There was so much to do, Toby fretted, he couldn't afford to lie in bed while the entire Castle had to be put to rights again. "Jareth, I need to get out of this bed," he snapped, looking angrily at the male who was standing beside him with his arms crossed and a determined look on his face.

"Really. And how much help will you be when the child inside you dies?"

"It won't die! I keep telling you- everything is fine."

Jareth snorted and Toby drew back from that insanely furious look in the dual-coloured eyes. "Do not lie to me, mortal," the Goblin King hissed, "I felt it. There is something wrong and you will lie still in that bed and rest until the ninth month produces the child."

"But there's things to be done..."

"Which I have handled before and will handle again."

Toby considered that statement. A rest would be nice and Jareth was very capable, but there were some things that he couldn't do, things over which Toby had been worrying over for seven years. "Jareth, I have to contact my parents," he pointed out, "And Sarah. They're all going to be so worried about me. It's been seven years for them too, you know."

The Goblin King rubbed at his tired eyes and sighed into his gloved hands. He didn't want to think of these things, he didn't care. Why could no one see that he didn't care any more? He simply wanted to slip back into some kind of schedule and put all this behind him. But no, he had to go and speak to the last people in both the worlds that he least wanted to see. "I will find them," he groaned, "And I will tell them that you are safe. Now rest!"

"Jareth, I could just go to the Underground..."

"No!" The shout was so loud that Toby fell over backwards in shock, staring at Jareth in bewildered surprise as he unthinkingly pulled the blankets up for some kind of protection. Jareth looked instantly contrite but the harsh command in his voice never wavered- "You are not fit state to go anywhere, especially now you are with child. The toll that apparition takes on the body will likely cause an instant miscarriage."

"Jareth, I'll keep the child safe," Toby protested, "I won't go to the Aboveground, but you can't just hold me captive in bed for five months. I'll go mad!"

A white hand rested warningly on his already swelling stomach. "That is mine," Jareth said softly, "That child in there is mine. If you harm it... so help me, I will not hesitate to show you just how angry I will be."

Blue eyes grew huge and Jareth was wondering why he wanted them like that. Toby had done nothing to merit this. The pregnancy was a difficult one, yes, but nothing that a good healer could not handle. If only Arienne could be found. He missed his healer and desperately needed advice. And Toby looked so sad.

Jareth hardened his heart. Well, let him, he decided viciously, this was what he wanted out of life? Then let him feel the sadness. He could have never intruded into Archer's palace. Jareth would have stayed happily enough without his memories, without feeling like every person who looked at him saw him on his knees with his hands tied behind his back. And loving it, oh God, but Archer had known he would find it so wonderful.

"Excuse me," he muttered, stiffly making for the door, "Stay there until I return."

Toby said nothing. Jareth figured that the mortal probably thought his life was not worth much any more to the Goblin King and the truth was that he was correct. Life was not worth much; life never could be.

Jareth was so very tired by all of this and all he wanted was to find a dark room and curl up in bed for days, occasionally playing with more black magic just to feel that glorious power again. After the powerlessness of his past, it gave him such a rush. Only he couldn't. Because he knew what he'd find if he shut himself in a dark room- Archer would come to him, slipping through the fevered channels of an overworked mind and touch him. Hard, callused hands with tender gentleness. Archer had wanted him so badly and even the memory of the nights he had been made love to sent hot and cold shudders racing through his body.

A step out of a window and the satisfying feeling of falling.

The grass of his gardens rushed up to meet him and he briefly considered not taking his bird form. His neck would likely snap and he would die- a quick, final end to all of this. Toby would not mourn, not after his threat to beat him if he miscarried.

Two goblin gardeners watched with their hearts in their mouths as the Goblin King changed into an eagle and took off back into the sky, flying away without a sound. It was too bright to be an owl. Still, he hadn't been an eagle for a very long time. They went back to the raking.

