EPILOGUE

He picked up the squally baby and held her close to his chest. Instantly, the babe stopped her screaming and nestled into his soft silk shirt, her pudgy fists curling into the flowy material.

"That's right, daddy's here," he murmured, stroking his naked hand over the mop of brown hair on the infant's head. He lifted her up and inhaled deeply of the newborn scent; a mixture of magic, milk, and something uniquely her. He smiled as she blinked dazedly at him with those deep blue eyes that held galaxies within. His insides were swept with the feeling that had once been denied to him for centuries and now a part of his daily life: love.

Love, he was told, would fade. That had not been Jareth's experience. If anything, his love and his capacity to love grew exponentially every day. He had so much to love. He had a wife who after many trials and tribulations loved him back. And now he had a daughter.

After many years of working together; of loving together, Sarah had announced that she was ready to have his children if he still wanted them. Of course, he did, but only if she was adamant. Sarah was no broodmare and he would not have her pregnant just to appease him. She had announced her desire in such a way that would stay with him for all of time.

She had surprised him by wearing the catsuit. He was also strapped to a chair, just watching her in the skintight suit as she sashayed around the bedroom. He was incredibly hard, as she shimmied closer to him. He couldn't touch her, though he was dying to. His arms strained against the silk that bound him.

"Uh uh," she had reprimanded him, gently swatting at his thigh with his own riding crop. "This cat is not for patting."

She straddled him, the smooth leather stroking his bare skin most tantalisingly. She purred as she rubbed her cheek over the smooth expanse of his chest. Jareth responded with a low rumble of his own. His cock responded by pulsing and throbbing against his stomach.

Jareth had conjured the vial he had consumed religiously to prevent Sarah from falling pregnant. He proffered it to Sarah to tip into his mouth, as he couldn't do it himself with the bindings around him. Her hand came up to grasp his but didn't take the vial. He looked up at her seeing the picture of raw and unadulterated love and lust right in his lap. Confusion marred his brow as she caressed his hand in hers without touching the vial.

"Sarah." Jareth shook the vial slightly to make his point. He watched her kohl-rimmed eyes dart to the vial and study it, before looking back at him. He may have imagined it, but he was sure she shook her head.

Without warning, she wrangled the vial out of his hand and dashed it into the nearest wall where it shattered, blue liquid hissing against the cold stone. He turned back to Sarah who bit her lip to hide her smile. Jareth had beamed back, barely containing the tears that had sprung into his eyes.

"Sarah?" he had asked. "Are you positive?"

"I am ready, Jareth," she had wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned down to kiss him. "Do you accept my gift, Jareth?"

He kissed her passionately, deepening the kiss as soon as she had become pliant enough. He disengaged to ensure she truly wanted what she freely offered. "I accept you giving me the gift of fatherhood as long as you truly want the gift of motherhood, for yourself and not just for me."

"I want to be the mother of your children, Jareth," she had said. "I am ready."

"Then I accept, Sarah-mine."

Having broken the curse, babies were plentiful and not the rare miracle they used to be. It didn't take long before Sarah was with child. And how she had grown in love with every step she took during pregnancy! She was a natural mother to their child. Jareth was overwhelmed.

Not to say that it had been the "happily ever after" of her mortal fairy tales. They still had their struggles. Jareth was guilty of not communicating his decisions when, after centuries of ruling alone, he was quite used to not having to consult others first. And Sarah occasionally let her determination bleed into sheer obstinance.

However, together they had a strong Kingdom that was a sanctuary to many and a bastion of peace and prosperity.

It was not just the Council of Mythical Creatures that found sanctuary here, but the likes of Forsythia Pinnsburr also found a place. After she had been healed in the Goblin Kingdom, her and Sarah had actually struck up a tentative friendship. After many years, she eventually became one of Sarah's confidants. It was rumoured that she had also started a blossoming romance with Nathaniel, the Ambassador that had worked with Tobias and Alicia.

Wee Toby and Alicia had had a brief teenaged affair for some time, but it had run its course. Jareth was assured it did not affect their working relationship. Toby was still employed as his ambassador. Unmarried, but he was quite the romantic with the women. He spent a lot of his time with his aunt and uncle. Once they had been released from Navas, they needed quite a bit of rehabilitation into life Underground. Especially Toby's uncle who was blind and had to have a leg amputated.

The changeling aunt and uncle had been caught and executed by the High King, Aviis, for their crimes against the brother of a Queen.

