Chapter 14.

Morgan Dru howled all the way back to the dorm room. She could not believe that the Goblin King had resorted to brut force.

Jareth muttered about the ill treatment and what he intended to do once his powers were restored. "How dare that swine of a thug lay hands on my person…. Or Sarah's person… "

Morganna fell onto her bed. "I've never seen anything so funny."

Jareth glared at her with Sarah's eyes. "It's not funny."

Morgan Dru sat up. "No it's not, but girls like Sarah face that kind of stupid behavior by other students every day!"

Jareth snarled back. "Sarah has never had to endure that from anyone…I made sure of that."

"Yes, I'm aware." Morganna said mildly. "Sarah has been very lucky."

Jareth frowned. "Ok, so high heels and jerks go with the territory of being a young woman. Anything else."

The room phone rang. "Answer that would you?" Morganna said.

Jareth picked up the phone feeling like he was being trapped. "Hello, Sarah Williams speaking."

"Sarah, honey its dad. We didn't hear from you and wondered how are girl is." The voice on the other end said gently.

"Fine daddy." Jareth gulped. "I had a lecture, and forgot to call…I'm sorry."

Her father talked for a few minutes then her step mother got on the line asking if Sarah needed her to send anything up, or was she good until Thanksgiving? Just when the Goblin King thought the call was coming to an end Toby got on the line. Jareth was in shock for a brief second when he heard the little boy's excited voice. "Toby?"

"Sarah you sound funny." Toby said.

Jareth said, "I may be getting a cold." Carefully he spoke to the child, knowing he had a natural immunity to Fae Glamour. He listened to the boy talk about going to kindergarten and the rest of his exciting news. When the call ended part of the boy King ached and was troubled. He looked at Morganna. "She loves her family very much, and is loved in return by them." He sat on the bed. "I didn't think of what taking her away from them could do. How they would feel."

"And now?" Morganna asked quietly.

The King shook the head of the body he was occupying. "It's too late, Morganna. I could no more live with out Sarah than I could stop breathing."

"You could learn to share her."

"I'm not Hades." He said shortly.

Morganna walked to the door of their little bathroom. "It's your funeral, not mine."

Jareth frowned. "What are you doing?"

"Getting ready for bed, you should do the same." Morganna called out.

Jareth would not have wanted to admit to Morganna that he'd watched Sarah sleep. "What does one wear to bed?"

The Fae woman came out of the bathroom in an oversized black tee shirt with a metal band's logo on the front. "Sarah's Jammies are under her pillow. I don't know where she picked that habit up."

Sleep didn't come easy for the King. He was lost in thoughts, and worries. If a summons came Sarah would have to answer it. He worried how that would affect her; it had be the hardest thing in the world for him the first time a summons had come. Now, centuries later it still bothered him, even if he didn't show it. He wondered how a fragile soul like Sarah would cope with the duty. He had planned on letting her see that side of his being gradually. She already knew how the wishing of children away happened from the human side, but the response. He was not sure how she was going to react to his world.

Morganna looked over in the middle of the night and found Jareth looking at a book of poems Sarah had written. "Why aren't you asleep?"

"Couldn't." He passed the book to Morganna. "Have you read these?"

The Fae woman looked at the poems. "No." She passed it back. "Go to sleep." She turned over and faced the wall.

Jareth read the words, and then looked at some of the other books on Sarah's desk, including her sketch book. Sarah had a soul deep as the universe, he found. He looked at the picture hanging off the mirror of Sarah with her siblings, and vowed he would treasure her for the rest of their lives. "Morganna." He said quietly.

"What."

"I love her."

Morganna sat up and glared at him. "It's three in the morning! Now you decide you love her?"

"I've always known." Jareth said. "From the moment I first saw her…"

"So why don't you tell her?"

Jareth leaned back on the wall, "I made a real mess of things haven't I?"

"You could say that." Morganna pulled the blanket over her head.

"I just could not bear it that it was so easy for her to leave me." He moaned.

"Easy?" Morganna sat up, looking at him as if he had two heads. "Jareth, the girl writes poems to you, she draws you even when she does not mean to. She sees you in everything she does and she can sense when you're near. Easy for her to leave you? She never left you! She took her brother home, but her heart was left with you pal."

"Did you know I danced with her in England….when she went to see her mother?" Jareth smiled softly at the memory. "Every eye in the club was on us." He sighed. "She moved liked she and I had been dancing together for a lifetime."

"Go to sleep." Morganna moaned.

"Good night, Morganna."

"Good night!" she snapped.

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Oberon moved from the scrying pool, and looked at his wife. "He's a slow study, but he is learning."

"Let us hope his lessons are taken to heart." The High Queen said softly.

"I do hope so." Oberon looked tired. "I'm very fond of that boy, could not love him more if he were our own."

The Queen touched the arm of her husband. "The mortals have a saying; Love makes a family, not blood."

Oberon nodded. "Yes…sometimes they say wise things." He turned to Emrys. "Don't let Seth near the pool, he's done enough."

"Vivanne and I will keep watch, my King….go rest." The old wizard said looking over at the woman with whom he'd kept company and smiled.