The breaching of the barrier between the worlds: Jareth felt the quiver in his wingtips as he circled lazily over the Williams' house. He could land and talk to them, or he could simply leave a message and let Toby talk to them. He landed behind the house and transformed, walking around to the front door to knock politely.

A vision opened the door, a five-year-old child clutching her hand.

"Sarah?"

"Jareth! Oh God, Jareth, we've been so worried." The woman flung her arms around his neck and screamed in his ear, the confused little boy summarily released. Jareth watched him cling to Sarah's skirt instead.

"Sarah?" He couldn't get past that; not this mature, matronly woman with the apron tied around her and her dark hair cut severely to shoulder length.

"Yes!" she grinned, jumping up and down a little, "Is it really you? Where's Toby? Is he all right? We were so worried. Archer told us about the war and we... are you okay?"

Jareth found he had taken a large step back and had gone far too pale for comfort, a gloved hand pressed to his neck where the collar had once been. "Archer was here?" he asked breathlessly, "What did he want?"

"To ask about Toby," Sarah replied, puzzled, "He said you had disappeared and that Amarild would kill Toby and Arradine if she caught them. He wanted to get to them first so that he could make arrangements for them. He said you wouldn't surrender in that war you were losing."

"Wouldn't surrender," Jareth repeated, dazed. Archer had been here? Archer had stood here before these people and blatantly lied? Somehow that sounded worse than the lies he had been subjected to.

Sarah took his arm in a tentatively gentle grip, tugging him into the house and towards the kitchen. "Come with me," she coaxed, "You need to sit down and drink some water. You don't look good, Jareth. What happened?"

"I am fine," he attempted, but his body felt so cold. So terrifying cold.

Sarah yelped in shock as his fingers closed over hers. "What the hell happened? Your hands are freezing! They're like blocks of ice."

"Ice?" Staring at his hands and just why was he repeating everything in such a ridiculously weak-brained way? His mind was not this dense! But the thoughts were becoming so hard to concentrate on and his mind kept wandering around in circles. "They... are not supposed to be." Was this a side effect of the black magic? It could not be because he had researched this and a drop in body temperature was not a symptom of that.

Sarah sat him down and hurriedly got him a glass of juice. "Try that," she insisted, "And I'll get you some chocolate."

"Mom, can I have chocate, too?" the child piped up, looking very excited by the prospect even though the strange man was staring at him with those scary eyes and his mother was too distracted to do more than impatiently shake her head.

Jareth smiled a little at the mispronunciation of the word 'chocolate'. Children were always doing that, it seemed. Aidan had already managed to massacre the word 'labyrinth'. It was mortifying! But rather sweet. "Hello," he said gently, pulling his mind back into its usual efficiency, "What's your name?"

The child sidled away from him and didn't answer. Well, that was to be expected too. Jareth had more than enough experience with children, having had to care for the Wished-aways. The thought almost brought back the anger, but he pushed it away and concentrated.

Sarah put a bar of chocolate down next to him and rushed to get whatever was burning on the stove off it. Jareth took the moment to break off a small piece and hold it out silently with a smile and wink. The little boy giggled and snatched it up, grinning with his smile so like Sarah's. He crammed it into his mouth and Jareth had one heartfelt moment for the pristine t-shirt that got chocolate-covered fingers wiped on it.

"Jareth! Did you give him chocolate?"

The Goblin King plastered the most innocent look on his face.

Sarah looked from one to the other. "Really," she commented dryly, "From the looks on your faces, heaven seems to be missing two angels. Don't you dare deny anything, Goblin King; his shirt has chocolate on it."

Jareth smirked and shrugged. "He seems a friendly little fellow," he teased, "What is your name?"

The child looked for his mother's permission and then grinned again. "Harvey," he supplied.

"Well, Harvey, it is nice to meet you." The half-goblin gravely held out his right hand, which was promptly shaken by someone who was very interested in his feathered cape and proceeded to pull a handful of feathers out and examine them. The sound of a wail interrupted what promised to be an entertaining scene.

