"You ain't fit enough," Lorelei protested, struggling to keep up with her patient's long strides, "Wait a few days first."

"I am quite well," Jareth insisted.

"Drop the glamor then."

Mismatched eyes glared down at the dwarf healer and then flicked back up, ignoring her in the hopes that she would turn out to be just another hallucination. Unfortunately no hallucination could rival the energy of the real thing and this version of Lorelei was clearly real. He still didn't know quite why he put up withher bossiness.

"I prefer not to, thank you," Jareth said shortly, disappearing into a room where Toby was waiting. "Toby, did the elves have anything to say?"

"They sent their greetings and said that they haven't seen Arradine for ten years. They know nothing, Jareth. Anything from you?"

The Goblin King nodded grimly. "I brought someone who knows something." He held out the little ball of fur in his left hand.

Toby blinked at it. The fur was overlong and shaggy, and bright purple! Jareth made some kind of clicking sound and it began to uncurl, both eyes blinking at completely different times and a pug-like nose snuffling in the air.

Ereditha gave a loud whoop and jumped down from her table to skip to the them. Jareth obligingly lowered his hand so she could stare at the little creature in fascination. "Be careful," he warned, "Grangers get hurt very easily."

"That' a granger? I thought they were bigger!"

Jareth looked up and nodded. "They are. This is just an infant. I found it by the safety path and it tells me that Arradine passed that way."

Toby exhaled softly and sat down, rubbing his eyes. "The draconites," he guessed tiredly. Opening his eyes, he met Jareth's gaze with his own. "I just spoke with Sarah. It seems Arra was very upset with the way you treat Aidan. Is this true? You argued with her because Aidan is to have a tutor?"

Aidan blanched as his father stiffened and took a step back, a wild look in his eyes. "It is all right," he said hurriedly. He hated causing trouble. "I- I already agreed to it yesterday. I don't mind; really."

Toby ignored him, his blue eyes still cold and furious. "Jareth?"

"Ereditha, take the granger and sit by the window. They like sunlight. Toby, I think this conversation needs to be had outside this room."

Aidan slumped down at the table, dropping his head in his hands and wondering if it would not be easier to be a nameless goblin somewhere on the farmlands, happy in his ignorance and simplicity. After all, he thought bitterly, that way he wouldn't be responsible for ruining his family.

Toby was well aware of just how Aidan would think. It hadn't been so long ago since he would have thought the same. Hell, he still did! In many ways he still blamed himself for everything that had gone wrong. He could blame that self-hate on Archer, and on Jareth, and on Sarah and everyone else around him, or he could agree that it was simply the fact that he felt so useless where he was. Currently all the anger that he normally kept dormant was making its presence felt and he was working very hard to keep his emotions from seeping out of control.

"I think you should explain yourself," he said tightly, leaning against the wall and glaring at his husband, "I do hope it's not what I think it is."

"And just what do you think it is?" Jareth asked, smirking coolly down at him, giving no hint of the hammering in his temples.

"I think you're pushing Aidan away, distancing yourself from him. And I hope you have a reason, because there will be hell to pay if you're hurting him, Jareth. I don't care about raising these kids pretty much on my own, but I do object to having to clean up the results of your cruelty."

The headache became worse. "I am not being cruel. There is nothing more I can teach him. I want him to have an Aboveground education and one of the mortals have offered to instruct him. He likes science. He likes knowing how the world works on a non-magical level. Marjorie can help him with that."

"Marjorie can help him with a lot of things," Toby yelled, "She's had her eye on getting out of the Ivory Tower since she got there! She tried it on with you too, Jareth, until you got tired of her. What's she going to do to him? Have you even looked at who it is you're subjecting him to?"

"I am hardly handing Aidan out like a handbasket. He has a mind and he can take care of himself."

"He's fifteen!"

"Yes." Somehow the thought seemed to make his headache a little less painful. "Yes, he is fifteen. And at fifteen heis old enough toknow."

Toby stared at this person before him, not sure any more who he was even talking to. But then he never had known. Jareth had told him nothing before they'd been married and had refused to tell him any more after. The entire Underground knew more than he did about who his bond mate was.

"What is wrong with you? Do you really want him under HER influence? Marjorie is twenty-nine, Jareth. She has tried everything possible to make trouble, including whisperinglies in my ear and trying to bed you." He took a step closer. "At sixteen I was ready to believe that me being raped was my own fault. How protected is Aidan going to be at fifteen? She'll influence him into doing her dirty work for her, make a proper mess of everything and then Aidan will feel horrible and used. Would you put him through that?"

