DISCLAIMER - I don't own Sarah or Jareth or the Labyrinth (unfortunately) they belong to Jim Henson & Co, and I'm definitely not making a profit from this. (Bummer) All other NPC's are a figment of my own imagination.

Chapter 17 – A Choice

The morning found her making a strong cup of tea in the kitchen, alone in the apartment since James was already working in the offices below having woken her earlier to tell her he would be working till lunchtime. She had dug through another box of clothes after she had showered to find a pair of jeans that had once been to tight to fit her, that now fitted perfectly, and a tight t-shirt in black, her usual attire. After she had inhaled the cup of tea she borrowed James's car keys and began taking the boxes of her old things down the back stairs and out into the parking lot to throw into the boot of his pickup. She thanked silent gods for James's obsession with huge trucks as she stuffed the last box of her old things on the passenger seat and locked the door.

"Karolyn I'm sorry to disturb you." Sarah said quietly as the young woman looked up at her from her desk. "I'm just going into town to take my old things to the charity shop. I've borrowed James's car in case he asks. I'll be back around lunchtime."

"Why are you getting rid of your things? I got the impression you'd come back to stay." Sarah looked at the girl and frowned before shaking her head.

"No. I'm not staying. I'll be gone in a few days and since I don't need my old things anymore I figured it would be better to get rid of them now." Karolyn nodded, though a little sceptically as Sarah left the busy reception area and headed out to the pickup.

She negotiated her way carefully into the city and pulled up outside the first charity shop she found, enlisting the amicable young man behind the counter to help her get all the boxes out of the pickup.

"Wow, you sure are getting rid of a lot of stuff!" He said as he curiously opened a box of CDs and DVD's.

"Help yourself." She told him before getting back into the pickup and driving away without looking back. She drove straight through the city and out towards the sea, finally pulling up in a small out of the way car park that lead down to a small sandy beach. This place had been her secret since she had moved to the city since there were few parks that could replace the one she had spent time in when she was younger. She walked along the edge of the lapping waves until she got to the outcrop of rock, which she sat on, enjoying the sunshine and the dulled throb of noise in her head.

She sat for a while before finally pulling out the creased envelope from her jeans pocket. She re-read her mothers letter several times, wondering what pills she had been on when she wrote it. Or if indeed the woman she had always thought of as mother, was in fact her mother at all.

"No wonder I've never felt as though I've fitted in. Perhaps I'm a changeling and there's a healthy Fae woman somewhere in the Underground that should have been me." That was concerning she mused. "I wonder if she even knows that she's not Fae." Sarah eventually gave up on her pointless exploration into the realms of being an orphaned Fae and drove back into the city, stopping to pick up some sandwiches for lunch.

"Hey Sweets, where did you go?" James asked as he joined her on the stairs, taking the bag of sandwiches out of her hands.

"Oh, just out. There were some places I wanted to go and a few memories I had to put to rest." He frowned and nodded before heading into the kitchen to find cool drinks and plates for the sandwiches. They sat in front of the TV all afternoon, gossiping about his other clients and the state of the world but Sarah knew that James was brooding on something, and wouldn't relax until he'd chewed it out. He finally broke as they were eating ice cream and watching a re-run of an old western film as darkness spread out across the sky.

"You didn't have to get rid of all your things you know. Everybody has to have some bits of their own past lying around." He said sticking his spoon back into the empty tub with a clatter and nodding towards the small box of photos and the chess set.

"I don't need them any more, and you weren't going to throw them out." Sarah replied uneasily.

"Everybody needs something to hold on to from growing up, I still have all my old toys and everything." He said repeating himself as the sheriffs ran down another cowboy and hung him.

"Everything I need to remind me of who I am is in here, not in a box." Sarah said touching her heart and her head.

"I guess we'll just have to go out and get you some new clothes then. A whole new wardrobe for a whole new start."

"I'm not staying James."

"Nonsense. You'll love the house when you get used to it, and once we've fixed your ID's and things, perhaps you can look to going to acting class again."

"James, I'm not staying." Sarah watched as the outlawed cowboys fought back against the sheriffs and won the day.

"If he's pressuring you into going back, I'll speak to him, make him see sense. He can't keep you there, you're not his slave."

