"What have I done?" Jareth asked himself, pacing furiously back and forth in his chambers. "Damn it! What have I done?!" He turned and slammed both fists into a twilight colored wall. He paced a few more times then leaned onto the wall.

He slumped his back against the wall and slowly let himself slide to the ground. "What have I done?" He whispered. No tears stained his face. No. He was too strong for tears. The Goblin King was too strong for tears.

"Sarah, forgive me."

"Damn him!" Sarah whispered with heart-felt intensity. "Damn him to hell!"

Her eyes filled with tears.

He was the Goblin King. He was. Nothing she could do would change it. Her love couldn't even soften the ice in his heart. He hurt her bad enough that she wanted to give up living.

But seeing again made her weak. She wanted to love him. She wanted to trust him! She opened her heart, just that little bit, and he hurt her again! He had no right to do this to her body, to her mind. No right. She didn't care if he was lord of the entire underground.

He made her weak.

He had her daughter.

She pleaded with him to be the father.

She pleaded with the Goblin King.

She pleaded.

"Damn you, Jareth."

"Wonderful!" Aaron shouted and Rose twirled around in reckless abandon. Her black dress flew out around her ankles and tightened at her knees as she spun round and round.

Rose moved to a graceful halt, then fell over.

A burst of laughter caught Aaron by surprise. "Beautiful!" he commented. This mortal was great fun.

Rose became tangled in her dress and managed to lose one shoe and rip a seam about an inch getting up, but she was still smiling. "Care to try the faster dance?"

She nodded enthusiastically. She had never had more fun in her life. She knew this wasn't Sarah's friend she had called so long ago, but he would have made a wonderful father.

They linked hands and the music began again.

"Be careful." Rose cautioned as they switched places. "I could get better then you."

"I doubt that." He chuckled as he twirled her around him. "I've been at this for a hundred years."

"Wow!" Rose gasped. "You pick up on thing slooooowly."

He dipped her, propped her back up and continued dancing with nothing more then a smile as answer. He beamed. There was no romance in the dance, only the sort of thing a father would dance with his daughter.

"Where the hell is Aaron?" Jareth asked as calmly as he could. The ball room had been empty. Aaron loved to dance. He tried to explain it to Jareth once but apparently the passion in the Goblin Kings veins was focused on other things.
"He- he's in the b-ballroom, your highness." The small goblin stammered.

"Good." He murmured.

"Sarah." Jareth called gently.

"Go away." Sarah muttered, keeping her eyes firmly on the ground.

Jareth cupped her cheek in one hand and lifted her face so she looked at him. "I know you hate me." He gasped silently at the knife-edge pain of his words hit him. "But my friend may be of some comfort. Will you come and meet him?"

"Why would he comfort me?" She said bitterly and knocked away his hand. Jareth felt the heart wound bleeding. "Because he can protect you." Because he's not me. "Fine."

Aaron was surprised the little girl could still stand. Was she just never ending energy? Aaron found himself watching her, wishing she was old enough to know what these dances held. He had never been able to settle down with a Fae maid. Not the he hadn't tried. He grimaced at the memory. "Aaron?" Rose asked softly, waking him from his thoughts.
"What is it?"
She drew her brow together. "Your not happy."
He sighed and wished she wasn't as perceptive. Perhaps she had the gift of empathy, he thought slowly. "Nothing. It's nothing."
She put her tiny, porcelain hand on his and looked into his eyes. "But-" she paused and took her hand away, reconsidering, "You don't trust me?"
He froze, wondering how her little mind had jumped from happy dancing to rejection. What had happened in her earlier years?
He pulled her hand back. "It's not you Lady Rose." He pulled himself into a low bow. Rose giggled.
"Oh." She pushed her hand on his chest for a moment and dashed away across the ball room, calling over her shoulder, "TAG! You're it!!"

Sarah didn't know what to say. Jareth was equally speechless.

A Fae Lord was . . . Chasing a human child around in erratic circles across the ballroom, every now and then he would catch up to her and call 'tag' or he would let her 'tag' him and then they would reverse direction. Jareth was astounded.
And when she did know what to say, she found she couldn't say it.

They hadn't noticed the company.

Jareth cleared his throat.

Aaron spun around and froze.

Rose crashed into him, knocking him off balance and they both fell to the marble floor. Aaron scrambled to his feet and tried to look dignified. "Jareth." He stammered, bowing his head to hide the crimson flush that spread up from his neck. "Lady." Sarah was still in a state of shock. This-this man had been . . . playing tag with her daughter.
"Jareth." She said calmly and acknowledged him with a curt nod. "Sarah." She greeted coldly.

Jareth, despite himself, demanded, "Aaron, were you taking advantage of this girl?"

Recovering himself, Aaron tried to keep his face from burning red. "If you mean taking advantage of an excellent dance partner, then yes."

Jareth's high arched eyebrows rose further, almost disappearing into his hairline. "I suppose you call that dancing."

Sarah finally found her tongue. "Rose Williams! What in the name of god were you doing!?" She screeched.

Rose looked over her mother with a cold eye. "I don't see why I should tell you." She said simply.

"I'm your mother!" Her voice was losing strength by the second. She was caught off guard by the coldness her daughter harbored for her.

"Not anymore." Her eyes blazed with ire.

Sarah, caught completely unawares, nearly fainted. "W-what?" She whispered weakly.

"I said not any more." Rose repeated slowly. "As in, You're. Not. My. Mother. Any. More."

"Rose! Stop this!" Sarah shouted. Her voice sounded more like a plea.

"When do mothers wish their children to the person you taught them to hate and not to trust?! When do they do that!?"

"I DIDN'T WANT YOU TO DIE!"

Whatever Rose was about to say died in her mouth.

"What?"

"I said I don't want you to die, Rose!" Sarah cried.

"I-But- I wouldn't die?" Her voice began to waver, her firm ground knocked out form under her.

"Why the hell else would I wish you away!? I love you!"

Rose stared. Jareth stared. Aaron stared.

"If I had left you there you would have died. He gutted me, so I could listen to you screaming as he killed you. Don't give me any shit about not being a good mother." She turned to Jareth. "Thank you for leading me to my daughter, now could you please escort me to my rooms?"

Jareth faltered, off guard. "Yes, my lady."