"Oh no! Jareth, keep Harvey here, will you? Cassie's just woken up. Which means Susan will too. God, why did I offer to let Susan spend the day here?"

"My sister," Harvey supplied airily, "She was sleeping."

"I see. And who is Susan?"

"Cassie's friend," Harvey informed him, looking like it was common knowledge and should have been known without the asking. "Mom said she could stay here today."

Jareth sighed as Sarah came in looking frazzled, two whiney little girls clinging to her. One was evidently Sarah's offspring. She was the exact feminine double of Harvey, with Ben's cheerful face and eyes that were a bit of a mixture between both Sarah and Ben- a kind of hazel. He kindly took them over and soothed them down as Sarah tried to get something together to keep them occupied.

Finally supplying all three five-year-olds with a banana each, she took Jareth away to the drawing room and sat him down on the couch, popping a piece of chocolate into his mouth just to be sure he wouldn't give out on her and ordering him to give her the information.

"Toby's rapist was a fairy..." seemed a good place to start. Jareth found it was easier to tell Sarah what happened than Toby. Try as the mortal male did, Toby would always judged him. Sarah did too, but then Jareth didn't care for her judgements. They made no impact on his life. "...Archer betrayed us all. He was killed and it has only been a day since I have managed to wrest my Kingdom back."

Sarah shook her dark head and told him to hold on. She picked up a box of colour pencils and a sheaf of papers and disappeared into the kitchen with them. Having provided more occupation for them, she came back and sat down again:

"So there was a war, Archer captured you when you fell ill due to being pregnant, Toby and Arradine fled to the elves for protection, you lost your memories, seven years passed, Toby came to find you, you got your memories back, the two of you fought Archer and won, Archer was killed, the entire palace was killed and burned down, Amarild was killed, her brother now takes the throne and you and Toby have another fine mess on your hands. Did I miss something?"

"Not everything was quite so terrible as you seem to think it, Sarah," Jareth grinned. It was a lie and if Sarah had known him well enough she would have seen it. There was plenty that he hadn't told her. He hadn't mentioned the enslavement, or Toby's supposedly secret affair with Gwenél, or that Toby was pregnant again.

"Aidan?" she asked, smiling as the half-goblin tried and failed to look nonchalant at the mention of that name. "I get you. You know, when I had the twins, I had some condition that might have resulted in my death? Anyway, that last month was the most horrible one in my entire life. But then the twins were born and everything just... vanished. I didn't care any more about the pain or anything. It just stopped being an issue."

Jareth smiled at the sparkle in those green eyes. He didn't need Sarah to tell him she was happy; it was so obvious that she might just as well have painted it in neon on her forehead. He understood the feeling too. He would submit to every single torture ten times for the sake of his son and daughter. Arradine and Aidan were the world to him. But unlike Sarah, he took no pleasure from that feeling. It was a fear of the worst kind.

Fear... he glanced down at his hands again but they seemed normal once more. Why had they gone cold? He dismissed it as a side effect of far too much magic and too much loss of energy.

"You know, Archer gave us a mirror so we could contact him," Sarah said suddenly, "We used to talk to him every month for a few years until Dad stopped hoping and Karen started drinking."

"Karen has taken to alcohol?"

Sarah nodded sadly. "Every evening. Toby's her only child and she couldn't have any more after him. He's always been a loner, unlike her when she was a teenager, so she feels extra-protective of him. Then to know he might be killed or harmed? Dad and Karen have only met Arradine once, but she was the first grandchild. At first it was only on the worst evenings. Then every evening and so on and so forth. It doesn't take much, but Dad stopped using the mirror when he saw how much it hurt Karen."

"This mirror- may I see it?"

"Sure. It's right here in case Archer ever tries to talk to us." Sarah pulled it out and handed it over, noticing sharply that Jareth looked faint once more as he held the offensive object in his hand. "Jareth, you've gone pale again."