"I am."

"Sometimes I don't understand you Sarah. All the time you always talk about wanting to be in control of your own life, and then you let this freak control you."

"He is not a freak. He is my King." Sarah sighed, knowing that James wasn't listening to a word she was saying.

"I won't let you go back." He said suddenly as she got up to go and get another drink.

"I can't not go back, I don't belong here James, and never did do." She said as he got up and followed her.

"He's been brainwashing you into thinking that you're different."

"I am different. Look, pointy ears, I can speak Fae flawlessly and I can use magic. I'm not human James." She groaned as he continued to talk over the top of her. The nagging aching sounds in her head were getting worse, and his yelling didn't help. She moved to walk past him when he grabbed her hand.

"I won't let you go. You belong here Sarah. With me." He said begging her.

"I have to go back! I don't belong to anybody!"

"Yet you say you belong to him."

"I do, but it's different."

"How is it different? I love you Sarah. I love you more than anything in the world." He said not letting go of her hand.

"No you don't, if you loved me James you'd know that I can't stay here. I don't love you." She whispered.

"You just don't know you do yet. Stay and we can try. Please Sarah!"

"No."

"Do you love him?" He snarled pulling her back to him as she tried to back away from him.

"What?"

"Do you love him?"

"You don't understand! I've loved him since I was 8 years old and was given the Labyrinth book by my mother's friend. He's my best friend, knows me better than I do myself. Knows what makes me mad, and frightened and depressed and…"

"No Sarah, do you love him?" James screamed, shaking her.

"Yes." She whispered the world crashing down around her as she finally admitted aloud her most secret thing.

"I don't believe you! How can you love him when you never told me about him except for once?"

"Because you just don't go around every day admitting to people that you love a goblin king who lives in a castle at the centre of a labyrinth!"

"I've told you Sarah, I won't let you go back to that…place. You belong here."

"You can't stop me. I have to go back else I'll go insane! The noise James it creeps inside your head like a virus, all the… humanity… there's no magic left here, no belief, I can't live in this world anymore!"

"Then I'll go with you!"

"What?" Sarah turned to face him, shock and anger colouring her face.

"I'll wish myself away like you did, than we can be together." James said, astonished that he had come up with such a perfect solution.

"NO!" Sarah gasped as he opened his mouth again. "Don't you dare!" She cried reaching out to cover his mouth. "You've no idea what you're doing!"

"I'll challenge him to get you back like you did with your brother." He said taking hold of both her hands so she couldn't get away from him.

"No! James I don't want to stay with you! I don't love you!" She screamed, as he held on tighter to her wrists.

"He's just trying to make you stay there away from me!" James shouted back as Sarah shook her head in denial.

"No! I gave myself to him, wanted to go to the Labyrinth, made him take me back there."

"I wish…"
"No James!" Sarah shouted over him, trying to down him out. Twisting her hands to free them from his grasp Sarah fell and sobbing backed away from the man she once thought was her friend. Not sure what he would do next she called.

"Jareth!" She wept as James grabbed hold of her ankle as she tried to crawl away, calling out in her heart for her King. With a clarity that she had forgotten since she had come back to the Aboveground she knew he was there, knew that she was safe as he gathered her into his arms and held her tight. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he picked her up off the floor and inhaled the warm scent of hot dusty days and roses and wild things. "I'm sorry." She whispered into his ear as he stood holding her and glared at James who had moved back to lean against the wall as Jareth's presence filled the room. In a single glance he saw the box of her things on the table and made them disappear.

"I won't let you take her away from me." James said standing up straight and glaring right back at the tall Fae King who stood in front of him.

"And how do you suppose you will do that?" Jareth asked curiously as he ran his fingers though Sarah's soft hair, soothing her frightened weeping and trying not to destroy the mortal who had dared hurt her.

"I wish myself away to you." James said shrugging as Jareth smirked. He could feel Sarah tense as she heard the mortal say the words.

"How foolish you mortals have become." Jareth laughed. "Not even a bargain and you have wished away your soul to me."

"No. I will fight you for her. I will win against your Labyrinth, and I will return to this world with Sarah. She doesn't belong to you and she doesn't belong in your world."

"You couldn't be more wrong." Jareth said clicking his tongue as he continued to smirk.

