BOWIEgirl- I'm not lying! Here it is! Hey, how do you know where I am? Have you been talking to Angel of Space? WHO HAVE YOU BEEN TALKING TO?

Mord-Sith Raal- I'm not sure flips through notes that we have the availability to put in a 'seduction by Jareth' for you… looks over at Jareth who is playing with his crystals while sprawled lazily on my lounge suite What do you think?

Jareth Is she pretty?

Lady I don't know.

Jareth Well, I might have time next Tuesday… Maybe.

Lady Good news!

RoschLupin-Black- Yeah. hits Gabriel (who is watching the television) hard over the head with her notes And it's all your fault! Mum thought I was spending too much time with you so she took away my internet privileges!

Gabriel (looks at Lady with his beautiful puppy-dog eyes) What'd I do?

Moonjava- As always- thankyou.

atsuibelulahu- How do you pronounce that? Thankyou for being so understanding (maybe you should lay off the caffeine- once you thought the story had ended, everyone thought it was. It was strange) yeah- this story is gonna have sort of 'Beauty and the Beast' tendencies… I will reveal no more!

ItsACrystalNothingMore- Whoa, maybe tone it down a little. I'm updating! I'm updating!

Solea- Oh, okay. I'll change it back…I kind of had the 'clapper' in mind for that chapter…

Eleanora Rose- Yeah, I liked that line too. I'm known for my tasteful (and not so tasteful) jokes.

Morrigana- I'm so glad you're happy. My friend Angel of Space thought the thing at the end of last chapter was scary- but I needed something to fill out the chapter- and it sort of gives you a bit of background as to how schitzo I can really be.

jumping-jo- I guess he has… but the room has always been extravagant- being for royalty and all.

Another for Mord-Sith Raal- Oooh, special. You get two.ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT I ACTUALLY LIKE SARAH? YOU ARE SO DILUSIONED! But I will talk more about Jareth- he's going to blow a gasket soon…

WildPixieChild16- Cool. You're a new face- or name, whatever- this means that new people are reading! Or old people are reviewing… it's still cool!

Satta- Why should you be unhappy? What did I steal? Bathing? Are you talking about this story or my other one- that one has bathing, not yet… I prefer to be by myself, despite what my psychiatrist thinks… And you are kind of as bad as Jareth-

Jareth (looks up at Lady) Who said what now?

Lady (throws a cusion at him) Oh, shut up.

except that you haven't said that you can be cruel- not that Jareth can be…

Jareth Hey!

Lady I thought I told you to shut up!

Chapter Ten

Jareth's Personal Healer

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Sarah woke to the sound of knocking on her door.

'Wha-at,' she groaned brokenly as she slowly left the comfort of her warm, huge bed and swung her feet down to the carpeted floor.

'Sarah? It's Jareth. Can I come in?' came Jareth's muffled voice from the other side of the door.

Sarah almost said yes, in her drowsy state of half wakefulness, but then she realised that she was in a nightgown and that her hair probably looked a mess. 'Ye-no. Sorry- can you wait a bit?'

'Alright. Aren't you decent?' chuckled Jareth.

'Um…' said Sarah, wondering what to say here. 'Well, wouldn't you like to know?' she said with her head half out of a gown from her wardrobe, a pink one. She put on some matching shoes and practically ran into the bathroom, ignoring the throbbing pains in her chest. She quickly brushed her hair, cleaned her teeth and washed her face. She ran out again so fast that she skidded the last few metres and then fell and hit the door (with her head) with a dull thud.

'Sarah?' asked Jareth anxiously. He knocked forcefully on the door. 'Sarah, are you alright? Sarah!'

Sarah got up, flicked back her hair and rubbed her head. She opened the door just as Jareth was about to beat on it again. 'Um, I'm okay. I'm okay.'

Jareth looked at her with barely concealed worry. 'May I come in?'

'Er, yes.'

Jareth smiled. 'Well, I see you've found your wardrobe.'

Sarah looked back at him, reading the sarcasm but deciding to take no notice of it. 'Yes, I did. Thankyou, for that, by the way.'

Jareth raised his eyebrows. He hadn't expected his Sarah to have changed so much; a year or two ago she would have rounded on him and yelled so much he would have been deaf for a week. This Sarah… well, you could tell that years of living in what mortals call 'the real world' had taken it's toll on her. She was more cautious, more polite. But still the girl who ran my Labyrinth, thought Jareth approvingly.

He, instead of replying with a snide remark dripping in sarcasm, simply nodded his head. He watched dumbly as Sarah rushed around, tidying her bed, picking up her discarded nightgown. Jareth didn't move from the doorway. 'Listen, Sarah; I want to let my personal healer look at you, if you will allow it.'

Sarah paused and looked at him.

