily bed her. She, at least, was attractive. That was more than could be said about some of his conquests.

Sara didn't want to go out with David. She knew his reputation. She was afraid that once he got her alone, he would be able to sweet talk her into his bed. She didn't think her resistance would be that high. After all, in the past five years, he was the only one who had wanted to go out with her. He was good-looking but she knew that that wasn't everything. 'Look at Jareth.' The thought crossed her mind unbidden. What was making her think of him now?

"Ok. But I'm not giving up. Even if you die, I'll follow you to keep asking." David smiled as he got a wry grin from Sara. That was an improvement. He had never even gotten that from her in the past.

As she began crying in earnest, he simply wrapped his arms around her and let her soak his shirt with her tears.


"How dare he pursue what is mine?" raged Jareth, kicking goblins right and left until all of them had left the throne room. "He has no right to touch her!"

"If I may speak freely, Jareth, you never did tell the child how you felt about her so how could she know that you wish to lay claim to her?"

"Dristeria, you know that you may always speak freely to me. However, you are wrong. I did tell Sara exactly how I felt and she threw it back in my face."

"Jareth, my dear brother, did you stop to think that you told her whatever it is you told her right after making her run that awful Labyrinth? Showing her how terribly cruel you could be?"

"You're right, of course. But still, she could have figured it out after five years."

"When she still fears that the whole thing was just a dream? She's afraid, Jareth. She has nothing there except her father and brother. And the boy doesn't realize just what part he is to play in her return to your side. Should you decide to answer when she calls."

"She won't call me."

"I think she will." And, before Jareth could ask her what she meant by that comment, Dristeria had vanished.

"I really hate it when she starts to interfere."


Later that night, Sara was sitting at her table in her apartment, trying to figure a way to get to see her father. She had no car and no money for a taxi. Hell, half the time she barely had money for food and bills. She had gone two months without buying any food at one point because she had so many bills. She had lived off of what she could scrounge at the restaurant.

She had rapidly learned that she could keep warm with extra blankets and go to bed earlier in order to save on the electricity bill. She used paper plates, cups and plastic silverware to save on the water bill. She had no phone, no tv and no social life all of which were draining on a budget.

Maybe she could exchange a date with David for a ride to the hospital. He could take her to the hospital tonight and she would go out with him on Sunday. She had the idea so she got her shoes on and ran down to the restaurant to ask him. She was too late. He had already left for the night with a girl.

She went home slowly in tears. Her perfect plan was for nothing. David would be busy all night and she had to work from 8 tomorrow morning until sometime late that night.

As soon as she had closed and locked the door behind her, she collapsed to floor, sobbing uncontrollably. It broke her heart that she might not get to see her father before he died.

She sat there for almost an hour before stumbling to her feet and going into her bedroom to get ready for her bath.


When she was settled in the bathtub, she read parts of her Labyrinth book over and over. Especially, for some odd reason, the part where Jareth tells her, "Fear me. Love me. Do as I say and I will be your slave." Something about that screamed at Sara.

'Maybe he really did care. Maybe he wasn't just spouting off pretty words to try to impress me.' She shook her head and started crying again. 'Maybes. That's all I ever think about is maybes. Maybe Jareth loved me once. Maybe he could again. Maybe I could grow wings and fly.'

Suddenly, she slipped down into the tub further and held her head under water. She was under for quite a while. But when she came up, the tears seemed to be over for now.

She went to bed and snuggled under a bunch of covers. It was kind of chilly tonight.


Jareth put away the crystal he was holding when he realized that she wasn't going to call him tonight. "She was a beautiful girl. Now, she's a goregeous woman. She belongs among the fae."

"Then you have to do something."

"You and I both know that I can't go after her unless and until she calls me forth. There are rules for a reason, Dris."

"Jareth, love doesn't follow the rules. The Court has been puzzled by your behavior of late. They wonder why you let this delightful girl go when you could have kept her and made her realize what you feel for her." Jareth's sister was furious. He refused to go after the girl that was driving him crazy. He loved her and she loved him. What was so complicated about that?

Dristeria didn't understand what Jareth's problem was. The Seelie Court had all but given him permission to go after her if would bring back the Goblin King that they all knew. What they didn't understand was that that Goblin King was dead. Had been since he met Sara Williams five mortal years ago. "The Jareth I grew up with would have said rules be damned and gone after the girl when she first left him."

"I am that fae no longer. I'm not whole without her. But I can't force her to come to me either. That would not prove my love but rather my ego. I couldn't expect her to love me in return if I were to force her to be with me. I want her to choose me. As I have freely chosen her."

"Jareth, I do believe this girl has placed a bit of a poet in you." Dristeria laughed as her brother smiled wryly.

"You may be right, Dris. She has turned my whole world upside down." He stood up from the throne he was casually draped across and left the room. He thought he might need some sleep.


The next morning, Sara was up by four. She could almost never sleep once the temperature in the apartment reached a certain point. She figured she'd go by the restaurant and see if she could help for a little bit. Even though her shift didn't start until eight. Maybe she could get a little more overtime.


"Sara, what are you doing here? Your shift doesn't start until eight."

"Apartment's too cold. Couldn't sleep anymore. Figured if I came in now maybe I could help out a little. You know, have breakfast and start lunch prep while doing dishes and cleaning up in the back before the truck gets here."

"Sure. Clock on. What do you want for breakfast?"

"Western omlet. With mushrooms. Onions and peppers in the hashbrowns." She had always loved that style of breakfast. Of course, people laughed at her the way she dressed her food before she ate it.

She clocked on and started the dishes while Taryn, the only other cook they had, started her breakfast. By the time it was ready, Sara had already finished up what dishes there were and started mixing the meatloaf for lunch. She also had to make chicken fried steaks and a pot roast. This place may be a greasy spoon hole in the wall joint but they did a lot of business over the course of a day.

She ate while she worked on the prep. They almost never had anything left at the end of each day. So she had to make everything fresh. By the time she was supposed be clocking in, Sara had finished the meatloaf, chicken fried steaks, and salad. She had also had to back up Taryn twice and done all the dishes she had dirtied doing prep.

Time to start another long day.


A/N: There you go folks. Your next chapter. The next one may be a little while in coming but I'll work as fast as I can.

Thanks for the glowing reviews. I think and hope that you'll really like where I'm taking this story.