Rites of Passage by Betty Bokor
Jareth/Sarah. When Sarah is called to save the King, her life takes a whole new course, again.
Spoilers: The movie, the book, and some of the Return series.
Disclaimer: The Labyrinth original characters belong to The Jim Henson Company and Lucasfilms Ltd. This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.

A.N. The complete chapter has been up for a while; I hope the older note did not make it confusing. Thank you for reading.

Rites of Passage

Chapter 25

She did not need the King to ask her; she knew she had to explain it… and fast.

"It sometimes happens. There are cases in the medical literature. People who should have died but survived in extreme conditions. I've read about it. I've never seen it myself, but I know it has happened… and he does, too."

"What do you mean, young lady?" the High King asked with a mixture of impatience and hope.

"Hypothermia." She paused, trying to make it clear to them. "He was reading my medical journals, when he stayed in my apartment after the poisoning. He was reading about accidental hypothermia and patients who survived it. There was a case of a little girl who was found in a snow bank, and…" She made an effort to remember, "a man who got lost while climbing a mountain and was unconscious for almost a month."

"What do you need us to do?" the Queen interrupted her.

"We need to warm him up. In cases of severe hypothermia, the patients are re-warmed before it can be established if they're truly dead. When that man was found there was almost no pulse; his organs had shut down, but he survived without any lasting effects."

"I'm not certain that my son is still alive; I can't feel his heartbeat, but if it's as slow as you think it is," the King said, "I'm willing to try anything to help him. Tell us what to do."

"Call Keene and we'll start treating him."

A few minutes later, she was working with the elf. Keene was skeptical about the possibility of somehow reviving Jareth, but he was also willing to try. They had to agree on the best treatment, but it was hard to do so. They had different backgrounds and they believed in different methods.

They briefly discussed the options; they weighed their chances with extracorporeal circulation and cardiopulmonary bypass, but they were not certain his body could deal with that. There were too many injuries and he had lost so much blood that the odds were completely against him.

Finally, they decided in favor of using a paracentesis cannula for thoracic lavage as their main form of treatment. They would have to tend to his multiple injuries while they tried to re-warm him.

Sarah also started warm intravenous fluids and used every bit of knowledge she had learned in Med School and during her emergency room work to improve his care.

The High King offered to help heal his injuries with his own power and he was surprised when his first attempt yielded positive results. Jareth had to be actually alive to be healed in any way.

"It worked," he said quietly. "It started healing him, but there's too much damage. I don't believe I'm capable of repairing everything."

"I'll tell you where to concentrate," Keene suggested. "Other areas may be able to wait."

The King agreed.

They had been working together in silence for a while, when the King gasped.

The others looked at him anxiously.

"I can hear it. I can feel his heartbeat," he explained. "He's with us; you were right."

Sarah relaxed for the first time in hours.

"If his circulation is going to return to normal rates, we'll have to do something else about the blood loss soon," Keene worried.

"We have the IV going. Can we do a transfusion? Is anyone a match for his blood?" Sarah asked.

"No. That doesn't work for the fae. Their blood is unique, infused with their own magic."

"So, what can we do?"

"I have some of his blood in my lab, but it's old and not enough. If we had one of his crystals, maybe King Hagan could use it to multiply the amount and make it suitable for an autologous transfusion."

"That's true," the High King agreed. "I could use a sphere that way, but that's a kind of power that only Jareth could harness."

Sarah stopped working on a bandage. "Any crystal?" she inquired.

"What do you mean any crystal? It has to be one of those spheres he can create," Keene answered.

"I mean, does it have to be created for that specific purpose or any of his crystals would do?"

Keene looked at her with curiosity. "I suppose any of them."

"Because… I have one," Sarah confessed.

"You have one of Jareth's crystals?" Ruy asked from the other side of the room.