Jareth put the mirror somewhere in a pocket and stood up, ignoring her. "Toby is safe," he said briskly, offering her a crystal to see for herself, "I promise you of that. Unfortunately he is tired and unable to leave the Castle at present. I propose to take all of you down to see him. He misses you. And the children should meet the only family they have left."

"I... we would love to. This weekend okay? Oh, and can I keep the crystal? Karen and Dad will want to know for sure he's all right."

"If I may keep the mirror," Jareth bargained, a peculiar light in his eyes. Sarah nodded, not quite sure she was doing the right thing but unable to say anything else. "Speak through the crystal and Toby will hear you. Now excuse me, I have work that awaits me."

Without another word he left, a swirling sprinkle of glitter catching in the carpet as he apparated away, the ornate hand-mirror clutched tight somewhere in his cape. Sarah sat down and absently wondered whether Jareth was really quite as fine as he looked. Sure there were no scars or marks, but something in those eyes... Toby would know. She looked down to the crystal and made a mental note to speak with her little brother again when he woke up.

At that exact moment, there were three little mice to be kept occupied and some kind of meal to be made.

But duly the days progressed. Karen finally burst into tears when Sarah handed her the crystal and Harold was still not sure that it wasn't all 'that bastard's' fault for taking his son away in the first place. The two were stunned and a little reluctant to hear that Jareth had himself given birth to a child, a little boy named Aidan who was still trying to get used to the fact that he was part goblin, never mind half mortal.

Sarah calmed them down and explained things as best she understood them. Ben was surprisingly silent all through it, his eyes fixed on the crystal where Toby was obviously playing with two children as they swarmed all over his bed. He had his doubts about the optimism that his wife indulged in, but then that was just because he was a born pessimist.

Jareth took them all Underground on the weekend, Harvey and Cassandra included, where he retreated to the other side of the room while the family reunited with many a hug and squeal of joy. Toby was so ecstatic and the sight was like the torture with needles again, twisting down into all those points of absolute pain. But he told himself he could grudge his husband that happiness. He was still telling himself that when he suffered himself to be proclaimed King again.

Gringol looked far too old as he stood once more on the little platform. Toby looked tired and somewhat weak. Jareth was the only one there who looked as if the last seven years hadn't even happened. Tall, dressed in his usual mix of fluttery, feathery clothes, proud, arrogant, coolly dismissive of everyone else- no, Jareth didn't seem to have changed much from that other version of himself.

Karen stood very close to her son, a hand on his arm as if afraid he would vanish again if she stopped touching him. Sarah was similarly afflicted, but she was currently forced to let go of him as her twins were much too excited by what was going on to leave them alone. Toby sighed as Harvey tried to induce Aidan to play catch with him. Those twins!

Jareth shot the two boys a disapproving look and they quietened under his sharp eye, looking the very picture of cowed innocence.

"And do you accept this position as the King of your people?"

"Yes."

Gringol nodded and placed the medallion back around the half-goblin's neck. He sighed when he could finally get off the high stool he'd been standing on. "Congratulations, Your Majesty," he smiled, "We are glad to have you back."

Jareth lifted his eyes from the heirloom he was examining and directed a rather peculiar look to the old goblin. "Thank you," he murmured, offering a small bow, "It is always pleasant to be liked. Perhaps this time there will be less talk of dissent?" He turned away and strode for the doors before Gringol could say a word more.

Toby blushed and stammered some thanks to the perturbed nobleman, assuring him that he had said nothing wrong. "It's just been such a crazy time," Toby explained, "Jareth's just on edge because of what happened to the Labyrinth."

Which was mostly true, he mused, walking determinedly after his husband, except for where Jareth had thrown an enormous hissy fit over having to be proclaimed King again.

"I am the fucking King," he'd shrieked- the first time he'd ever sounded Aboveground to Toby- "I don't need someone to fucking tell me that! My people know who I am! What the hell are those wankers on about?"