Jareth invisibly braced himself for the fight that was sure to come.

'Okay, sure… I guess.'

Jareth breathed a silent sigh of relief and stuck his head out into the doorway, beckoning to a fey woman. She was short and wrinkled and looked almost unbelievably old, though she had bright red hair tied in a disastrous bun at the base of her neck. Strands of hair floated around her pleasant face with every flow of wind.

'Sarah, this is Gwyn, my healer,' said Jareth.

'Good morning, my dear,' said Gwyn.

'Hi,' said Sarah.

Jareth turned to Gwyn. 'Would you like me to stay?'

'No, Jareth, we'll be just fine,' assured Gwyn.

Jareth nodded to her, then to Sarah and left, closing the door behind him.

'So, dear,' said Gwyn, 'would you please sit n the bed and tell me about your injuries.'

Sarah sat down and fingered her bandaged wrist. 'Um, well, Jareth said I have a broken wrist, but he splint it and bandaged it, so that should be okay.'

Gwyn nodded and motioned for Sarah to continue.

'Um, I have bruises on my legs and on my face and on my arms…' said Sarah, trailing off dismally. She was a little embarrassed about talking about all her injuries, thinking that they symbolised her weakness. He shouldn't have been able to beat me so badly, thought Sarah angrily. I should have protected myself better…

Gwyn just nodded again. 'May I see the bruises on your arms?'

Sarah carefully rolled up her sleeves, revealing the long bruises that Angus's fingers had left.

Gwyn trailed her tapered fingers gently over them. 'Alright, I can give you a cream for those. And the bruises on your legs?'

Sarah rolled down her sleeves and pulled up her skirt to knee height, showing the blue-back marks on her calves.

Gwyn simply nodded again. 'And anything else?'

Sarah let down her skirt. 'Uh, well, I do have scratches on my face, but they'll heal by themselves. And I have bruises on my chest, and it's really hard to breathe.'

Gwyn looked at Sarah as though she was studying her. 'May I see?"

'Er, I guess so.' Sarah had the intense feeling that she was safe with this woman, so she hesitantly unbuttoned her dress, showing her pale chest and her tan bra, and the mottled bruises that now adorned the soft flesh.

Gwyn ran her skilled fingers over the bruises. She sat down on the bed next to Sarah after a while. 'Three of your ribs are cracked. That's why you find it hard to breathe.'

Sarah gasped painfully in shock.

'Don't worry; you'll be fine. I'll give you some medicine to dull the pain and your ribs will heal by themselves.'

Sarah nodded dumbly and re-buttoned her dress. 'There is one more thing… At the side of my head, under my hair, there's a big cut- a gash. It was bleeding pretty hard.'

Gwyn nodded and, not asking for permission this time, went over to Sarah and quickly located the wound. She clicked her tongue disapprovingly. 'You will need stitches.'

Sarah yelped and jumped off the bed, backing away from the healer. 'Stiches? I thought you guys didn't need to use stitches!' she said hysterically.

Gwyn tried to calm her down. 'It's just to help it heal. You don't have to have them, they will just speed up the healing process,' she said soothingly.

'I AM NOT GETTING STITCHES!' screamed Sarah, already on edge from what had happened with Angus, coupled with her complete fear of anything to do with surgical needles making her frenzied with terror.

0o0

Somewhere, deep within the Goblin Castle (in a hidden room just to the left of the kitchens), Jareth heard the shriek reverberate around the stone walls. He immediately materialised in the royal guest bedchambers.

0o0

Sarah looked up at Jareth when he arrived, tears of irrational fear in her eyes. She ran over to him and clutched at his shirt. 'I don't want stitches. Please don't make me have stitches,'she sobbed into his shirt, wetting it substantially with her tears.

Jareth tried very hard to keep his temper in check as he wrapped his arms comfortingly around her. His temper begged him to do something, anything to release it. Jareth tried very hard not to roar at Gwyn for upsetting his Sarah, then he realised that if he showed the slightest bit of maladjustment to any situation Sarah would fear him more than ever; she would curl up into a tiny shell and never come out again.

So he curbed his anger and simply rubbed Sarah's back and murmured t her soothingly.

'It's all right… No-one is going to hurt you… Shhh, my dear,' he said calmingly as he guided Sarah, still clutching his shirt, to sit back down on the bed and he sat down next to her, having apparently no desire to pry her fingers from him.

He mouthed to Gwyn so not as to disturb Sarah: 'Make her medicines and get them to me. I will see what I can do about her. An I want to know exactly what her injuries are.'

Gwyn just inclined her head and quietly slipped out the door, only to be ambushed by a large gaggle of maids eager to know who was this young woman that was staying at the castle- in the royal guest suite, no less- and had captured the Goblin King's attention so completely.