"A couple of hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin shared with the world Above the secret of his success. 'Never leave that till tomorrow,'he said, 'which you can do today.' This is the man who discovered electricity. You think more people would listen to what he had to say. I don't know why we put things off, but if I had to guess, I'd have to say it has a lot to do with fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, sometimes the fear is just of making a decision, because what if you're wrong? What if you're making a mistake you can't undo? The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can't pretend we hadn't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin really meant. That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beat the hell out of never trying." – Sarah O'Rourke
They headed down the large, curved staircase. Sarah, and Jareth holding Saoirse. From the bottom of the stairs they could see Eimile's room, and that her door was open. They heard laughter coming from the guestroom.
Inside, they found Finn, Eimile and Tadhg. Tadgh was standing, Finn was sitting in the arm chair closest to Eimile, one leg hanging over the side. Jareth handed the baby to Sarah, and walked up to his sister, placing his hand on her hand.
"How are you? I've been stopping by to check on you throughout the night. You were sleeping several hours ago, so I don't know if you knew that I was here."
"I knew. Those big clompy feet of yours make more noise than you think. I just kept my eyes shut because I wanted to fall asleep."
He grinned. If her attitude were any indication, she was certainly beginning to feel like herself again.
"And what the hell have you done to my leg? This looks like something out of a Tim Burton nightmare!"
Sarah started to explain, but Jareth filled her in quickly again on the need for two doctors from Above as well as his and Ixonia's healing powers.
"So this isn't something that were able to just magically heal right away. We were able to do much, and you're going to heal faster than any human, certainly, but the screws in your leg are going to be there for a little while. Some wounds are deeper than they first appear. And require more than just a quick fix."
"That's pretty much exactly what I said to her last night," added Tadgh.
She glared at both of them.
Finn tried to lighten things up. "But before you know it, you'll be jiggy with it again. You'll be getting down with the get down…" and here he did a little dance in his chair.
No one responded.
"What? Too soon? I thought that was hilarious!" He said.
Sarah spoke up. "Why don't we get breakfast. Jareth, I believe that you promised Saoirse something," and here she winked at him, "Finn, you can come with us." She looked at the tray of mostly uneaten food next to Eimile on the bed.
"Are you not hungry, Eimile? Should I have the kitchen make something different for you?"
Eimile glanced over at her cold breakfast. She sighed. "That would be good, I think. And have them bring something for Tadgh too, with meat in it, I think."
Tadgh grinned at her.
Sarah could feel her eyebrows raise. "So you would like to have breakfast in here with Tadgh, then?"
Eimile nodded, and Sarah gave Jareth a meaningful glance as they filed out of the room. He just smirked and shrugged his shoulders.
~~~Ó~~~
After breakfast, Finn headed out, Jareth took the baby into the throne room, and Sarah stopped by to speak to Eimile. This time, she was alone.
"So," Sarah said, pulling up a chair. "I was going to ask you how you're doing, but you know me better than that."
"Yes I do," said Eimile. There was a little smile playing round her lips. "You wanna know about my love life, don't you?"
Sarah smiled and shook her head quickly. "Tell me! Tell me everything! He saved your life! He's gorgeous, he's funny, intelligent, how are you feeling about him right now? He's obviously crazy about you! What do you think? How are you feeling?"
"You mean am I in love? It's a little early for that, don't you think? Besides, I think for me that love exists only in delusional fantasies."
Sarah responded. "I think you're going to let your cynicism hurt you in the long run. I mean, think about it. Do you know who you are? Do you know what's happened to you? Do you want to live this way? All it takes is one person, one moment to change your life forever. It can change your perspective, change the color of your thinking. One moment that forces you to rethink everything you know. Maybe this is your one moment."
Eimile sucked on her coffee spoon, staring up at the ceiling as if she were thinking hard.
"I don't know… I've actually known Tadgh for forever. We've been good friends for forever. And then he goes and changes things up on me and tells me he's in love with me." She snorted. Sarah tried to hide a smile.
"I mean, I have had relationships, believe it or not. Not super serious ones or anything, but most of my relationships started out as friends and then became more and then you know, died...screaming."
"Well," Sarah said thoughtfully, looking right into Eimile's eyes, "it's okay to be scared. Love can be terrifying. Relationships can be frightening. Some of us are scared of commitments. And some of us let them slip out of our grasps. Commitments are complicated. We may surprise ourselves at the commitments we are willing to make. True commitment takes effort and sacrifice. Which is why sometimes we have to learn the hard way, to chose our commitments very carefully."
Eimile let out a deep breath. "I know. I have a lot to think about. So when did you become the wise Queen?" She grinned.
Sarah's eyes smiled back. "I never did. I'm just making this all up as I go along."
~~~Ó~~~
Heading into the throne room, Sarah could hear the notes of Jareth's Magic Dance, along with crazily giggling goblins singing along.
She stopped and leaned against the doorway, just watching. Jareth couldn't see her.
"I saw my baby, crying hard as babe could cry
What could I do?
My baby's love had gone
And left my baby blue
Nobody knew
What kind of magic spell to use
Slime and snails
Or puppy dog tails?
Thunder or lightning
Then baby said – "
And when Saoirse giggled, Jareth threw her up into the air, a good 20 feet or so. She came down and Jareth expertly caught her.
Sarah's shriek escaped even though her hand was tightly clamped over her own mouth.
Jareth looked over at her with a smile of satisfaction. "Well, come on, laugh!"
"Laugh? Laugh? What the hell do you think you're doing? You could have dropped her!"
Jareth swaggered up to her, holding the baby on his hip. "Darling, you forget who you're talking to. I'm the Goblin King. I've been taking care of babies for thousands of years!"
"Not this baby you haven't!" She snapped, reaching for her daughter. "You have to promise me you are never going to try that again!"
"What if I try it but not so high?"
She glared at him.
"What if I only do it when you're in the room?"
Icy silence.
"What if," and he began nuzzling her neck, tracing soft kisses down to her collarbone.
"What if we ask our very overpaid and underworked nanny to watch our daughter for just a few hours while I take you upstairs?"
By this time his left hand was playing with her hair while his right hand cupped her breast. Damn! She was absolutely melting. He was so incredibly hot, and irresistible and it had been far too long…
She looked at him through hooded eyes, a seductive smile playing on her lips. She handed the baby over to Jareth and said, "you find the nanny and I'll meet you upstairs."
~~~Ó~~~