Toby had just sat there on the bed and stared at him, mouth hanging open as Jareth had trashed the place with his bare hands and thrown a petulant temper-tantrum in the voice of an adult.

And now... Toby stopped and sighed tiredly as he watched Jareth stand at one of the windows and gaze sightlessly out over his ruined Labyrinth. He walked carefully to the window beside it and pretended not to notice when his husband stiffened and almost sidled away.

"It's a beautiful day," the mortal commented.

"Yes, it is," the Goblin King agreed, composing himself with a blank mask for a face, "And how clearly the sun shines on the mess Amarild left."

Toby winced.

"You still prefer not to think of it, my elf?" How could he manage to sound so harsh? So unforgiving? Why did he acting as if Toby was the enemy? "She chose death, Toby. She was a Queen. The Underground is no happy place with talking flowers and singing wood nymphs. Even the elves are not generally as gentle-minded as you humans might like."

Elves? "I never said they were, Jareth. You know, you were really rude to Gringol in there. He's a little upset."

Jareth turned to level a cold, incredulous gaze at his bond mate. But the mobile little face never turned to him, the blue eyes continuing to look out to the Kingdom and the golden hair cropped in a short cut around his face. It didn't smell of oranges any more. It smelt of some kind of berry, he wasn't sure what. Toby's hands were hard now, the palms callused and rough and the fingers thick-skinned from working with the elves. Yes, those elves. Jareth hated them with everything in his being. Detested them all.

"Do you presume to tell me how to treat my nobles? You? A mortal?" he sniffed derisively and turned away, making for the end of the long passage.

Toby's head snapped up, cheeks reddening under the slur cast against him. And for Jareth of all people to say that, after everything that had happened! "Stop right there," he shouted, finally losing his temper, "Stop and listen, buster."

Jareth blinked distastefully down at the hand on his arm but suffered it with a raised eyebrow and a slightly bored look of enquiry.

"I don't what the hell has crawled up your ass and died, but you will stop- and I repeat stop- behaving like such a prick! Just because I'm from the Aboveground, doesn't mean I'm an ill-bred cretin who doesn't know how to treat people. And for your information, you've managed to alienate everyone who was really happy to see you back here. Arienne is dead..." Jareth flinched, "... Arienne is dead, but he would be ashamed to see you behave like this."

"Arienne was not my keeper. Nor was he my father."

"Maybe if he was, you'd have been better behaved."

The blow took him by surprise. If it hadn't been for Jareth's immediate sense of guilt, Toby might have actually fallen. The only thing that saved him was being pulled in hard against Jareth's chest, Jareth's arms wrapped tight around him as they both regained their balance.

"I'm sorry," the Goblin King was whispering, stroking his hair, his back, his shoulders, his hand so worried and trembling slightly, "Forgive me, my elf, I did not mean to hit you. I am sorry."

"You meant it," Toby bit out, resting an aching head against that comforting shoulder, "Why, Jareth? Was it the insult to your father? To Arienne? What got you so angry that you would want to hit and then carry it out?"

"Nothing..."

"Your father. There's something there, Jareth, and I want to know what. And Archer mentioned another consort. You never told me you'd been married before. Who was it? Archer said 'him', so it must have been a guy. But you said we were the first males to marry; you said this had never happened before. Tell me what's going, my love; I just want to help you."

Which, predictably enough, only brought a look of blank dismay into the Goblin King's eyes and resulted in him pulling as far away as a narrow passage could allow. "There is nothing to know," he said hurriedly, "Archer was lying. We are the first. There were none before us."

He was already walking away when Toby tried desperately to get him to answer, trying to bait him with theories- "Did your father make you marry someone who hurt you? Was that it? And that first night hurt you, didn't it? Jareth, please! Just tell me! For the sake of our child, please let me help."

A slight hesitation in the confident steps and then Jareth continued away. "It is in the past. Leave it there."