Sarah was surprised by his tone. She had not even noticed Ruy sitting by the fire, watching them work on Jareth. Now he was standing close to them, waiting for an answer with the same inquisitive expression as everyone else in the room.

"He gave it to me before leaving so that I could use it to come to the underground if I needed to do so."

Her answer did not seem to be satisfactory enough, but she had no time or interest on giving them any more details.

"Do you want me to go get it?" she asked looking at Hagan.

"Yes, please," replied the monarch.

Sarah rushed to her room and returned with the crystal in her hands. She tried not to look at anyone because their faces showed something akin to shock. She gave the sphere to the King and went back to work on Jareth's injuries. While Keene and Hagan went to the lab to work with the blood, she started softly cleaning one of Jareth arms with a wet cloth. She needed to see what the injuries were to try taking care of them.

Lady Anwen approached her and took Keene's place.

Sarah had just cut a piece of his sleeve and was cleaning the skin around his wrist when she noticed something curious. Every time she touched the skin with her fingers, the bluish tint of the bruising seemed to disappear. She finished cleaning the area and tried an experiment. She softly pressed one finger on the darkest area and let go. A pale circle appeared where she had touched.

Lady Anwen noticed what was going on. "Slide your fingers over here," she suggested in a whisper.

Sarah obeyed and the skin cleared immediately. She looked at the old lady looking for an answer.

"Try over this scrape," she muttered.

Sarah did and the laceration seemed to vanish.

"We need more clean water, Sarah. Let's go to the restroom and fill these bowls," the Queen said as she picked up a bowl and started walking away from the bed. Sarah followed.

Once inside, Lady Anwen closed the door behind them. "You can heal him."

"What? No… I can't do that."

"It's the baby. He must have the same abilities as his father and you're channeling them."

"How's that possible?"

"I don't know, but you should be careful when you touch him if you want to keep your secret."

"I don't really think it's that. Jareth said he could feel the injury before he healed someone. I don't feel anything."

"Maybe the child has only enough power to do minor injuries."

"Bruises and lacerations…"

"Probably."

"Then, let's hurry and I will heal as much as I can before they come back and we'll cover the skin so that's not so noticeable. Nobody really knows the extent of his injuries."

They agreed and they rushed to his side and worked feverishly until the King and Keene returned ready to perform the transfusion.

A couple of hours later the color of Jareth's skin had slightly improved and his heartbeat had become stronger.

"There's still too much damage to his internal organs," his father said as he took a break from his work.

"I know," Keene agreed. "I could work on a potion to help him, but I don't know if I have all the herbs necessary to make it. I'm pretty certain that I don't have any more dùzhòng. It's part of this healing potion I've used before for severe injuries, but we've used a great deal of that medicine during the war. Besides, Jareth always brings the herb to me when I need it. Probably for aboveground. I'll check right now, but if we don't have any, I don't now how we'll get some."

A few minutes later he returned with a book in his hands. "I was right; I don't have any more of it. It is commonly called Eucommia ulmoides and it's found on the Eastern Hemisphere." He opened the book and showed the King a picture. "We could send some goblins to look for it."

Sarah stretched toward the book and looked at the image. "I've seen that, here, underground."

"Where?" Keene asked, surprised. "I know all the plants from around here and that's not one of them."

Sarah knew she was blushing. Jareth had said he never allowed anyone near his house by the beach. She would have to reveal another secret. She took a deep breath and said, "Behind the glass house, close to the patch of fruit trees."

It took her only a second to realize everybody was looking at her.

"You've been to the glass house on the beach?" Hagan asked with a tone that did not betray his feelings.

"Yes," Sarah replied and immediately heard whispers around the room. She tried to amend her answer to make it easier for the others to understand. "The King said I could use the crystal to go there while he was gone. I was there yesterday," she added, carefully omitting her first stay in the house.

"I see. Well, then, the goblins who tend to the house can probably find the herbs for Keene. I'll take care of this." He looked one more time at Sarah and left the room.