Disclaimer:I don't own anything from the movie Labyrinth, but I do own Amelia

Chapter 17: A Meal and a Story

"I'm hungry Mel," Toby said to his cousin.

"Well what am I supposed to do about it?"

"Um, I dunno. Where's Jareth and Sarah?"

"Jareth went to find Sarah because she went for a walk. Now let's ask these goblins where we can get food," Amelia explained before walking off.

Just as Amelia was going to ask one of the less dopey looking goblins where they could get something to eat another, cleaner, goblin woman approached the two children.

"Hello there young 'uns. Are ye' getting hungry?"

Amelia nodded her head before stopping herself. "Who are you?"

"I'm Martha, I'm one of the kings maids and also a cook 'ere. Now come along you two, the King will know where ye are."

Martha took one of Toby's hands and one of Amelia's and led them to a cozy room with a table and two chairs. The table was laden with the two children's favourite snacks.

"Now go on, eat up. I'm sure the King and the lady will be along soon enough."

So they sat at the table and got into the food, forgetting about Jareth and Sarah for just a little while.

Sarah hadn't noticed Jareth coming up behind her, but she did notice the sharp intake of breath behind her. She jumped at the sound and turned to be faced with Jareth.

"Jareth, what are you doing here?" She took in the downcast look in his eyes and the sadness of his features.

"Sarah why did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Your arm Sarah. Why did you do that to yourself?"

She looked away from him, trying to avoid answering. Jareth took her into his embrace and kissed her gently on the forehead.

"I wanted to control the pain."

He turned her head to face him, "what do you mean?"

She took a deep breath before explaining further.

"Jareth, when I was younger, I lived with my mother and her second husband Jeremy. Jeremy abused me. He'd hit me and all the usual things. Then when I was ten I moved in with my dad, well that wasn't too bad until he married Karen. Well you know how well she treats me. She's hated me from the start and she let me know. So in the end I decided that I wanted to control the pain. Everyone else made me hurt and I couldn't stop it, so I figured I'd hurt myself, then I could control how much it hurt and when."

"Oh Sarah. I wish I had been there to help you." He pulled her into his embrace and then her stone faced façade dropped. She lay her head on his shoulder and cried out the pain and suffering she had been through. Sarah cried until the tears would no longer come and Jareth sat there rocking his distraught love in his arms and singing softly to her.

AN: Sorry about the delay in the update, the chapter was on my laptop and my charger died so I've had to wait to get a new charger, I didn't want to re-write it either because I might have changed somehting I didn't want to. More soon granted there are no more problems with my computer.

Also, thankyou to all my reviewers, hope you liked the chapter, now go and leave me a pressie in the review box please.