Disclaimer: I do not own the Labyrinth or any of its original characters, they belong to Jim Henson.
A/N: There's a bit going on in this chapter, couple of surprised but mostly I'm hoping that it answers any questions regarding Jareth's worrying. As always feedback is treasured but don't feel obligated if you don't want to!
Chapter 25: The Babe with the Power
Jareth sat lazily in the velvet lounge chair next to where Sarah slept, he was deep in thought, his brow creased, one black gloved hand was placed under his chin. As he sat, he watched his wife and son sleep soundly.
Sarah unknowingly, would wake up in the morning feeling fresh as ever, Jareth had decided that he would deal with what ever hissy fit Lidia would have at him, he couldn't take seeing his wife in pain when he had the ability to ease her discomforts. He had laced her last meal with a very strong healing potion, his intentions had for the most part been honourable, but he had overheard Lidia speak to Sarah on an earlier occasion about the lengthy time that she would need to be sexually out of action after giving birth and to him it seemed ridiculous, he could not go that long without having his Sarah.
His thoughts were quickly brought back to the story he had begun telling his son.
There were creatures in the underground that would want to hurt the prince, and this made the king fear everything.
My son, possibly more powerful than me one day… who would take that as a threat?
The peaches, was that my child trying to appease his mother? Or are they responsible for Sarah's sudden childbirth… Did they make her bleed out? Was it an attempt to kill both of them?
I'm paranoid.
-No, I'm not. This was always a possibility. I knew that and I've kept it from her. How am I going to run this kingdom while still watching the two of them constantly?
Jareth rubbed at his temples trying to prevent the inevitable headache he could feel coming, when suddenly a solution to his problem emerged. He sprung from the chair and quickly inspected his family to ensure they were both still in a deep sleep. He then laced the room with a very thick protection spell, it still made him extremely nervous to leave the room, but he knew that it was something he needed to do when Sarah would be unaware.
Once he was satisfied with his work, he materialised at the Labyrinth's gates.
"Hogwart, I need your help." He said proudly.
"Whatchya need ya majesty." He replied back.
"Sar-… The queen, needs your protection when she is not with me." Jareth explained.
"Why? What's the matter with the lil' lady?" He asked concerned.
"Hogwart, I can't get into details with you, but I need you to ensure she is safe as well as my new son. -Your Prince." Jareth said slightly annoyed.
"A prince?!" Hoggle exclaimed.
"Yes, Sarah gave birth to our son, just hours ago, he is in fact perfect. You are welcome to come and see both of them tomorrow, I require you to stay with them will I am performing my royal duties, I will also ask Sarah's other companions, I know that would please her also." Jareth added.
"I take this favour as an honour your majesty, I'm sure we will all agree we will protect them with our lives." Hoggle said nobly.
"Whatd' you call him?" Hoggle asked.
Jareth signed at the question.
"JJ, John Jacob." He said rolling his eyes.
"Oh, not what I expected." Hoggle said trying to sound polite.
"Well things are never what they seem here are they Hogwart." Jareth replied.
Just as Jareth was about to end their discussion and rematerialize, Hoggle quickly stopped him.
"Your majesty, don't worry bout getting Ludo, I'll sort him first thing tomorrow morning, but If you don' mind doin' Sir Didymus and Ambrosius, I hate goin' down to the bog." Hoggle said timidly.
"All right then Hogwart, I suppose that is a fair trade, I never did like that giant furry monster much." Jareth said fading out into thin air.
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Jareth rematerialized in the very putrid Bog of Eternal Stench; it was even more disgusting than he remembered. He found himself chuckling to himself out of his brilliance, that he had in fact created this very place, he found himself rather surprised that he had not been here in centuries
Do I count that last time I was here; I suppose- I should, well it wasn't like I was actually walking around? I suppose if I don't count it, it really has been centuries.
He had exiled many goblins and creatures to this very place. As he began to look around, he remembered very well as to why he never followed through his own executions.
The last time he had been to "The Bog" was to place enchanted rocks beneath its surface so that Ludo would be able to provide a walking path for Sarah to regain safety. He had always had the intention of making her his queen so he certainly never had the plan of her smelling foully for the rest of her existence- but he had not known that his Sarah was notorious for getting herself stuck in sticky situations at the particular point in time. Their relationship was still blossoming and they still had much to learn about each other.
That last "visit" was nothing like this one, this time he had to walk to Sir Didymus pathway; when he had come and placed the rocks, he stood what seemed like, miles back to ensure he was out of plain sight, he couldn't have risked being seen and blowing his plan.
As he approached Sir Didymus tree, he awaited the inevitable attack.
"HALT! Who goes there? Nobody passes without MY permission!" He shouted fearlessly.
Jareth stood nonchalantly, wearing his usual ensemble, so wore: A white shift, grey pants, black boots, black gloves and a long-tailed leather jacket to complete his domineering look.
His elbow was pressed against a tree, he proceeded to follow his stance through with a fake yawn.
"Oh, forgive me, I did not see that it was you your majesty. How are you on this fine day? And how is my Lady?" Didymus asked hesitantly, but still trying to stay proud.
"Oh yes, we are all fine, we have a new prince of the Goblin city." Jareth said smoothly.
"A Prince? Fantastic! What has this prince been named?" Didymus asked excitedly.
Another uncontrolled eye roll appeared on the Goblin Kings face.
"You had to ask… JJ, John Jacob." Jareth replied.
"Oh, an aboveground name, surely a prince of the Goblin City, should have a…." Didymus trailed off.
"Don't you worry about things that don't concern you, you just worry about what I have to tell you." Jareth spat.
