Chapter Twelve

"Your majesty," Mélusine said bowing low.

"Ah," Jareth said standing up and kissing her hand "Mélusine, I haven't seen you in the longest time. What an unexpected... surprise."

"Indeed," she said, smiling a malicious smile "but I have busyness to take care of. I see you still have no queen to the throne, and nor I have a king. I purpose that we unite both our kingdoms."

"Goblins and banshees?" Jareth winced "quiet noisy I should say. But no, I am holding out for another."

"Sarah?" she asked "oh she's not going to be around long."

"What?" Jareth asked "what do you mean?"

"Jareth," Mélusine pleaded "why do you deny ME? She is mortal. She is nothing. Why do you bother with some... some mutt when you could have a princess? A queen." Mélusine had never considered that Jareth would turn her down. She thought he'd be so happy to get HER that he'd forget all about this... Sarah girl. Why didn't he want her? WHY?!

"Mélusine," Jareth started calmly "Sarah is-"

"NO!" she yelled "ME! Me me me me me!!!!"

"Understand," he said "our families have always been friends, but, we've never intermarried."

"That is exactly why we should," she said "it'll bring our worlds together."

"I'm very sorry; Mélusine," he said "but I don't think so."

"You don't like the form I take perhaps?" she asked and quickly changed from form to form. Jareth kept his mind from wandering and grabbed her arm.

"I love Sarah," Jareth said firmly "be gone." With that Mélusine completely fizzled out of existence. Jareth summoned a crystal and looked into it. There he saw a very weak girl, lying on a hospital bed. He shook the crystal and looked again, same image. "Show me Sarah," he ordered. The image stayed. That couldn't be right.

That weak, frail, hopeless creature couldn't be... could it? He looked closer. He threw the crystal against the wall.

"Damnit!" he screamed "IT'S NOT FAIR!" With that he disappeared.

..........................................................................................

Sarah was in a fevered sleep. She tossed and turned, gasping for breath the whole time. Her throat hurt from the heavy breathing, and her chest burnt like she'd been longing for air for hours. Her breaths, though normally smooth and evenly paced, were now jagged and rapped.

"Momma?" Toby asked "can I stay here with Sarah?"

"I don't know Toby," Karen said "well, maybe for a little bit." Karen left and went to go find Mark, Sarah's father.

"Sarah," Toby called messing with her hair "wake up." Sarah's eyes fluttered open and she smiled.

"Hey Tobs," she said "where's Karen?"

"Momma went to go find Daddy," Toby informed "what's the matter Sarah? How come you're sick? The doctor says your heart broke. Did that lady break it?"

"You didn't tell Karen or dad about the lady did you?" she asked.

"Of course not," Toby laughed "I know better than to tell them that. Just like I don't tell them about Jareth." Sarah's heart stung.

"Sometimes I forget you're only four Toby," Sarah sighed "you're so smart."

"Sarah honey?" Karen called, poking her head in the room "there's someone here to see you."

"Alright," Sarah called and Toby got down off the bed. He stopped at the doorway and his mouth dropped.

"Yeah Sarah," he cooed "someone special to see you." Sarah looked to the door and there was Jareth, standing in the doorway, looking very worried. He closed the door and sat on her bed.

"Shouldn't you be getting married?" she asked.

"Married?" he jolted back "what do you mean married? I'M not getting married, unless you haven't told me something I should know."

"Mélusine said-" she started.

"So that's what she did," Jareth said angrily "I knew I should've kept an eye on you. But no, you wanted your privacy. Well I hate to tell you Sarah, but I'll be watching you from now on. Just to make sure you're safe."

"So your not getting married?" Sarah asked, as the pain in her chest subsided.

"Hell no!" he said "not to her I'm not. God damn." He stopped and looked around. "Why are you here?"

"No reason," she lied and he gave her a hard look "what? I'm just, sick."

"Uh huh," he said picking the board off the end of the bed "I don't think you just being sick would make you look like your on your death bed."

"Well thanks," she muttered. She took a deep breath and smiled, it didn't hurt as much now. Jareth was muttering to himself, reading over the doctors notes and then looked up.

"Read this," he said and pointed to a small paragraph.

"No," she protested.

"Please," he pleaded "just read it." She skimmed over it and looked up. "Out loud," he grinned.

"No," she said trying to hand it back to him.

"Don't you think I deserve it?" he asked, giving a pleading look. Sarah waited a moment.

If Jareth ever felt this way, if she'd ever made him feel like what she felt like at that moment, then she'd do anything to make it up to him. Because it hurt.

Sarah sighed, she remembered thinking that. She looked from the chart to Jareth and sighed.

"Dactylaria Amourlaria (Broken Heart syndrome): extraordinary amounts of pressure that forms around the heart due to a number of incidents," Sarah stopped.

"Finish," he said.

"They include," she muttered "losing a family member, losing a close friend, or losing a significant other."

"Now," Jareth mused "what exactly would I be categorized under?"

"As the annoying pain in the-" she stopped. Jareth was looking at her strongly. "what?"