Ch 25

Sarah choked on her bite of food. Gasping, she grabbed her glass of water and chugged down half of it, her face beet red.

"Sarah, are you okay?" her dad asked, jumping up. She waved him away, fanning her face.

"Mm-hm, I'm fine, Dad, just swallowed the wrong way," she managed to say, glaring at Toby.

He shrugged at her. "You know, remember how I said Jareth looks like the Goblin King from that old show I saw on TV? Mom and Dad were asking me about it." He felt bad, he didn't want Sarah to be mad at him.

"Yeah Sarah," her father said, giving her an odd look. "Karen and I thought it was funny that the first time Toby meets Jareth, he calls him something like the Goblin King!" Jareth bristled at that. Just what was wrong with being a goblin king?

Sarah closed her eyes. It was now or never; this was the perfect opening. Oh boy. How should she start? "You guys, the reason I asked if we could come to dinner was because Jareth and I need to talk to you about something."

"What, honey?" Karen smiled at her. Then her face fell as a thought occurred to her. "Wait Sarah, you're not going to tell us you're pregnant are you?" At that, it was her father's turn to choke, his face turning an angry shade of red.

"No, no no…nothing like that," Sarah was quick to reassure them. Although I think telling you that would be a picnic compared to this-at least that's normal!

Sarah started to talk fast. "Well, you see, yesterday wasn't actually the first time Toby met Jareth, he actually met him a long time ago, when he was just a baby, but he recognized him and he knew he was the Goblin King, and that's what we need to talk about, how Jareth really is the Goblin King…" Sarah had to take a breath, she wished she could start over and stop rambling.

Her father and Karen looked confused. "Wait, so are you telling us that it was really Jareth who played the Goblin King in whatever Toby saw?" He didn't understand; what he was getting from this was that Sarah knew Jareth when he was filming that show and somehow brought Toby to visit the set, and Toby still remembered it.

"I wish," Sarah muttered. "No Daddy, that's not it, I mean, Jareth really is…" she couldn't go on, and her eyes pleaded with Jareth to help. Jareth grinned; he thought this could be rather fun.

Without another word, Jareth stood up and produced a crystal. He let it glide over his hands, over and over again, and for a minute Sarah's father thought it was just a good magic trick. Until Jareth squeezed the crystal. That's when it shattered in a cloud of glitter, and Jareth was suddenly transformed into his full Goblin King attire, wild hair and all.

"What the-!" Sarah's father jumped out of his seat in shock, still thinking this was some kind of elaborate trick. Karen could only gape at Jareth with her mouth hanging open. Toby thought it was great having the Goblin King suddenly appear at the dinner table. And Sarah just didn't know what to think. This was not at all how she had expected this to go. She'd wanted to talk to her parents, not terrify them!

Jareth spoke. "I am Jareth, King of the Goblins. I rule my kingdom from the castle beyond the Goblin City, at the heart of the Labyrinth."

"What the hell are you talking about? Is that a line from your movie?" Sarah's dad clung to the idea that Jareth was a clever actor, although he was beginning to feel a bit frightened. What kind of crazy boyfriend had Sarah brought here?

Toby couldn't hold it in anymore, he was too excited by all this. "No Dad! Sarah wished the goblins would take me away when I was little, so Jareth came and got me and Sarah had to go through the Labyrinth to get me back and I had fun! I played with Jareth and the goblins and I really really want to go back!" He was bouncing in his seat with excitement, but sat still and shut up when he saw how everyone was looking at him.

Sarah's father couldn't speak, he had no idea what the hell was going on at his dinner table. Karen spoke up first. "Sarah, please, what is going on? I think you're frightening us a little." She was fought to stay calm, thinking there must be a good explanation for all this.

Sarah didn't know what to say, she felt like she had totally lost control of the situation. "I don't know how to explain all of this to you, so much happened and it's so unbelievable that-" she stopped as an idea occurred to her.

"Jareth, can you make another crystal like you made for me, to show them everything that happened? That might make it easier tounderstand than talking about it."

"As you wish, my dear." And Jareth produced two crystals and tossed them at her father and Karen. Instead of hitting them, the crystals shattered as they touched their bodies, and the two instantly looked like they were in a trance.

"This will probably last for a while," Jareth said to Sarah. She took a deep breath, unable to believe how this evening was going. Everything had gotten out of control so fast. "What were you thinking, doing that?" she asked Jareth sharply. "You know how worried I was, that's not how I wanted this to happen." She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.

Jareth tried to look apologetic. "Sarah, I'm sorry, I just did what I thought would be best. What better way to explain everything than to simply show them? There was no point in dragging it out. I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist. Plus," he added, breaking into a wide smile, "Did you see looks on their faces?" He laughed, the impish Fae in him shining through.

Sarah wanted to be angry, but she found herself laughing too. Her parents had looked so shocked! She laughed until her stomach hurt.

"Oh God!" she gasped, trying to get a hold of herself. But she couldn't; it was either laugh or cry, and she was sick of crying.

She had wanted this night to be as normal as possible, but who was she kidding? Nothing about her life was even remotely normal anymore. Why should this be any different?

She had barely noticed that Toby had gotten out of his chair, and was looking closely at his parents. "Sarah, are they okay?" he asked worriedly.

Sarah instantly felt guilty, and her laughter stopped abruptly. "Oh Tobes, don't worry, they're fine. Right now they're just sort of watching a movie in their heads, and when it's done they'll know everything that happened in the Labyrinth." She knelt down and gave Toby a hug. "I'm really not hungry anymore. What do you say we go check out your games till mom and dad, um, wake up."

Toby gave his parents one more worried look, but he trusted his sister. "Okay! I'll bring them down to the family room!" He ran off towards his room.

Sarah looked over to Jareth. She smiled at him, she couldn't really be mad at him. And it was kind of a relief to have this all taken care of for her. Sure, her parents would have questions, but at least Sarah was spared having to make the initial explanation.

"How much are they going to see?" she asked him.

"Pretty much everything, from the moment you wished Toby away until you arrived back home," he replied.

"So...they won't know anything about us getting married, or Merelinda, or Julie and Bayron?"

"No," Jareth said, "I just used the crystals as a way of makining all of that easier to understand." Sarah sighed. She had a feeling this was going to be a long, long night.

"Jareth! Come in here, I'm getting the game ready so we can play!" Toby called from the family room.

Sarah looked at Jareth and grinned. "Let's go. I know how much you like to play games, you shouldenjoy this. But be careful, Toby's really good. I know how big of a sore loser you are!" She laughed as he threw a green bean at her. She threw it back, then ran towards the family room before they could start an all-out food fight in her parents kitchen.