They weren't the only ones to have lost their lives. Hoggle and Sir Didymus had died valiantly in a minor scuffle with the Kingdom of Trew. Jareth had ensured their funeral was suitable for their station as friends of the Queen. Sarah had been nearly inconsolable for months behind closed doors. She remained stoic in public. He so admired and envied her for her raw emotions over the loss of her friends. While she grieved, Jareth supported her in any capacity she would have him. He wasn't there for her when she lost her parents or her baby, but he could be there for her now. He held true to those promises he made all those years ago in a peach-dream.

Ludo was the only remaining original friend that she had made in her first trip Underground. Most of the goblins she had befriended when she first became Queen had also shuffled off the mortal coil, only to be replaced by other equally loyal goblins. Cookie and Cricket, the younger of the pack still lived, retired from duty and living in the Goblin City proper.

The Spriggets had all grown up and got lives of their own. Liam and Helena retired to the castle to become Sarah's companions. Abby, the youngest Sprigget flourished with her new family. She knew she had been a Stolen Pearl, and the last one at that, but she was content with her new life. As Liam and Robby aged, she took on more and more of the farmwork, becoming the manager, and eventually the owner at Cloverfield. Jareth believed it was very hard for Sarah to watch them age as the decades rolled on. Though longer than a life lived Above, it was not limitless. Humans in the Underground had natural lifespans too unless you were fae-touched like Sarah and Toby. Sarah, with magic of her own, was almost no different than a fae. Aside from her heart and capacity to love, of course.

Sarah's friend Hilary had visited the Underground many times throughout her life. Sarah even offered to let her stay with them. Hilary had refused. And she eventually passed from old age. Sarah had cried for days as her last link the Above had now dissolved. Before her death, Hilary had informed Sarah that Mark had broken it off with Jo, who went off to have three children with a decent man. Mark had turned viciously to alcohol and drugs to cope with his anger, but once he got himself clean he started working with children from underprivileged families. Hilary never knew if he ever had a family of his own.

Sarah had inquired about her mother once while Hilary still lived. She informed Sarah that Linda's death was splashed all over the tabloids for weeks. It was cancer and there had been no mention of Linda's daughter in any of the press.

Sarah never spoke about Mark or Linda again.

Lost in memories, he didn't realise their baby was now fussing and squirming.

"Let's go find your mama," he said, kissing her gently on the brow. "Your beautiful mama, who you are going to love, my darling girl."

He entered their bedroom and found Sarah propped up on cushions in bed with tired glazed eyes, but a smile. Her dark hair fanned out over the pillows framing her face, tempting Jareth to run his fingers through it.

"Here she is," he murmured as he passed the baby over to Sarah. "This is the most beautiful creature in the world."

"Who are you talking to? Me or the baby?"

"Both," Jareth said, kissing his wife on the forehead. He watched as Sarah popped out her breast and manoeuvered her nipple into the gaping mouth of their infant. When she was suckling away, Sarah returned her gaze to him. He was awestruck by the most beautiful sight he had ever encountered: his wife nurturing his child.

"I love you," she said.

"Who? Me or our baby?"

"Both," she replied with a smile.

"I love you both too."

"We need a name, Jareth."

"What about Teri?" Jareth grinned as Sarah narrowed her eyes.

"How about no?" Sarah retorted looking down at her precious bundle.

So many years later, they could joke about Terry and what a fool Jareth had been to try and trick her into loving him. Jareth still felt a pang in his stomach that he had been told was guilt. He was never going to be an upright moral person, but he would always be decent to Sarah. He may treat the world with contempt, but never his Sarah or his child. Sarah alone saw his vulnerable side. And he alone saw hers.

After she had executed the Pinnsburrs she had got quite a reputation for herself as being as equally cruel as the Goblin King. Only Jareth knew she hadn't killed them at all. They were fed and watered, but imprisoned in an oubliette. They were both stuck in a nightmare; an endless loop of feeling themselves burning alive. Glib, the goblin spy, had received the same treatment but after a while, he had been released to work in a mine on the Southern border of the Goblin Kingdom. Jareth believed the Pinnsburr's deaths would have been kinder and more humane than the torture Sarah had sentenced them to. But he wasn't going to contradict his Queen. They had stolen so much from her.

Sarah was seen as quite a formidable force after she had broken the curse, and to a lesser extent, for taming the Goblin King. Most noteworthy was that the fall of Navas had been laid at her feet. The entire kingdom of Navas had been dissolved for their power-hungry ways at the expense of their citizens and the surrounding kingdoms. Navas had become a protectorate of the High King, and no-one had seen what had become of Omre and Nudalun. They and their partners, as well as Nudalun's children, had all vanished.

