Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from the movie Labyrinth. You know the rest of the drill.
Your Eyes
Story by Jessica Arbuckle (Jessi, Princess of Impatience)
June to possibly August, 2005
Chapter Eleven, This Changes Everything…
The ride to the hospital felt like it took forever. Toby, reassured that his sister was fine, soon fell asleep tucked between Sarah and Jareth in the back of the patrol car. Sarah was grateful he seemed not to question why they were in the police car. He was still in his pajamas as Jareth had not been able to conjure him an outfit with the police officer present. Although the night was cold, he was warm from the heat from their bodies as head blond head rested against Jareth's side.
Jareth had placed one arm around Sarah's shoulders, his hand tenderly caressing her cheek. The other hand rested on top of both of hers as they lay, tightly clenched, in her lap. They were silent, Sarah lost in her thoughts as Jareth watched her, worry tensing his body. She had been through so much emotionally in such a few hours and he was truly afraid she would be close to the breaking point if anything else happened. He placed a soft kiss on her temple and she blinked up at him, eyes shiny with tears.
"I'm so grateful you are here. I'm just so absolutely scared. I don't know what I would do if you weren't here," she whispered softly, trying not to wake Toby up. The longer he slept, the better, for right now.
He gently squeezed her hands and then released them as he removed his arm from her shoulders. He reached down and shifted Toby onto his lap so he could draw Sarah up against his side. Toby wiggled in his sleep, settling himself against Jareth's chest with a sleepy mumble.
He waited until Toby's breathing settled into an even pace before replying. "I know this changes everything, but I love you and I will not leave you Sarah… ever," he said softly but firmly. "Never doubt that, no matter what."
"I won't. This doesn't change anything, Jareth. I love you too, that won't change. This just complicates everything."
"Shh, love, we don't need to talk about it now," he said gently.
Sarah sighed heavily and settled her head against Jareth's chest, her face scant inches from Toby's head. She looked at Toby's sleep-softened features and smoothed back a lock of blonde hair as she placed a kiss on his forehead. Jareth watched her, tightening his arms around her and Toby when her hand came to rest on Toby's arm.
He felt the strong desire to never move from this spot and wondered at it. Never before had he felt so protective over any one individual and now he felt like he would go anywhere and do anything just to keep both the people in his arms from harm. His protectiveness over Sarah he could understand without much thought, as he had long ago realized that he loved her. He was slowly learning that all these new feelings and thoughts came with that.
However, his feelings for Toby puzzled him. A few hours ago, Toby had been nothing more than an eternal baby in his mind, but he felt an almost immediate affection stir upon speaking to the boy. He naturally liked children, which made it much easier to answer calls to him and the goblins, but he had never felt such an instant affection for a child. It had grown by leaps and bounds and he had just been re-introduced to Toby less than an hour ago. Then it suddenly hit him that the affection had always been there. As he had watched over him for most of the time Toby had been under his care in the castle, he had begun to feel something for the baby that he hadn't recognized. He now realized that it was genuine affection and the recognition of that fact blew him away.
'Who would have thought the Goblin King would ever care for one person, let alone two?' he thought wryly, looking out the window at the scenery that passed by so fast.
Toby wiggled again and Sarah watched Jareth's hand on Toby's back as his thumb slowly moved up and down, the movement settling Toby almost instantaneously as he began to snore softly. Lifting her head slightly to look up at Jareth, she saw he was looking out the car window. With a smile, she realized his movements to comfort Toby had been an unconscious gesture on his part. Looking at him now, she saw the mask of the stern Goblin King fighting to stay in place over the emotions that his thoughts were bringing about. She didn't know what he was thinking, but she could tell instinctively that he was at a loss over something. She watched as his lips touched softly to Toby's blonde head, his thoughts still elsewhere. The unconscious gestures made Sarah's heart feel like it was about to burst with joy. "God how I love this man," she thought, her eyes on him.
Instinctively feeling her gaze trained on him broke his thoughts and he glanced down, smiling gently as his lips met hers momentarily on a soft, loving kiss.
"I love you," she whispered softly and settled back against his chest again.
"And I love you," he whispered back as he rested his head on top of hers.
They finally reached the hospital, Sarah sitting upright to impatiently wait for the officer to open the door. All thoughts now for her father, she raced inside. Jareth paused for a brief moment to thank the police officer and then strode after her, Toby tucked safely in his arms.
He entered the two sets of double doors, looking around to locate Sarah. She was already standing in front of a large desk where nurses bustled around. As he reached Sarah, one looked up from the desk.
"May I help you?" the nurse asked.
"I'm Sarah Williams. My father, Robert Williams, was brought here after a fire. Where is he?" Sarah asked, tears making her voice sound raspy.
The nurse typed something into the computer and waited, then looked up at Sarah. "He was taken straight to surgery when they brought him in, Miss Williams. You are going to have to wait for the doctor in the surgical waiting area. You'll take that elevator," she said, pointing off to her left, "to the second floor. As soon as you exit the elevator, you'll be at the waiting area. Someone will come for you there."
Sarah quickly thanked the nurse and took off towards the elevator, Jareth right behind her.
a/n: winces Ok, it is another semi- cliffy, I'm SORRY! This story just is full of them and the only person to blame here is JARETH!
As always, even though I cliffy you into panic, please R/R, I would just adore it!