"I have a proposition for you, I need you to guard the queen and Prince; like your life depends on it. At least while I am attending to my duties as king in the mornings." Jareth explained.
"Hoggle and Ludo will join you, Ambrosius is welcome to join as well, if it pleases you." He added.
"Your majesty, is my Lady in danger?" Didymus asked concerned.
Jareth had decided the best course of action was to ignore his question and had already begun materialising.
"Be at the castle in the morning, just before breakfast." Jareth said fading out into nothingness.
Leaving Didymus confused and worried.
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When Jareth rematerialized into his bed chambers, he was surprised to see that his wife, son and Merlin were all in his bed and awake non the less. Sarah was sitting up on the bed, feeding a very hungry baby.
A dog on the bed. He thought to himself, rolling his eyes.
"Where have you been? I've been up three times already and you were no where to be seen. I was worried Jareth." She said annoyed.
"Sorry precious, I was taking care of some business. I didn't think you would even know that I was gone." He replied honestly.
"Well I did, And I thought that maybe "business" would have been able to wait at least a few days after our child was born." She spat back.
"Well if you think you're going to get an apology for running my kingdom- you're out of luck." He replied defensively.
Sarah sighed, and shifted her weight to her side so she didn't have to look at him, Jareth knew his tone had been too harsh and he needed to save himself quickly.
"Precious I was actually arranging a surprise for you, but you've ruined it now." He said chuckling.
"Hoggle, Didymus, Ludo and Ambrosius will be spending some time with you, while I attend my business." He said softly.
He was seated on the bed now, he decided to try his luck and proceeded to pull Sarah towards him, gently moving her hair over to the other side of her shoulder, exposing the nape of her neck. His eyes travelled down the length of her pale skin, settling on her cleavage.
Sarah shivered, by his glance alone, she knew what he was thinking and although she wasn't completely shut off by the idea, since Jareth's healing spell had worked a treat, she still didn't feel ready for such endeavours.
"Bloody Hell precious, your breasts! They've doubled in size in just the last couple of hours." Jareth said shocked.
"You don't have to tell me." She said sarcastically.
"I'm not complaining, what are the chances our son will let me have a turn with them?" He said smirking.
"Don't be getting any ideas, my entire body is on vacation." She said firmly.
"But I thought that- well I- my spell…" He trailed off.
"I know what you did, and thank you, but I'm still feeling gross and unattractive and… I'm just not in the mood." She said softly.
"I'm sorry precious, I didn't mean for you to feel pressured. You tell me when you're ready, and I will be patiently waiting." He said kissing her forehead sweetly.
"Now… there is something I wanted to discuss with you…" He said hesitantly.
"What?" She asked.
"Well, I know you are a very modern woman and some of the ways of the underground are still entirely foreign to you, but our son, the future superior ruler of the underground… his name…. it's not fitting." Jareth said carefully.
Sarah rolled her eyes, in the back of her head.
"I'll tell you what… If you stop treating me like some sort of medieval princess and give me something actually meaningful to do around here, I will let you name OUR son, whatever you want." She said bitterly.
"But you already do something meaningful, you are my wife, the mother of my child. I'll want more children soon precious." Jareth said reassuringly.
"JARETH I'M NOT AN OVEN, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD." She shouted.
"Things are different here Sarah, women are wives and mothers, they support the wishes of their husbands… that is their purpose." He explained.
Sarah just stared at him with pure disgust. He eyes looked black the pupils were so dilated.
Rage filled her to her very core.
Jareth sighed deeply, taking her face into his palms.
"Oh Sarah, my Sarah. You know, I'm very old. I do try to appease you." He said defeated.
"Why don't you come to the throne room and listen and try to solve the requests of the goblins, I do spend a lot of my time doing that and it would be nice to have more time to complete my other work. However… it is under the condition that you have the babe with you at all times, I do not want anyone watching him for the exception of Echo.- She has been in my service for a long time and I know where her loyalty lies." He said firmly.
"Thank you!" She said excitedly embracing him into a passionate kiss.
"I want to name the babe Jareth II, he's got my eyes after all." He said kissing the top of his son's head.
"Jareth II Erik king."
"Formally that will be his name, but we will call him Erik to prevent confusion between us." He said sweetly, taking him from Sarah's chest.
"Fine." She said defeated.
"Erik is a pretty cute name." She added.
Sarah enjoyed the freedom and tucked her breast back into her shift, she relaxed into the bed, enjoying the feeling of the weight being taken off her chest.
"How was your meal my little prince?" He asked, his voice still sickeningly sweet, a large burp erupted from Erik's delicate form as Jareth placed his hand under his chin and gently patted his back.
"Piggy." Sarah said giggling, looking to Jareth to see him smiling too.
"Jareth, why can only Echo watch him? What about Lidia? She did deliver him, surely she is trustworthy? Not that I want anyone having him anyways." She said patting her hand through her baby's blonde locks.
"Sarah," Jareth said more seriously now.
"I know you probably already know this but, our son, his power- it's very strong. It will be like mine one day, possibly even greater. He can do magic even now at his tender age, he can make things appear, protect himself, protect you. But if he was ever to meet a Fae that possessed strong powers, they could potentially block his power and hurt him. I don't want to alarm you, but I feel you should know." He explained.
"Why are you telling me this now?" She asked, fear evident in her voice.
"I just feel it in my core, in my being, that something is coming, and we need to be ready for it. We can't trust anyone"
A/N: I'm dying to hear what everyone thought of this chapter? I changed our little princes name because I had a lot of feedback that you all hated it! I definitely want you to enjoy what you're reading and take your feedback on board! Shout out to: tireless_raevn3 for the suggestion of Erik, it reminds me of prince Erik from the Little Mermaid
xxPixiedust