"I have no intention of putting him through anything," Jareth said quietly, "Don't question me on this, Toby. She won't get through to Aidan. And I cannot teach him any more any longer."

Toby sighed and shook his head. The anger was draining away. What good did it do anyway? He was still powerless. Even if hestaged a rebellion he would still be powerless. His independence had worn away a long time ago. "I don't think we're ever going to agree. I don't want Aidan anywhere near Marjorie. But I get the feeling he shouldn't be anywhere near you either. I don't want my children to grow up heartless as well. What did the granger say?"

Jareth's mouth quirked a little in bitter amusement at being thought heartless, but said nothing more on the matter. Toby wouldn't, naturally, know that the illness he had made one more emotional, not less so. "The granger told me that a horse moved down the path two days ago."

"Two days? But she only ran away yesterday!"

"She never slept in her bed," Jareth shrugged, "The servants say she rode out that evening, a few hours before dusk. It was not a planned thing."

"And why the draconites?" Toby enquired.

Jareth looked a little rueful. "She was reading the legend of the splitting of the known Underground into the Three Kingdoms. The draconites were highly prized allies in that matter and played a large part. When the Lawless Kingdom was taken, they were forbidden to leave their underground city in the mountains. Enough were killed in the preceding century of war to make them reclusive. They are only known now through legend. Arradine was fascinated."

"The same fascination you have for elves?" Toby commented dryly. He couldn't help but be amused. Jareth and Arradine both had a love for the rare or the exotic. "Silly question; I forgot you hated them now. Never mind, we have work to do."

"We?" Jareth raised an eyebrow. "You are staying right here. Goblin guards are already on their way to..."

"You're trusting your daughter's safety to the palace guards?"

"They are extremely efficient and they patrol the mountains, Toby. They know the land."

The mortal sniffed and turned on his heel, storming back into the room. "Aidan, I want you to look after your sister for a few days. Ereditha, you will do everything Aidan tells you... unless it's something you know I won't like. Take care of yourselves, both of you, and Fiorle is here if you need anything." He turned and levelled a cold glance at Jareth. "Oh, and your father too. I'm sure he'll eventually get around to dealing with any problems you have. Okay? Bye."

And he was gone.

Jareth stared at the spot where his little bond mate had been standing and was wildly tempted to let him go alone. He looked up and caught Aidan's eye. Oh God, Toby was away and he was left alone with both children! With Aidan! "Excuse me, I think your dad is going to need some help." He disappeared too.

Toby was startled out of his dark thoughts when a gloved hand caught at his arm. For an instant he thought he saw a pair of burning dark eyes and almost screamed. But other than a harsh shake, Jareth let go of him and pointed impatiently to the faint traces of a path to their right. "Down there," the Goblin King said roughly, "No magic now, my elf; we don't want to attract bandits, now do we?My familybanished most of them to this ghastly place. Why ever would they find it amusing to capture the Goblin King, his consort and his daughter and torture them to death."

Toby shivered a little and unconsciously drew closer. After that deep shock, the talk of torture was not comforting. He was too aware of the scar on his stomach for that.

But Jareth's eyes softened somewhat. He didn't touch him, but he said nothing more, simply gesturing for them to continue on the path. "I do not know the way but I suppose we can wander until we meet someone who can tell us."

Eventually Jareth and Toby had walked for what seemed like hours, both wrapped up in their individual thoughts. Toby was of the opinion that they couldn't remember what it was like to have a conversation. They didn't even seem to remember what it was like to share emotions. The link had been used a few times the day before and it had reawakened something sad inside of him. Unfortunately, it had also played on his hopes, even when he told himself that Jareth meant nothing by it. How could he- Toby being what he was, Jareth needing something more than him?

"A wild animal like you, playing house with babies and a sweet little consort?" God, he still hated Archer!

"Where the hell are we?" Jareth's growl startled him, coming, as it were, out of nowhere.

"Somewhere rocky," Toby answered helplessly, looking around at the never-ending scenery of dry, barren mountainside, "We just have to keep going."

"We shouldn't even be here. Just what does that little idiot think she is?"

Toby's lips thinned. This was really the last straw. "That little idiot is your daughter," he retorted, "She has your personality."