Jareth had eventually thawed with his mother. She lived in the Goblin Kingdom but they rarely crossed paths. Sarah had asked if Lilan would like to visit her grandchild, but she wasn't quite ready. She still hadn't recovered from being married to Effistod, nor forgiven herself for abandoning her two sons. Having no magic, meant that she was often exhausted and sick. However, the veil held so Lilan was still happy with her sacrifice. Jareth felt no remorse in having drained his mother of her magic to save his Kingdom.

Sevlydi, however, was even less forgiving. Once he had married Rica, they had moved to a sea-bordering village in the Western Goblin Kingdom. Jareth and Sarah paid visits to them, but they rarely ventured to the Castle anymore. Jareth admitted he spent quite a while missing his brother despite their sometimes unstable relationship.

Sarah was busily relatching the Goblin Princess onto her other breast when he was drawn back into the present.

"The next Goblin Queen is a wee hungry mite," Jareth said fondly. The Labyrinth always selects the next monarch and already, though only just born, the blessing had been bestowed upon the infant.

"She takes after her father,' Sarah whispered.

"How so?"

"You are always hungry for one thing or another," Sarah quipped. "Not necessarily food."

Jareth smirked. "You have given me a drive for life, Sarah. You helped me to see the beauty in the world."

"And you have given me magic."

"Most of your magic is pure you."

Sarah had flourished with her magic after all these years. Jareth was not ashamed to admit there were things she could now teach him. He hadn't lied when he acknowledged Sarah as his equal, or even as his superior. She had saved his world at the detriment of all of hers.

She had also healed his leg. Her magic was the nurturing kind and as soon as she was confident, she had asked to heal his wounds. He still remembered the way her warm hands had laid atop of his skin and stitched it back together by pouring her essence into his butchered limb. A faint mark could still be seen but it no longer caused him any pain. Just when he thought he couldn't love her more, she would surprise him.

And no more so when she agreed to receive a bond-mark. They both now had small bond-marks in the shape of a mini Labyrinth on the back of their necks proving that they were lovers for eternity. Jareth never wavered in his dedication to her, nor was he ever tempted to do so. For the hundreds of lovers, he had consumed, could not be matched by the one love he had loved since the first time he had seen her chasing the child around the garden at Cloverfield Cottage. And even before that, she had occupied a slither of his heart; especially after seeing her in that skin-tight black catsuit.

He could never really truly repay her for everything she had done for their Kingdom. He could only love her.

Queen Sarah Hi'Live De Škriatok; Lady of the Labyrinth curse-breaker; Queen of the Goblins; Ender of the Stolen Pearl Trade; mother of the next Goblin Queen; his lover and keeper of his heart. She was the girl with a kind of pale jewel open and closed within her eyes. The pearl had been within her all this time.

She had revealed the stars to him and he would move them for her.

We twist and turn where angels burn

Like fallen soldiers, we will learn

Once forgotten, twice removed

Love will be the death

The death of you

©Savage Garden, 1997

A/N: So there you have it. 200k words later we have finished the Stolen Pearl journey. Now, I just have to decide which plot bunny I choose to set free next. I have many hahaha. I am going to celebrate finishing this by making myself a blueberry smoothie.

Thank you: Thank you to (in alphabetical order) AngelGlass, BustedBrain, RhedKrow, telcontarian and Viciously Witty for putting up with my endless wittering on. And for all advice and support that they provided over the last seven months. All of them are amazing sounding boards and talented authors! For also sharing my stor(ies) and being my cheer team.

Also, shout out to Lixxle for the time I inundated her with stuff, and without her, I would never have learnt that Forsythia is a real plant and not just a name I made up by squishing other names together haha. I should have actually mentioned that two chapters ago when she mentioned the meaning of her name during the war scene. Forsythia means hope/anticipation, so I found it quite poetic that she took control of her own life and gave herself hope, despite her brainwashing and training to be nothing more than a puppet for Navas.

Thank you: to my husband for reading over the smutty scenes for me before I posted them.

Thank you to LFFL for all your support and encouragement. And for all those that followed and reviewed.

Thank you to Savage Garden for being my muse.

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So they had a baby. And I think I had planned for them to have one or two more as well. BUT I don't write sequels (or read them) so you can have that information for free.

They live bickeringly ever after.