Signs, What Signs?

Toby smirked as he descended the stairs. He entered the kitchen and put the empty glass into the dishwasher. After the encounter with his Dad he had made his way to the bathroom, only to find his suspicions had been confirmed. His precious, little sister was driving the porcelain bus. After she downed the drink he picked her up and set her in the shower, fully clothed. He turned it on full blast, making sure it was ice, cold. After a few seconds of cursing wildly at her brother, she managed to turn on the warm water. Toby had conveniently left at this point, he just valued his life to much to stay.

Toby sat down at the table, skimming the morning paper.

"Hey, would you hand me the comics, I sure could use a laugh this morning."

Sarah sat across from her little brother, sipping an ice coffee.

"Where's Mom?"

"She went to the gym to ease off some stress," Sarah answered.

"I noticed you two were out on the patio. It didn't look like you were discussing the weather, either."

"Brilliant, Sherlock."

Toby looked at his sister sharply and Sarah gazed at him apologetically.

"How could one person cause so much heartache in a family," Sarah asked, rhetorically.

"Sarah, that's a little unfair. We can't blame this all on Sam. I didn't exactly ace Psych 101 in high school, but, doesn't environment have a lot to do with the way we turn out."

"Toby, I know I shouldn't blame this all on her. It is majorly obvious that our whole family has issues, Sam being one of them."

Toby looked at his sister, noticing the anger and frustration burning in her green eyes.

"Sarah, you are messed up."

"What!"

"Sarah, you are the one that said we should be there for her. Now you are acting like Sam is a lost cause and that we shouldn't even bother."

"Well, at least I am being realistic," Sarah paused. "I still want to be there for her. I am just beginning to feel helpless. How can we be there for her if she won't let us?"

Sarah's voice went from angry to sad in a matter of moments. Toby was about to answer when the phone rang. Sarah stood up and grabbed it.

"Hello. Oh, hi Nancy. How are you? O, I am doing all right. Yeah, here he is."

She handed the phone to Toby. Sensing they needed privacy Sarah said, "I am going for a walk."

She walked out of the kitchen toward the front door. On the way there she looked up the stairs. Feeling a sudden flash of nausea and dizziness, she grabbed onto the banister.

She tried to shake it off as she made her way to the foyer. As she walked outside she thought, "Oh, Sam. When will you live again?"

"Jareth, Jareth! Okay, Jareth, stop playing around. You called me here and you sure as hell better show yourself."

Justina turned around and smacked into her brother. "Augh! Don't do that, jerk!"

Justina smacked her brother, striving to wipe the smirk off his face.

"Oh, I can't believe I just did that to my dear sister. After all, she would never do something like that to me," Jareth replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Justina smiled. "Okay, point taken."

Justina sat down on the bench, looking around at the beautiful garden within the castle grounds.

"Jareth, I have to admit, the place looks lovely. I even admit to feeling a swell of pride for my brother when he started rebuilding this place. In fact, I remember being quite surprised at your dedication. It was as if you were trying to prove something to someone after your defeat. And I am not sure if that someone was only yourself."

"Justina, I didn't ask you here to discuss your opinions on my castle grounds, or my motives for taking care of them. I wanted to tell you about Sam."

Justina jumped to attention, forgetting her previous thoughts. "What happened?"

Jareth walked toward a willow tree, touching the long vines as he struggled to form the words.

"Justina, the girl was...plastered."

"What!"

"You know, wasted!"

"Jareth, you really need to lay off that book, "Slang From the Aboveground For Dummies." Justina shook her head, struggling not to laugh at the glare her brother sent her way.

"Justina, the girl was dead drunk. She could barely speak. She did the splits for god sakes."

Justina laughed, "Well, actually, it's really not as bad as you think. The girl has sunk to her lowest, things can only get better from here on in... Jareth, during this dream, was there any sign that Sam was starting to feel more comfortable with you?"

Jareth broke the vine in his hands.

"Why do you ask," Jareth asked defensively.

Justina looked at him, confused.

"Well, it's just that if Sam is more comfortable with you, she is more apt to open up about that particular moment of weakness. Which may lead to other discoveries."

"Well, no particular sign that I can think of."

Something flashed in Jareth's eyes which was just as quickly replaced by his usual, cold mask. Justina looked at him suspiciously.

"Well Jareth," she approached him slowly, as if he were her prey. When she was only inches away from him she continued, "if you can think of anything, just call." With that, she transformed into a hawk and disappeared.

Sam moaned as she made her way from the bathroom to her bedroom. The shower had eased her aching muscles, but her head was still foggy. She walked to her bed and lay on on top of the covers.

"Ow!" Sam ripped away the covers to find out what had bruised her back. She took in the sight of the glass bottle. Shame and regret washed over her as she buried it at the bottom of her trash can. She saw Lancelot on the floor by her bed, face up.

"What are you looking at?" Sam was about to throw the bear under her bed when a certain red book caught her eye. It was peaking out from underneath her pillow, causing a sudden reminder.

"Oh crap! How am I ever going to face him again? He saw me at the most humiliating moment in my life. And of course, there was also my grand finale."

Sam lay on her bed again and punched her pillow. She wondered if he was angry, or worse, disgusted.. Would their relationship or non relationship ever be the same? Fighting off her embarrassment she allowed herself to drift off, knowing what the consequences would be. She fought off another wave of nausea as she closed her eyes. She knew what she had to do.

Ripper101: I always smile when I see you have reviewed. Thanks. Anyway, you are right. I haven't addressed Sarah's and Toby's problems too much. I am mainly focusing on Sam, because she has the most issues. Even though I have touched on their problems, Sarah's and Toby's issues won't be focused on until the story nears its end. As far as Jareth/Sam - Jareth/Sarah, well, we will just have to wait and see what happens. Insert evil laugh here.