"Please don't take him." Sarah whispered in Jareth's ear. Knowing that James didn't have Jareth's perfect hearing. "I don't want him to see the Labyrinth. I don't want to be here."

"What makes you think that if I take you back to the Underground, I will let you enter or ever leave my Labyrinth?"

"You are bound. If I wish myself away for Sarah you have to let me try to get her back."

"I have to do no such thing." Jareth sneered.

"You gave no stipulations before you said the words. You have wished yourself away, but Sarah is free. She belongs to the Labyrinth, not me."

James finally seemed to understand what he had done as his face fell.

"I won't let you take her away again." He said lamely watching as Sarah released her death grip around Jareth's neck and looked him in the eye.

"You gave me my freedom after I had wished myself away to you." She whispered as she stared into his mismatched, tired eyes. "Take me in his place, I will be yours again."

"I would not be able to release you again, you would be bound by the chains of slavery. I will not do that to you. Not for him. He said the words, he will live with the consequences."

"Please Jareth. I'll be where I want to be, and I'm sure if Isenith can live with you for almost 100 years, then I can too. I was your slave before you released me and it didn't seem too bad."

"You could not even remember who I was, so how could you have been my slave? I will not." He said stubbornly.

"Please. You told me that you would grant any request I asked of you. Make me your slave so that James can stay here."

"He's not worth that."

"Neither am I, take me home Jareth. I wish the Goblin King would take me away, right now." She said, feeling her heart hammering in her chest and the white noise in her head making her want to scream.

"Then you must learn to hate me Selindé for I will hurt you one day." He whispered as he enfolded her into his arms once more and took her away.

The spinning blackness disappeared, and was replaced by a white-hot pain in her head. She gasped as Jareth released her, backing away, of look of fear in his eyes as he watched her.

"Please don't leave me!" She begged him clutching onto her head, as the waves of pain became bars of molten metal piercing her very soul and binding her. "Jareth!"

"It is worse if I stay." He whispered shaking his head.

"If you leave me now Jareth as soon as this stops I'm going to find you and kill you." She moaned before falling to the floor as a new wave of pain drove itself into her. He carefully picked her up and carried her to her bed where he sat and held her as she alternatively screamed and wept in pain as her soul was forever bound to his.

Hours passed, as they lay on her bed, the pain finally leaving Sarah exhausted, sweaty and with a headache worthy of the biggest booze-up she had ever experienced.

"I hope one day you will be able to forgive me." Jareth said as she lay in his arms hardly breathing for tiredness.

"You need no forgiveness from me, and I won't ever hate you." She said touching his face with her hand. "I love you." She knew that he already knew that she loved him, since her very soul belonged to him, and was like an open book. Knew that no matter what happened, even if he did one day hurt her, it would be in her own best interests. "I know that you have to marry somebody else, but my heart will always belong to you." She watched him sigh and reached her hand up again to soften the frown across his smooth brow. He captured her hand in his own and leaning down kissed her gently on the forehead.

"Sleep." He told her as he moved to get up.

"Don't leave me." She said not letting go of his hand. "Why did you call me Selindé?"

"There are many things we have to discuss, but right now you need to sleep." He said settling himself back by her side as she closed her eyes, almost contented. He lay and watched her sleeping face, perfect in every way. He marvelled that even though he had done the worst thing ever possible by enslaving her again, she did not hate him, loved him in fact. His tired heart began to beat stronger, even going so far as to hope that when she fully understood whom she was she would be ready to take the final step. He slept and walked with her in the never-ending twilight of her dreams.

ladyofthedragons1 - he better be planning on marrying Sarah! update soon great story I'm in love with it!

A/N ;oP Not telling yet! Heheheh

websurffer - OHH! That's so sad! I'm gonna cry.

A/N My mother always tells me that if you can't make yourself cry when you're reading your own stuff then its not powerful enough – I've cried lots over this… Thanks for commenting!

dragoneyes171986 - UM I didn't quite get it done I'm trying to get it in by Monday I'll be docked 5 points but WHAT THE HELL! Keep bringing out those chapters they're great!

A/N DOH! Hope you got it in on Monday then! A small reward for you! Hope you like that latest chapters!