Jareth had had enough too. It was his decision to stay away from his bond mate, and he believed in it. But he was just not having an easy time doing anything about it! And Toby's hostile attitude was not helping matters. He knew all too well that the mortal could not know how on edge he was, or why he was so terribly afraid for both Arradine's safety or Toby's. But an irrational temper did not always concur with his rational mind.

He grabbed Toby's arm, hating everything even more because the arm was just as slim and delicate as it had been the first time he had ever touched it, and dragged his husband into the nearest cave he could find. It could have contained the Lord of the Draconites himself and he wouldn't have cared right then.

"Stop it," he demanded, throwing Toby inside and standing firmly in the entrance, "Do not blame me for this! She chose to run away because she mistook a situation she knew nothing about. Try to remember that I did not drive her out of my Kingdom?"

"Oh, didn't you? I'm not so sure. You love them all, Jareth, I know that, but you're not capable of loving someone and not hurting them. It's a talent you have!" Toby didn't know where the words were coming from. Quite possibly they were ten years worth of anger and bitterness. He wanted to stop talking, to take that stricken look out of Jareth's eyes. But shouldn't Jareth hurt? Just once? "It's certainly working with Aidan. That boy worships you and you push him away like that? Just like you did with me." Toby was sounding shrewish and he knew it. But he couldn't help himself. "And God knows you never wanted Ereditha in the first place."

"That is not fair..."

"I don't care what's fair and what's not! I don't! I don't! I just want my daughter!"

Jareth was fairly certain he was going to apparate back to his castle in the next second. And woe betide his goblins if he did! He took a calming deep breathe and tried to make things right. "Toby, we will find her. She was heading here."

He watched passively as Toby sank to the ground and shook his head, a muted sound escaping that wide mouth. A beautiful mouth still, to all intents and purposes, the lower lip still as succulent; and the whole still as venomous as poison. Jareth sat on the floor and reached out.

All at once, on cold sand and colder passion, Toby just couldn't stand it. He melted into Jareth's arms with a desperate sob. "I just have the kids, only the kids. And I couldn't bear it... oh, God, please, please, don't let anything happen. I couldn't bear it!" Toby was shuddering, nose buried into Jareth's shoulder and fists bunched in the thick jacket. He could feel a soft leather glove stroking his hair, another grasping the back of his neck and pulling him closer.

It was cold in the cave and he shivered, sniffing as the sudden tempest of tears stopped just as unexpectedly.

Jareth, for his part, was having a mini-crisis of his own. He loved his offspring, truly he did. But he just didn't have it in him to play the father. He simply didn't know how. And his children took his husband's side in almosteverything- not that he could blame them- in a world that was slowly losing its link to reality. He wanted to let go, to pull Toby close and just let go. He could die in someone's arms then, and not alone in a cold bed surrounded by shadowy ghosts who reminded him night after night of why he was going through this.

A memory came to the Goblin King, of a young man who had looked up with fire and passion in his eyes and said 'please' in just that way that enflamed his blood to boiling point. Toby had always made him lose what little common sense he possessed and it seemed the mortal hadn't lost that knack. Then Jareth remembered the present and his jaw tightened- what exact good was there in ruining Toby's life all over again?

"If you could pull yourself together, we'd get this done a lot faster," he said tersely, ripping their bodies apart and standing up.

Toby looked up in surprise and Jareth stifled a curse. Summer sky blue eyes with crystal tears. Jareth had seen Toby cry before this and this... this was the first time he wanted to hit his husband for having those affecting traitors track slowly down his face.

"Get up," he snapped impatiently, "We don't have long before sunset."

Toby didn't bother questioning. Blue eyes lost the light that had sparkled in them for a second and dulled to their usual sullen obeisance. "You're right. You always are." Toneless and trite; Toby wasn't planning on doing more than making sounds.

They walked back out into the strong sunlight and made their way back to the pathway. Jareth sighed as he heard Toby struggle over the pile of rocks in his way, not used to the sharp edges that Jarethlightly jumped over. The Goblin King turned back to grudgingly offer his hand. Toby simply straightened up, looked enquiringly at him for a moment and pointedly refused his help. He offered no more assistance after that.

The scrub got sparser as they progressed, giving way to heated sunlit rock and cold shadows. Toby wanted to scream with the frustration of it all. He wanted to hit something, to throw something, to see someone hurt and bleeding on the ground. But please God, not his family! He'd kill anyone who tried it himself if he had to cope with that.